Recently the Center for Community and Economic Development at UCA hosted their Futures Game virtually with community leaders across the state. The exercise was provided to the Community Development Institute year one, year two and year three participants through the Zoom platform.
The Futures Game was first created by Innovate Leadership Australia through research developed by David Beurle, Alliant Energy, and Iowa State University. The Center for Community and Economic Development took the game and altered it to fit the social and economic landscape of Arkansas. The Futures Game is an exercise that tests the decision-making skills of community leaders and explores the many issues that face towns and communities in the real world today. The game is based on making major decisions on how to respond to critical issues and the outcomes that would result from those decisions.
The game used the fictional community of Sweet Tea County AR to provide the landscape of the decisions we’d have to make. Some of the issues we had to focus on were a declining population, young people leaving the area for larger cities, decreased economic development, and a general concern about the future of their community. The game begins with 2020 and ends in 2040 with certain moments where the members of the exercise will have to two choices to choose from at a major decision point for the community. There were five different ending scenarios, from the least ideal to the most ideal and depending on the choices the group makes at the end you find out how successfully your community developed.
Thankfully for our group, we made decisions that ended with our community evolving into a very rejuvenated and booming town. What in reality was the true success of the Futures Game was the ability for community leaders from across the state to work together and build on one another’s expertise in community and economic development. Having a mayor, a representative from Workforce and Labor, a director from a housing authority, and a director of Volunteerism from a University and others all working together provided a bounty of ideas, knowledge, and expertise that is needed for real life development. As a first-time participator, I found myself quickly invested in this make-believe town and was blown away by the group’s ability to communication and work together, leading to a successful end to the Futures Game. I would invite any community leader or person interested in economic development/community development to check out the 2021 Community Development Institute offered by the UCA Center for Community and Economic Development!
by Andrey Archer, CCED Intern