Future Shaping Citizens Program

A community education resource that builds the urban change literacy and citizenship of people living in rapidly changing communities.

Studio THI has developed a community education resource that builds the urban change literacy and citizenship of people living in rapidly changing communities. It has a demonstrated ability to positively shift community support for urban change and increase community desire to participate in the transition journey.

Positive shift in support

Our pilot program demonstrated a 36% positive shift in support for urban change and an increased willingness of community members to be part of the change journey. 

The base program comprises a series of content modules that take participants through a reflective learning process that builds literacy of:

  • The urban environment, how it has changed (and continues to change) and how it impacts our daily lives 

  • The types of changes that need to occur in cities to create more resilient and equitable cities for future generations  

  • The key concepts practitioners use to determine where and how growth is accommodated

  • How urban change happens, the key stakeholders, roles and responsibilities 

  • Global solutions and strategies to specific growth challenges (such as movement, protecting and enhancing the cities biodiversity, providing housing choice and diversity etc) 

  • What great outcomes could look like and the mechanisms that guide this  

  • How they could be involved in shaping the future of the city

Implementing this program in communities will increase the percentage of the population who can articulate their urban change preferences, stand in the shoes / think about the needs of others and participate in conversations about the future sustainability of the region.

It helps to develop informed citizens who care about the future of their city, understand the challenges and opportunities of urban transformation and are more likely to participate in discussions about shaping the future.

Address specific growth challenges.

The base program can be tailored to reflect a local context, address the specific growth challenges and opportunities being explored in a region and address the specific urban change literacy gaps of that community. 

Once a tailored program has been developed it can be implemented in the following ways:  

  • Individual content components integrated within your already established engagement activities and channels 

  • Self-paced online delivery of the program

  • Facilitated 1.5 hr workshops delivered online or face-to-face 

  • Train the trainer models - upskilling 20 change champions within the community and Council Staff to learn how to deliver the Future Shaping Citizens Program in the community over the longer term.  

Next steps.

We are developing the next interaction of the prototype specifically to capture the hearts and minds of young people, CALD communities and busy families (traditionally under-represented audiences in many public engagement programs).

We’re redesigning the delivery channels of the program and also exploring how we might segment the content into more bite-sized pieces.