The purpose of this study is to explore the role of social entrepreneurs or core visionaries in generating conceptual, financial, and community support and acceptance for a Healthy City/Community initiative in the Bryan/College Station area. This initiative affords all community members the opportunity to participate in long-term regional goals. Crucial questions were: what criteria were seen as beneficial to the community that would garner support to proceed with a Healthy City initiative, what would be desirable and more feasible - to enter into an agreement with an existing entity, an existing medical health provider, related entity or subsidiary, or to set up a new, independent entity to oversee the initiative, where would funding come from, what was the time commitment, and who would evaluate the initiative's success? Another purpose of this study is to explore how a Healthy City's process was adapted and developed for use in the Brazos Valley and how the initial community leaders or initiative "champions" went about initiating and organizing the movement, including identifying manpower needs, whether through the use of volunteers or the hiring of professionals, consultants, or full time staff to coordinate the various activities. Also of interest were the criteria that the initiative's leaders would use to divide their Healthy City's agenda or potential goals into topical components to be studied and analyzed by community representatives for inclusion (or not) into the final, formal Vision Statement for the community for succeeding by 2020. This was a qualitative study; interviews and observations of meetings were the information gathering methods used. According to the results, most participants found their involvement meaningful and enjoyable, but they also feared that no actions would come from the goals set by the community. Areas for further research or investigation might include: subsequent phases enacted by the Brazos 2020 Vision, changes made in dealing with future options after the Final Report was completed or distributed, resulting funding opportunities and movement of key leaders after the Brazos Valley initiative had entered subsequent phases. Another focus might be to continue to research or investigate the timeline for Brazos 2020 Vision up to the year 2020.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of social entrepreneurs or core visionaries in generating conceptual, financial, and community support and acceptance for a Healthy City/Community initiative in the Bryan/College Station area. This initiative affords all community members the opportunity to participate in long-term regional goals. Crucial questions were: what criteria were seen as beneficial to the community that would garner support to proceed with a Healthy City initiative, what would be desirable and more feasible - to enter into an agreement with an existing entity, an existing medical health provider, related entity or subsidiary, or to set up a new, independent entity to oversee the initiative, where would funding come from, what was the time commitment, and who would evaluate the initiative's success? Another purpose of this study is to explore how a Healthy City's process was adapted and developed for use in the Brazos Valley and how the initial community leaders or initiative "champions" went about initiating and organizing the movement, including identifying manpower needs, whether through the use of volunteers or the hiring of professionals, consultants, or full time staff to coordinate the various activities. Also of interest were the criteria that the initiative's leaders would use to divide their Healthy City's agenda or potential goals into topical components to be studied and analyzed by community representatives for inclusion (or not) into the final, formal Vision Statement for the community for succeeding by 2020. This was a qualitative study; interviews and observations of meetings were the information gathering methods used. According to the results, most participants found their involvement meaningful and enjoyable, but they also feared that no actions would come from the goals set by the community. Areas for further research or investigation might include: subsequent phases enacted by the Brazos 2020 Vision, changes made in dealing with future options after the Final Report was completed or distributed, resulting funding opportunities and movement of key leaders after the Brazos Valley initiative had entered subsequent phases. Another focus might be to continue to research or investigate the timeline for Brazos 2020 Vision up to the year 2020.

The roles and responsibilities of planners in managing culturally diverse cities are beginning to be articulated in the literature. "Visioning,"as planners have used it in recent years, has the potential to help realize "multicultural planning" because of its intentions to involve broad public participation and represent diverse interests, thereby promoting equity and facilitating democracy. This exploratory study examines how the City of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada has involved ethnocultural groups through a visioning process. To date, four Vancouver communities containing a sizeable immigrant population have participated in preparing plans for their neighbourhood through the city's Community Visions Program. Information for this study was gathered through a critical review of planning-related documents and key informant interviews with staff and community participants (including those of visible minority background) in the Visions Program. Results from the data collection were grouped into main themes and triangulated for analysis. Results indicate that visioning, as it has been used in Vancouver, is capable of being a useful technique in carrying out multicultural planning. There is evidence that planners have learned a great deal from engaging in multicultural planning, as seen through the increased success of outreach in the latter two communities to undergo the Visions Program. This suggests that Vancouver's visioning exercise will improve simply by virtue of continued outreach. However, it is important to differentiate between the public consultation process and the resultant products in regard to policy and land use change. There appears to be more general satisfaction with the inclusive visioning process than with the end results. Empirical research suggests that if planners are serious about engaging in a multicultural planning process, they will need to guarantee some tangible results that can be seen in the community and that acknowledge and respect cultural diversity.

The roles and responsibilities of planners in managing culturally diverse cities are beginning to be articulated in the literature. "Visioning,"as planners have used it in recent years, has the potential to help realize "multicultural planning" because of its intentions to involve broad public participation and represent diverse interests, thereby promoting equity and facilitating democracy. This exploratory study examines how the City of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada has involved ethnocultural groups through a visioning process. To date, four Vancouver communities containing a sizeable immigrant population have participated in preparing plans for their neighbourhood through the city's Community Visions Program. Information for this study was gathered through a critical review of planning-related documents and key informant interviews with staff and community participants (including those of visible minority background) in the Visions Program. Results from the data collection were grouped into main themes and triangulated for analysis. Results indicate that visioning, as it has been used in Vancouver, is capable of being a useful technique in carrying out multicultural planning. There is evidence that planners have learned a great deal from engaging in multicultural planning, as seen through the increased success of outreach in the latter two communities to undergo the Visions Program. This suggests that Vancouver's visioning exercise will improve simply by virtue of continued outreach. However, it is important to differentiate between the public consultation process and the resultant products in regard to policy and land use change. There appears to be more general satisfaction with the inclusive visioning process than with the end results. Empirical research suggests that if planners are serious about engaging in a multicultural planning process, they will need to guarantee some tangible results that can be seen in the community and that acknowledge and respect cultural diversity.

This study sought to determine and evaluate the effectiveness of the Leadership Advisory Board structure and its membership at meeting the needs of Visioning and Advocacy for Texas AgriLife Extension Service. The research was conducted with the members of the Leadership Advisory Boards in 48 counties in Texas, with a selection based upon distribution of counties across all Extension categories roughly equal to the percentage of each category currently present in the State. The primary purpose was to determine the self perception of members of their ability to serve as advocates and as a visionary organization to help Extension identify and validate the issues important to the residents of their county. A secondary purpose was to identify the benefits, concerns and solutions that can assist Texas AgriLife Extension in strengthening the organizational structure and methods associated with these Boards across the State. Five research questions were examined by the researcher. These questions were, 1. What is the competency level of the Leadership Advisory Board members on the pertinent issues in the county?, 2. Do members of the Leadership Advisory Boards understand the Land-Grant system and the Extension Service?, 3. Do members of the Leadership Advisory Board feel that their ideas lead to programs?, 4. Do members of the Leadership Advisory Board assist with interpreting program impacts to key stakeholders and decision makers?, 5. What benefits are Leadership Advisory Board members receiving from their involvement on the Board? The sample population included 490 Leadership Advisory Board members, with 236 of these participating in the survey. The instrument utilized was a seven page survey with 26 perception statements on a likert-type scale, six true or false questions to measure knowledge of the Land-Grant system, three open-ended questions for qualitative analysis, and 10 demographic questions to describe and categorize the respondents. The results included 10 significant findings, which led to 7 recommendations for Extension related to the Leadership Advisory Board, and 5 areas of further research.

abstract: Planners are often involved in the development of 'visions' for specific projects or larger plans. These visions often serve as guideposts for more specific plans or projects and the visioning process is important for involving community members into the planning process. This paper provides a review of the recent literature published about visioning and is intended to provide guidance for visioning activities in planning projects. I use the general term "vision" in reference to a desirable state in the future. The body of academic literature on visioning in planning has been growing over the last decade. However, the planning literature on visioning is diverse and dispersed, posing various challenges to researchers and planners seeking guidance for their own planning (research) activities. For one, relevant articles on visioning are scattered over different strands of literature ranging from traditional planning literature (Journal of the American Planning Association, Planning Practice and Research, etc.) to less traditional and intuitive sources (Futures, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology). Further, some of them not easily identifiable and may not be openly accessible via the Internet. Thus, our review intends to help collect and synthesize this literature and begin to provide guidance for the future of visioning in the field of planning. I do this by compiling visioning literature from different strands of the planning literature, synthesizing key insights into visioning in (urban) planning, undertaking exemplary appraisals of visioning approaches in planning against quality criteria, and deriving conclusions for visioning research and practice. From this review, I highlight areas of opportunity and ways forward in order to make visioning more effective and more influential for the future of communities throughout the world. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.U.E.P. Urban and Environmental Planning 2013

This research is an evaluation of the addition of a citizen involvement process that has come to be known as "visioning" or "community visioning" to the traditional process of developing a state's transportation plan, a process which has typically been very much an in-government and esoteric province of professionals in transportation planning. The research specifically focuses on the Commonwealth of Virginia and its addition of three citizen participation components the Commonwealth labeled "community visioning" to the traditional transportation planning process. The research examines the three components of "community visioning" with regard to: (1) their impact on the state's transportation plan (VTrans2025); (2) the degree to which they met the expectations of the regulations and best practices requirements of federal oversight; (3) the degree to which they met the expectations of the advocates of visioning and of more "democratic participation" in pubic administrative and policy processes; and (4) the degree to which they could affect the final outcome of transportation policy. Visioning is a relatively new approach to citizen involvement in the planning process. It places the citizen involvement at the beginning of the process instead of the end. Visioning asks citizens key questions about what they envision as a positive future for their community. The purpose or goal of this new visioning is to have the final plans reflect the vision drawn from the citizens and public officials and reached through consensus. This dissertation determined that Virginia put forth a good faith effort to involve citizens of the Commonwealth. Collectively, the citizen involvement activities in VA’s visioning process were reasonable and meaningful. Additionally, Virginia’s vision statement was heavily influenced by the citizen participation activities. However, there are three aspects of Virginia’s vision that are troubling from an implementation standpoint. In short, this dissertation found that the vision is what the people want, but the comprehensive plan does not tell the citizens how the Commonwealth intends on achieving that vision. / Ph. D.

abstract: Over the last two decades programs and mandates to encourage and foster sustainable urban development have arisen throughout the world, as cities have emerged as key opportunity sites for sustainable development due to the compactness and localization of services and resources. In order to recognize this potential, scholars and practitioners have turned to the practice of visioning as a way to motivate actions and decision making toward a sustainable future. A "vision" is defined as desirable state in the future and scholars believe that the creation of a shared, motivational vision is the best starting point to catalyze positive and sustainable change. However, recent studies on city visions indicate that they do not offer substantive sustainability content, and methods or processes to evaluate the sustainability content of the resulting vision (sustainability appraisal or assessment) are often absent from the visioning process. Thus, this paper explores methods for sustainability appraisal and their potential contributions to (and in) visioning. The goal is to uncover the elements of a robust sustainability appraisal and integrate them into the visioning process. I propose an integrated sustainability appraisal procedure based on sustainability criteria, indicators, and targets as part of a visioning methodology that was developed by a team of researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) of which I was a part. I demonstrate the applicability of the appraisal method in a case study of visioning in Phoenix, Arizona. The proposed method allows for early and frequent consideration and evaluation of sustainability objectives for urban development throughout the visioning process and will result in more sustainability-oriented visions. Further, it can allow for better measurement and monitoring of progress towards sustainability goals, which can make the goals more tangible and lead to more accountability for making progress towards the development of more sustainable cities in the future. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Sustainability 2013

abstract: Sustainability visioning (i.e. the construction of sustainable future states) is considered an important component of sustainability research, for instance, in transformational sustainability science or in planning for urban sustainability. Visioning frees sustainability research from the dominant focus on analyzing problem constellations and opens it towards positive contributions to social innovation and transformation. Calls are repeatedly made for visions that can guide us towards sustainable futures. Scattered across a broad range of fields (i.e. business, non-government organization, land-use management, natural resource management, sustainability science, urban and regional planning) are an abundance of visioning studies. However, among the few evaluative studies in the literature there are apparent deficits in both the research and practice of visioning that curtails our expectations and prospects of realizing process-based and product-derived outcomes. These deficits suggests that calls instead should focus on the development of applied and theoretical understanding of crafting sustainability visions, enhancing the rigor and robustness of visioning methodology, and on integrating practice, research, and education for collaborative sustainability visioning. From an analysis of prominent visioning and sustainability visioning studies in the literature, this dissertation articulates what is sustainability visioning and synthesizes a conceptual framework for criteria-based design and evaluation of sustainability visioning studies. While current visioning methodologies comply with some of these guidelines, none adhere to all of them. From this research, a novel sustainability visioning methodology is designed to address this gap to craft visions that are shared, systemic, principles-based, action-oriented, relevant, and creative (i.e. SPARC visioning methodology) and evaluated across all quality criteria. Empirical studies were conducted to test and apply the conceptual and methodological frameworks -- with an emphasis on enhancing the rigor and robustness in real world visioning processes for urban planning and teaching sustainability competencies. In-depth descriptions of the collaborative visioning studies demonstrate tangible outcomes for: (a) implementing the above sustainability visioning methodology, including evaluative procedures; (b) adopting meaningful interactive engagement procedures; (c) integrating advanced analytical modeling, sustainability appraisal, and creativity enhancing procedures; and (d) developing perspective and methodological capacity for long-range sustainability planning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Sustainability 2013

The purpose of this case study is to evaluate two methods of strategic planning within organizational visioning: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis and Appreciative inquiry (Ai).  SWOT analysis is a method of strategic planning that is popular within companies and organizations due to its simple, yet thorough, approach.  Ai has recently emerged as an approach to strategic visioning and planning within organizational development.  However, little research has been conducted to evaluate either approach to organizational visioning, and there is a growing need to compare the two techniques.  In this case study, participants within one organization were divided, with half of the staff participating in Ai and the other half participating in SWOT.  Data for this mixed methods study was gathered through observation, focus group interviews, and pre-test, post-test, and delayed post assessments tests.  Through the explanatory sequential design, quantitative data evaluated the change in organizational commitment and vision clarity as a result of the interventions; while, qualitative data further explored participants\' perception of the intervention process and resulting effects.  The study found a statistically significant interaction between intervention treatments and the pre-test and post-test scores within the organizational commitment construct.  Seven themes emerged from the qualitative data; however, only two themes were specifically associated with an intervention treatment.  Participants in the SWOT intervention described the visioning process to be frustrating and negative; while, Ai participants found that the visioning process confirmed many of their beliefs and values about the department.  Recommendations for future practice suggest the use of Strengths, Opportunities, Aspiration, Results (SOAR) as an approach that combines and maximizes Ai and SWOT.  Suggestions for future research are to explore SWOT as a precursor to di-visioning within the Visioning Process Model. / Master of Science in Life Sciences