VISION

ITF's vision of the future is of culturally rich and diverse communities in which all people live more harmoniously with themselves, with one another, and with the biological communities on which we all depend. ITF has no religious nor political affiliations.

Our work is guided by our philosophy and goals, and is managed by a committee of members. All our social innovations, including Re-imagining your neighbourhood, Redreaming the plains and the ecoversity, are project-based and depend on external funding.

SPONSORS

ITF's sponsors have included the Australia Council, Australian Film Commission, Reichstein Foundation, Sidney Myer Fund, Commission for Missions of the Uniting Church in Australia (Victorian Synod), Vicnet, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Norwich Financial Services Group, RMIT University, Victoria University and the municipal councils of Brimbank and Port Phillip. Many other organisations have also contributed in-kind support, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Arts Victoria and the Australian Multicultural Foundation. ITF gratefully acknowledges their support.

PHILOSOPHY
Imagine The Future's statement of philosophy was defined collaboratively in 1990 and 1991 in a series of small public meetings facilitated with in-kind support from Arts Victoria, the Australian Multicultural Foundation and the Australian Conservation Foundation. Many people from a very broad range of backgrounds participated in this process, from which the following statement of philosophy emerged.

People associated with Imagine The Future work, both individually and collectively, towards creating a society in which we live more harmoniously with ourselves, with one another and with our 'natural' environment. 

The future is created by everything that has happened in the past, and especially by what each of us does in the present. We humans thus have the power to shape our future. 

Imagining or envisaging is a first stage in creating a better world. By imagining the sort of future we want, we can then work, both individually and collectively, to make it happen. 

When contemplating the future, many of us feel powerless to effect change. Imagine The Future Inc will link people of all ages and all backgrounds in the common task of creating a future that works for all. 

OBJECTIVES

• To explore what a diverse, caring and ecologically sustainable society would look and feel like (ie to collectively imagine it). 
• To promote public discussion about how we can achieve such a society. 
• To open new pathways and support actions that help to build such a society. 
• To encourage and promote research & development programs that will contribute to creating such a society. 
• To develop public awareness programs which focus community attention on this process and invite participation. 
• To nurture links with other agencies, institutions and organisations and with all sectors of the general community, including marginalised groups; to share resources with them; to establish an effective and strong network. 
• To encourage people of all ages and all cultural backgrounds to imagine the kind of future they would personally like, describe what that world would look and feel like, then define how they could bring it about; to provide them with support in this process through the ITF network. 
• To foster personal and community growth. 
• To validate and celebrate people's achievements that bring us closer to our goal of creating a diverse, caring and ecologically sustainable world.

MANAGEMENT TEAM 2004

From 22 July 2004 ITF's management team consists of the following members:Peter Kinrade, president (elected July 22, 2004); Stancia Vichie, secretary and public officer; Peter Baker, CPA, financial manager/treasurer (elected July 22, 2004); Daryl Taylor, Jose Ramos, William Kelly, and Merrill Findlay, projects director, and web editor/content manager.
 

FUTURES INNOVATIONS

From the early 1990s Imagine The Future Inc. has been acknowledged as a significant social innovator and futures 'think-tank'. Its strategic interventions, such as the ecoversity, the East Timorese youth ambassador project (1992-93), the urban design event, What's good urban design (1996), the youth futures program, Re-imagining your neighbourhood, and the bioregional futures project Painting the future real continue to have an impact on people's lives.

ITF's ongoing social innovations include Redreaming the plains, and Redreaming Australia.

The Ecoversity 1992-99

In 1992 this small non-profit organisation established the Ecoversity in the Australian Conservation Foundation building in Melbourne, with seed funding from the Commission for Missions of the Uniting Church in Australia (Victorian Synod). Between 1992 and 1996 it facilitated many seasons of public forums to explore the concept of sustainability with some of Australia's freshest thinkers. The proceedings of some of some forums are available as Cappuccino Papers (itf 1995). Audio tapes of all ecoversity events, along with the ecoversity fitout, were acquired by Museum Victoria in 2002 and now are available for research.

East Timor's future 1992-93

In 1992-93 ITF initiated the East Timorese Youth Ambassador Project in partnership with Melbourne's East Timorese community, the Human Rights Office of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid and other advocacy organizations in Australia and the United States, for example, after founder Merrill Findlay petitioned the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation, New York, on behalf of ACFOA and the East Timor Talks Committee, in August 1991.

This project was developed to skill and empower young East Timorese refugees within their own communities at a time when their interests were being ignored by mainstream institutions, and followed a period of extreme human rights violations and massacres in East Timor and ,

As part of this project ITF facilitated a four week tour of North America by six young East Timorese in 1993. The young people met members of Congress and various national delegations to the United Nations, and spoke at university campuses and other venues. This pioneering project has become a model for other organisations working with marginalised communities, and all the young people involved have continued to contribute to their communities in significant ways. All documentation from this period is archived and available for research.

Urban design 1996

In March 1996 itf facilitated Victoria's response to the Prime Minister's Urban Design Task Force Report, in association with the City of Port Phillip, Urban Design Forum, the Australian Conservation Foundation, and the Commonwealth Department of Regional Development,and hosted a special ecoversity event, What's Good Urban Design, in the ballroom of the George Hotel, in inner-urban St Kilda.  

Other futures interventions

Other innovations include the bioregional futures research and development project, Re-dreaming the Plains, and the futures education program, Re-imagining your Neighbourhood. 

Page last revised 16 July 2005.