Bioregional Futures Fellowship: Crafting a 100-Year Vision

PROJECTS

Bioregional Futures Fellowship: Crafting a 100-Year Vision

The Project

The Bioregional Futures Fellowship is a transformative year-long program designed to craft a 100-year vision for the Bay Delta bioregion, rooted in the wisdom and aspirations of its BIPOC and indigenous communities. Fellows, selected from these historically marginalized groups, will embark on a collective journey to imagine and articulate a thriving, regenerative future for the region spanning the next century. Through a combination of intensive research, community engagement, and collaborative visioning, the fellowship will explore long-term trends, challenges, and opportunities across various domains including ecology, economy, culture, and governance.
Each fellow will conduct a year-long research project, combining desk research with deep community listening through interviews, workshops, and other innovative engagement methods. These projects will focus on specific aspects of the 100-year vision, such as climate resilience, economic empowerment, cultural preservation, or ecological restoration. Throughout the year, fellows will regularly convene to share insights, cross-pollinate ideas, and weave their individual research into a cohesive, holistic vision for the bioregion's future. The fellowship will culminate in the creation of a comprehensive 100-year roadmap that bridges immediate community needs with long-term aspirational goals, providing a guiding framework for regional development and policy-making for generations to come.

The Purpose

The Bioregional Futures Fellowship aims to radically reframe regional planning and development by centering the voices and visions of historically disinvested communities in crafting a long-term future for the Bay Delta bioregion. By engaging BIPOC and indigenous leaders in this profound act of imagination and strategy, the program seeks to break cycles of short-term thinking and reactive policy-making that have often marginalized these communities. The 100-year timeframe encourages participants to transcend immediate constraints and envision transformative, systemic changes that can create a truly equitable and regenerative future for all inhabitants of the bioregion.
This approach is powerful because it places the tools of futurism and strategic foresight directly in the hands of those most impacted by current inequities, empowering them to shape the long-term trajectory of their communities and the broader region. The intensive research and community engagement process builds a deep well of knowledge and a strong sense of ownership among participants, cultivating a new generation of visionary leaders deeply connected to both their communities' needs and the broader systems shaping the bioregion's future. By anchoring current decision-making in a far-reaching vision co-created by diverse community leaders, the fellowship lays the groundwork for more holistic, inclusive, and sustainable approaches to addressing both immediate challenges and long-term regional development.

The Outcomes

  1. Lay the foundation for a comprehensive, community-driven 100-year vision for a thriving Bay Delta bioregion, providing a long-term framework for policy-making and regional development.
  1. A cohort of empowered BIPOC and indigenous leaders equipped with research skills, systems thinking capabilities, and a deep understanding of long-term regional dynamics.
  1. A rich body of research on various aspects of the bioregion's future, including innovative solutions to long-standing challenges and opportunities for transformative change.
  1. Strengthened connections and collaborative relationships among diverse communities across the bioregion, fostering a shared sense of purpose and collective action.
  1. Increased visibility and influence of BIPOC and indigenous perspectives in regional planning and decision-making processes, particularly in long-term strategizing.
  1. A replicable model for community-led, long-term visioning that can be adapted for other bioregions or urban areas.
  1. A shift in regional discourse from short-term problem-solving to long-term, systemic transformation, inspired by the 100-year vision.
  1. Identification of key leverage points and strategic initiatives that can set the bioregion on a path towards the envisioned future, bridging immediate actions with long-term goals.
  1. Enhanced capacity within participating communities to engage in futures thinking and to advocate for their long-term interests in various decision-making forums.