Georgian and YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka invite community to identify future trends

May 15, 2024

Community members and local organizations are invited to participate in The Future Includes… Scan Club, a new initiative by the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka and Georgian College to identify trends, challenges and opportunities for our communities’ future.

The brand-new club is part of the Future of Belonging project, which is aimed at advancing community well-being and fostering a sense of belonging across the region.

The Future Includes…Scan Club is a unique opportunity for community members to collect and explore early signals or clues about upcoming trends, challenges or opportunities that could affect our communities from now to 2030 and beyond. The YMCA and Georgian will use this data to help support community organizations in their strategic planning for the future.

“We’re excited to invite individuals and organizations across Simcoe/Muskoka to join us in this important conversation about the future of belonging,” said Pamela Marck, Vice President at the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka. “At the YMCA, we believe that understanding future trends is crucial to building inclusive and thriving communities.”

Bring your imagination and creativity to Scan Club

Over a six-week period, participants of The Future Includes… Scan Club will use a mix of imagination, intuition, creativity and observation of events in the world-at-large to identify early signs of change that may have important future impacts on our economy, health, environment, sense of belonging, and how we work and play.

The Future of Belonging project, a collaboration between the YMCA and Georgian’s Social Innovation team, aims to explore and enhance community belonging through innovative approaches and community engagement. By leveraging the expertise and diverse perspectives of our community members, they aim to develop sustainable solutions that address the evolving needs of the region.

The goal is to harness diverse community perspectives through crowdsourcing real-time trends that are important to people that we may not be seeing, and then we can share those back with the many community organizations heading into their strategic planning cycles. We can’t build future-ready organizations without the tools and knowledge we’ve gained through our communities. Scan clubs are a great way to gain new perspectives on where we should go, together.

– Nicole Norris, Director, Social Innovation, Georgian College

The Future Includes…Scan Club will take place virtually every Friday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. starting May 24 and concluding June 27. Participants are encouraged to join this collaborative effort and contribute to building a more inclusive and connected community.