To realize the full potential of our communities, build on our past, and chart paths forward, we need to be able to imagine what better worlds look like… even now, especially now. Responding to this imperative, our Civic Imagination offerings activate people’s visions for what a better tomorrow might look like as a necessary step to connecting with others and taking action to achieve real-world goals.

Drawing on more than 15 years of research conducted at the University of Southern California, Associate Professor of Research Dr. Sangita Shresthova is working with Innovation Engine to apply this approach for civic organizations and multi-stakeholder projects, drawing on extensive pilots conducted around the world. We build action plans to realize imagined solutions to real problems. These offerings enable individuals and communities as they think creatively, connect with others in new ways, and tackle challenging issues with imagination. 

The Civic Imagination, defined as a group’s collective vision for what a better tomorrow might look like, provides participants with an approach that enables them to:

  • Establish a collective group voice to create visions of future worlds while respecting collective memory and history

  • Identify imaginative paths forward and map out how to get there

  • Help participants envision themselves as people who tackle complex issues with care 

  • Strengthen existing relationships among neighbors, local partners, and community members

  • Build new interpersonal bonds, and help participants learn from others whose stories are different from their own

  • Consider alternate ways of thinking about the real-world spaces and places​ around them


Imagination and storytelling are a much needed first step towards building real-world plans and interventions. To activate the Civic Imagination, we conduct workshops and brainstorming sessions with people from a wide range of communities to map and analyze stories that inspire and connect people, bridging the gaps people see as dividing us. 

We work with experts and practitioners from various fields to think about visions for the future that respect a shared past, and that build understanding and connection. These are built on methods tested with diverse communities ranging from former tobacco farmers and coal miners in Kentucky mapping the future of work, educators in Idaho addressing disinformation in the classroom, and youth organizations in California working towards sustainable futures to faith-based communities in Arkansas committed to forming an interfaith alliance, teachers in Lebanon facing violence and uncertainty, and students in Sweden designing games. These methods can be customized based on the goals of your community or organization.

Our approach values process and outcome equally. We believe that, when people gather and use their collective imaginations, amazing things happen, and new opportunities and connections come into focus. We have also seen our approach lead to tangible outcomes like forming new organizations, developing action plans, building new strategic alliances, and even rethinking neighborhoods to help communities thrive.

Civic Imagination