Building a sustainable environment including sustainable business normally takes a long time. In order to get a feel for what is involved, this activity allows participants to experience in a playful setting how to build a sustainable village in cooperation with all future residents.

Source: Transition Towns

Roadmap:

Phase 0

Participants wait outside the main hall. "Welcome, come on in.... Thank you for joining us. This morning we are going on a journey together, a journey into the near future. Look ahead of you to the empty space, to the future. We are going to the center of Your Village, anywhere.... All we need to bring is our own experience, each other and our imagination. We have an opportunity today to build a thriving, connected, resilient village. Is everyone ready? Once the ribbon is cut, we are there".....  

• tension build-up: waiting outside the room for the doors to open
• soft instrumental music, dreamy voice takes you into time travel; collective countdown from 10 to 0 before the ribbon behind which we stand is cut and we are allowed to enter the rest of the hall

Phase 1 - A Home

"Find a place in the room where you can make yourself a home..... draw the outline of your home with the chalk..... grab a chalkboard and write down something in your life that gives you a sense of well-being or connection .... go for a walk around your village.... Look around at who you live with here."

• walk around the room, then find your own spot, draw a boundary around you with chalk.

• write on a chalkboard what makes for "well-being" for you, put that in your space and walk around to see what others have written down

Phase 2 - Neighbors

  "Meet your neighbor, someone close to you. Sit down together. On the back of your school bulletin boards is a list of story themes. Tell each other a personal story based on one of those themes and then write down in one sentence what you heard from the other person. These relationships and personal stories are the foundations of our village."  

• go back to your own place and have a conversation with one of your neighbors; tell each other a personal story using one of the themes on the back of your blackboard

• write down what you heard (not word for word but in one summary sentence)

• walk around your neighborhood and read the other stories

Phase 3 - Street

"Sit down with 3 or 4 other couples of neighbors ... discuss/explore together what would make your lives easier and more sustainable. What could you accomplish together without outside help ... Remember that successful groups invest time in determining how they will work together, rather than just determining what they want to do together. ... Using your blackboards, imagine what your street/neighborhood will look like. Walk around again to see what other streets have come to."  

• sit together with 3-4 more neighbors; create and visualize what you would like to have/see in your own neighborhood in terms of amenities, atmosphere, situation, culture, ...

• walk around again to see what each neighborhood has

Phase 4 - Going outside

"We are going to build a village center together .... a village/community needs a variety of things: food, governance, education, innovation, services and goods, celebration and recreation.... what would you like to see created in your village in these categories? Write your requests on the blackboards.  

• go to one or more of the blackboards on the walls of the room and write down what kind of services, businesses and facilities you would like to see located along the village's Main Street. Each board has its own theme: food, governance, education, innovation, goods and services, celebration

Phase 5 - Discovering your own role

"Go to the category that most appeals to you and use a blackboard to write down what role you would like to play now in response to the requests the villagers have written down. Organize yourself into small working groups"

• go stand on Main Street; you are now one of the future entrepreneurs. Go to the wall blackboard with the theme you are most attracted to and read there what needs and wants the residents of the village have written down there; this is the basis for your venture.
• write on your own blackboard what kind of work you would like to do yourself
• look around you for at least 1 other person to start a business together

Phase 6 - Building Your Business

"Think carefully about whether you've thought of everything to build a business. What is it, who is it for? .... Once you are sure of what you want to do, visit the Mapmaster(s) to get a plot number.... Bring building materials from the and build a 3D version of your idea."  

• go to the Card Master(s) and obtain a business address on Main Street

• gather the necessary building materials (cardboard, bamboo, newspapers, tape, rope, scissors, blackboards, chalk) and build your own shop/business premises

Phase 7 - Opening of the Village Center

Time to open the Village Center! A random business is chosen to receive the Key to the Village. People are running up and down Main Street with colorful ribbons to celebrate this joyous moment, everyone is cheering and clapping ... "We are ready to go. Visit other businesses, find out how you could work together; what could you exchange? Some of you stay behind to receive visitors to your own enterprise"  

• "it's a year later" ; official opening of Main Street (ceremony with king-size key etc.)
• FEAST: party music, confetti, polonaise
• split up by company: one person stays behind to serve customers and the other(s) go around to store at other companies and make connections (wearing two hats: as yourself and as a shopper)

Phase 8 - Picnic in the Village Center

"Lunchtime! During a street picnic, enjoy the abundance of food, each other and a rich environment"

• Lunch is brought in: picnic on Main Street

Phase 9 - Time Travel

"Go back to your home place, and visit the neighbor to whom you told a story in the beginning. Tell him/her about your experiences since then. What have you seen, learned, observed, felt? ...... Then we all walk down Main Street back to where we started, back to where it all began. Count from 0 to 10 on our journey back to the year 202x"

• stand in the space where you started as an individual
• let in what this exercise has brought you and share that with one of your neighbors

stand in the Main Street and walk slowly backwards to the starting point at the beginning of the hall, "you go back in time", count collectively from zero to ten.

Stage 10 - Reflection, tidying up

"Look back at the space. It is full, filled with your imagination, full of what we have created together.... You can take a souvenir as a reminder, but without a doubt, this village will remain in our memories no matter what. Now let's start the Great Clearance"

• clean up!