The foundation for Imagine Chicago’s work has been friendship. Friendship is a relationship among equals, people who delight in each other’s company, take risks together, laugh, lean on each other. Good friends accept us as we are and hold us accountable to the best of what they know we can be. Friends deepen our capacity to love and our confidence that love is possible. What might it mean to use friendship, rather than "service", as the model for public life ?

In September 1992, a group of friends – across a wide range of ages and professions – came together as a "design team" to explore bringing friendship into public life in Chicago. How could we bring alive a new imagination for Chicago’s future that would build community, unleash energy and imagination and lead to a positive future in which everyone would be able to contribute their unique resourcefulness and creativity?

Two key ideas emerged from many months of conversation which ultimately shaped the design of what became "Imagine Chicago". First, the project should attempt to discover what gives life to the city, and second, that it should provide significant leadership opportunities for youth, who most clearly represent the city’s future. The MacArthur Foundation supported the effort to design the project’s first phase, test its viability, and get the project organized and institutionalized. From September 1992 to May 1993, the team designed a process of intergenerational civic inquiry as the starting point for engaging the city of Chicago in a broad-based conversation about its future.

Imagine Chicago bet on teenagers, who wanted to learn from city leaders how to make a difference, as its first public leadership team. They proved highly effective in creating a space in the city to talk about what mattered and what was possible. Subsequent Imagine Chicago partners have included a wide range of individuals and institutions: grassroots leaders seeking to improve their neighborhoods and learn from the innovations of other committed citizens... public schools working to establish stronger community partnerships... teachers wanting to renew their vocations... immigrant and faith communities committed to exploring the promise of democracy and American pluralism... school children and parents struggling to understand and impact the systems/communities of which they are a part. All have been willing to expand the community to which they belong and to find ways to apply their imagination, talent and commitment within the communities in which they live.

Participating in civic projects that bridge traditional divides of race, class, age and geography expands our circle of friends in surprising and interesting ways. We begin to understand ourselves as part of a broader community from which we can learn. What we are able to understand and accomplish grows as does the community to which we belong and from which we draw courage to ask challenging questions and to act.

All over the world, communities are struggling to name what they value and to organize partnerships through which those values can be lived. Partnerships require understanding and acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers ourselves, that we depend upon one another, a difficult shift for many professionals who have been trained as experts with answers. What will develop confidence that by working together, being vulnerable, we can accomplish a greater good? One way is for us to experience inspiring and productive conversations with uncommon partners that expand what’s possible for our lives. In such encounters of constructive difference, we discover that our learning communities are much bigger than we thought — that the stranger can become a friend.

Ö All individuals have a particular vocation, a unique gift to contribute, the sharing of which is essential to the flourishing of our common life.

Ö It is possible to create organizations that are consonant with our deeply held values and that make productive use of individual talents.

Ö Connecting those organizations and individuals can bring greater meaning and purpose to individual efforts. The sum is greater than the parts.

Ö Friendship provides a good working model for the kind of relationships necessary to develop a vibrant city — connected and committed individuals who recognize, appreciate, and celebrate each other’s unique gifts.