Dream Tree of Transformation

Following the appreciative inquiry process between young people and adult leaders, Imagine Chicago hosted a citywide "Imagination Celebration" to which all interviewers and their interviewees were invited, in order to disseminate the findings of the intergenerational interviews. The celebration room was organized into small intergenerational table groupings. Each table had interactive, arts-based activities to further develop the themes coming out of the interviews. As the appreciative inquiry process had already broadened both the youth’s and the adults’ views of what was possible, for themselves and for the city, it was important that the Imagination Celebration strengthen and expand their renewed hope and commitment and focus it into concrete actions.

The culminating activity of the day was the completion of a large (8’x 8’) Chicago dream tree. The "leaves" of the tree were drawn in advance by young interview interpreters who read several interview transcripts and inscribed on the canvas the core vision they caught from each interviewee. For example, written on these leaves were phrases like: ‘a city without hopelessness, where kids can be happy’, ‘discipline, determination and honesty’, ‘creative tension: the arts in Chicago’, ‘connections for partnership’, ‘the skyline – tremendous energy and potential’, and more.

The "trunk" border was defined by common themes emerging from the interviews as interpreted by another group of young people who read all the interview transcripts. The categories included inner strength, the power of commitment, common life, and livelihood for all.

At the end of the Imagination Celebration, each participant was invited to summarize their vision. On a small piece of paper, each wrote one thing they would do to move the city in the direction of their own expanded vision for it. Those commitments were then shared and stuffed into fruit pods sewn onto the tree canvas, becoming the seeds for spreading the ideas and vision further.