CINCINNATI – A new 10-year forecast, Foundations for Flourishing Futures: A Look Ahead for Young Children and Families©, takes a sweeping view of society’s mixed success trying to improve the lives of young children, and it employs strategic forecasting to identify emerging issues that leaders can influence for the better – or worse.
Developed by KnowledgeWorks, and Joe Waters of Capita, the forecast asserts that the first eight years of life as an essential time for people to have access to high-quality education, artistic and cultural assets, mental, physical and spiritual wellness and stability within families, communities and themselves.
It identifies five domains in which issues critical to young children reside:
- Health by the Numbers: Emerging technologies reshaping the way children’s well-being is measured and supported.
- Learning in Flux: Social and economic uncertainty influencing approaches to early learning.
- The Autonomy Gaps: New notions about young children’s autonomy, as well as increasing inequity, creating cultural and generational tensions and widening disparities
- Stretched social fabric: Shifting support structures change how diverse families access resources.
- Care at the Core: New economic and job realities and aging population creating tensions within caregiving structures and values.
And it imagines “Artifacts from the future,” such as community scorecards and new roles to support community health. Not all of the artifacts are likely to be seen as positive developments. Attention Money, for one, imagines advertisements that young children choose to watch for rewards like buying merchandise.
Barriers to achieving our goals for young children are high, and taking action is critically important. The forecast calls for action: “Given how important the early years of life are for individual development and for our social fabric, we owe it to young children, their families and society to grapple proactively with change.”
Please contact us to interview the forecast authors.
About Capita:
Capita is a consulting, digital services and software business. We deliver innovative solutions and simplify the links between businesses and customers, governments and citizens.
