Picture your community in 2050. What do you see? Thriving main streets, green spaces for families, or innovative technology keeping everyone connected and safe? Perhaps, as you look around, you sense something deeper—a quiet confidence that has taken root over the years; the sense of a community that was thoughtfully planned and grew stronger together.

I’m sure many of you have had moments at work where you thought, “Wow, it would be really nice to have a crystal ball right now.” But even if we had a glimpse of what’s coming, we would still face the question of what should happen, rather than just what could happen. Long-range future planning isn’t about predicting exact outcomes or following a single path forward; it’s about the vision and courage to ask, “What becomes possible if we aim higher?” and “How can we best prepare for whatever might come?”

West Michigan and Kent County are known throughout the state and beyond as a special place where unique and impactful tri-sector collaboration occurs regularly. This unique culture has led to innovative programs and world-class public venues for arts, culture, sports, and entertainment. Most public, nonprofit, and private organizations use strategic planning to guide their goals, and collaborations often emerge organically when multiple groups realize they are working toward similar initiatives.

In an era of rapid change and emerging challenges, strategic foresight is both an opportunity and a necessity. For local governments balancing a plethora of community demands, this raises the question: Are we all pointed in the same direction?

Enter the Kent County 2050 Headwater Framework, a unifying vision guiding our region for the next 30 years. This framework acts as a “north star,” aligning efforts toward a brighter future. Developed by the Kent County 2050 collaborative—a diverse group of leaders and residents—Headwater is anchored by one question: What must we get right today to become good ancestors tomorrow?

What Is Foresight?

Kent County 2050 partners worked with futurists Rebecca Ryan and David Brown to utilize strategic foresight in developing the Headwater Plan. According to Ryan, “Strategic foresight is a proven process used by organizations like NATO, the World Bank, and Disney to identify risks, plan for uncertainty, and drive innovation. Yet less than 3% of senior leaders spend time thinking about the future.”

Strategic foresight happens in multiple phases:

1. Scanning

Identify emerging trends across society, technology, environment, economy, and politics. For example, Kent County’s population aged 65 and older is expected to grow from 14% in 2020 to 22% by 2050.

2. Sensing

Prioritize trends based on impact and certainty. In this phase, we gathered hundreds of community leaders for in-person work sessions to help gauge Kent County’s readiness to address trends, such as affordable housing, economic shifts, and workforce caregiving demands.

3. Imagining

Use trends to create and explore four future scenarios—an expectable future, a challenging one, and two visionary ones. These scenarios helped us “rehearse” potential futures and better understand what was possible—the opportunities, the challenges, and the array of disruptions that could impact our community.

4. Defining

Focus on the elements that will be most impactful in shaping Kent County’s future. This phase identified our “crossover levers”—strategies to navigate challenges and optimize opportunities. Resident input from this phase also revealed the degree of importance that residents placed on these strategies and helped to highlight any overlooked strategies.

Headwater—A Framework for the Future of Kent County

The introduction of the plan reads:

In 2050, Kent County will be 214 years old. That’s 11 generations. And long before Kent County’s incorporation, the Grand River was shaping this region and its inhabitants. If you go to the headwaters of the Grand, all the way to the Fen Preserve, you see a narrow river of water flowing through rich wetland, a whisper of what the river becomes as it gains volume and strength and as it flows through our county. We see this plan as a “Headwater,” a starting point for what’s possible in 2050.

Developed with input from a 19-member steering committee, alongside contributions from thousands of residents, and hundreds of businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations, the Headwater Framework is organized around four focus areas:

1. Live Well. A vision for a place where all residents live healthy, safe, and fulfilling lives.

2. Thrive Together. Kent County is an ecosystem of economic prosperity and cultural richness accessible to all.

3. Cultivate Community. Kent County is a mosaic of inclusive communities where people experience the cultural, artistic, and natural landscape it has to offer.

4. Be Resilient. Kent County is prepared to adapt and thrive in the face of future opportunities and challenges.

What’s Next?

Now that the framework is complete, the focus shifts to building more community engagement and awareness. Throughout 2025, the Kent County 2050 collaborative will host small group discussions, work to set milestones, and develop an online platform to track progress and share resources.

The next phase is the “doing” phase. While we’re still figuring out the specifics, the plan provides a shared language and roadmap. We can now identify necessary work, find existing initiatives, and bring others on board. We hope organizations across the county will align with the Headwater Framework to achieve this vision while enhancing their own resilience.

The Future Is Built Together

More than 100 organizations came together for the futuring process, with 19 organizations serving on the steering committee. Coming together in this manner has helped us reinforce the value of being more proactive in our collaboration instead of reacting to change. Already, many organizations have integrated the Headwater Framework into their own strategic planning efforts, reinforcing a shared commitment to our long-term success.

Throughout the entire foresight process, many of us walked away with a new way of thinking about the future, opening our minds to a philosophy of “anything is possible.” We may not have (or need) a crystal ball for the future, but this process has crystallized one truth—the future requires thoughtful and intentional partnerships. Today, we live in a world where decisions grow more complex and must often be made with greater urgency than ever before. Rarely does one person, organization, or sector have the entire 360-degree view of the community to make large-scale choice by going at it alone. There’s a pivotal choice we face in how we work together: will our partnerships be transactional or transformative ? Will they reflect a short-sighted exchange or a long-term investment in achieving a shared vision?

As we look to the future, it’s increasingly clear that the answer lies in thoughtful, proactive, and intentional partnerships. Our journey to building thriving communities begins with a simple but powerful truth: we all have a part to play, and we all deserve a seat at the table. After all, isn’t the most promising future the one that we help create?

View the full Kent County 2050 Headwater Framework here.

JESSIE HARRIS is a management analyst of Kent County, Michigan, USA.

AL VANDERBERG, ICMA-CM is county administrator of Kent County, Michigan, USA.