What Is the New England Futures Project?

The key question now facing New England is will the region seize the opportunities and confront the challenges of the 21st Century or will it continue its slow decline—losing its character, identity, environmental quality, economic vitality, and youth?

The New England Futures project will inspire New Englanders to take responsibility for their own future, strategically build on regional assets, and unleash environmental, social and economic entrepreneurship to make New England an even better place to live, work, and play in the new Century. New England is a region steeped in history, linked by common values and interests, with strong traditions of environmental stewardship, economic innovation, and community self-reliance. The project will create widespread awareness and debate on strategic issues, get people out of silos to think differently about challenges and opportunities, and bring people together to develop lasting solutions. By creating a context for action, the project will make it easier for communities and the organizations that support them to finally make progress on issues stymied by conventional thinking and resistance to change. 

The New England Futures project consists of:

1. Media Outreach: A team of two skilled journalists – Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson – of the nationally acclaimed Citistates Group has conducted more than 500 interviews in order to identify the key issues critical to New Englanders. Between October 2005 and March 2006 these journalists released a monthly article on each of six strategic issues to newspapers across the region.
2. Dialogue and Action: Capitalizing on the heightened interest produced from the articles, citizens and leaders from across New England will meet to discuss an agenda for action that promotes long term, positive change. Through this agenda, New England Futures will stimulate action on issues that must be addressed and solved at the regional level if New England is to succeed at confronting the challenges and seizing the opportunities of the 21st century.

What Are the Six Strategic Issues?

After conducting more than 400 interviews with leaders throughout New England, Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson of the Citistates Group have identified six strategic issues that the New England states can make pivotal advances on:

It is time for New England to rise out of it increasing isolation to lead the country with innovative solutions to these intractable problems.