Using This Forecast

This section provides guidance on what to expect from this forecast, background on how it was created and suggestions for approaching future-related content.

WHAT IS THIS FORECAST AND WHO IS IT FOR?

This ten-year forecast presents a range of possibilities for the futures of young children and their families. It is addressed to a broad range of critical stakeholders, including, but not limited, to:

» Leaders, advocates and thought leaders in fields fostering young children’s development and well-being, as well as their families’ supports and well-being

» Policymakers working in or adjacent to areas affecting young children and their families

» Innovators and entrepreneurs building ventures focused on meeting the needs of young children and their families

» Professionals and organizations working for or with young children and their families or impacting the lives of young children and their families through their policies and practices

In presenting future possibilities, this forecast explores five domains, or topic areas. Each domain’s section:

» Describes the domain

» Identifies two emerging issues that could have major impacts on young children and their families over the next decade

» Provides present-day examples of those emerging issues

» Illustrates three distinct artifacts from the future, which are objects, places, practices, policies or roles that could exist in ten years’ time

» Outlines issues to watch as stakeholders reflect and plan for action

» Poses questions to guide next steps in order to help readers consider changes on the horizon in their own contexts

The forecast closes with questions to guide reflection and a section that raises cross-cutting insights and implications intended to support stakeholders in considering their next steps in taking action to support the flourishing of every young child and all families.

HOW WAS THIS FORECAST CREATED?

This forecast was created using strategic foresight methodologies. Strategic foresight is a discipline that investigates and raises possibilities for the future and supports stakeholders in using those possibilities to chart an informed path forward. Generally, the process of imagining future possibilities requires thinking beyond present-day plausibility, examining assumptions about what the future might hold, exploring current trajectories and considering alternative futures using both data and creativity. More specifically, this forecast was created using the methodologies listed below.

» Scanning for trends and signals of change in society, technology, the economy, the environment and politics

» Identifying key domains affecting young children and their families

» Developing a set of future possibilities, in this case artifacts from the future, that extrapolate from what is happening today to what the next frontier of each key domain might be

» Analyzing what those future possibilities might mean for individual children, for families, for communities and for society

HOW SHOULD I READ THIS FORECAST?

Look from the outside in. Many of the social, technological, economic and political changes that are currently underway are not typically thought of as being children’s issues, even though they could significantly affect young children, their families and their futures. This forecast focuses on those broader changes; therefore, some critical issues on which you currently work may not be addressed. As you read, consider how these broader changes might affect you and those you serve.

Set aside linear thinking. The future does not unfold in a clear, predictable or linear way. For that reason, the possibilities presented in this forecast offer glimpses of many possible futures that could emerge; they do not together create a single story. Considering various combinations of future possibilities and trajectories of change can offer a fuller sense of what might be possible.

Remember that the artifacts from the future represent possibilities, not preferences. Some of the possibilities presented in this forecast may seem preferable; others, cautionary. That range of possibility is by design and is meant to help you consider which futures you might want to enable and which futures you might want to prevent.

Examine your assumptions and mental models. Each of us carries a set of assumptions about how the world works, along with a set of frames through which we understand and experience it. These perspectives are necessary and valuable. However, they are not fixed. As you read, reflect on the underlying beliefs that you bring to the forecast’s content and ask yourself whether they can or should shift to support your work on behalf of young children and their families.

Use your context to inform your processing of the material. The content presented in this forecast is one input into your own exploration of the future. The emotional reactions, ideas and questions that arise as you read represent other valuable sources of insight. Both the context in which you work and your own values will inform how you interpret the forecast and which elements are most useful to you. Allow your individual takeaways to inform your own next steps.

A NOTE ABOUT EQUITY

Young children often experience the harmful effects of inequity more intensely than other groups do. They can find themselves in contact with systems that are structurally discriminatory based on race, gender, class and ability level. Often, those systems are intended to help children but have been designed in ways that perpetuate marginalization and inequity. This forecast does not assume that the fundamental challenges of equity will be solved in ten years’ time. In fact, some of the future possibilities that it presents reflect deeper inequity than exists today because a more unequal society is one future that we could face. For precisely that reason, grappling with the widest range of possibilities you can and examining them in light of your own commitment to equity can help you decide how you might want to shape the future so that every young child and all families can flourish.