The objectives of the Northern Alaska Scenarios Project include facilitating this kind of communication and conversation through social media. Let’s talk about what you would like your community to be in 2040, what would make you want to keep coming back to and keep living in Arctic Alaska? Instead of passively adapting to whatever comes, scenarios can help you actively and creatively shape what y
our home and region will be in the future. What are scenarios?
• A scenario exercise is not planning or decision-making. It is a process of asking “what if?” that enables the participants to help their communities manage risks for the future.
• The Barrow scenarios workshop (17-20 February 2015) is based on community expert deliberation. The goal is to think in new ways about possible futures of the two Arctic Boroughs from many different standpoints.
• These scenarios will enable community members to work together to manage risks to health and sustainability
(1) bringing people together to diagnose and tackle present problems so no one group is “doing it alone,
(2) by discussing and anticipating future needs as things change,
(3) creatively talking about shaping the future so that the NWA and NS Borough residents can design the processes they want to create a future they want. In short, the NASP provides the two boroughs with a process to determine and prioritize those variables most important to monitor for desired change and to assist with information and strategies to observe and track these variables for successful healthy communities that are sustainable to 2040 and beyond.
