How to Use Scenarios?
The four scenarios developed by the Building with Mission team describe what the Canadian landscape could look like at the intersection of housing + care + aging in 10 to 20 years.
This serves as a great starting point for rich, intentional and comprehensive dialogue and alignment amongst organizational leaders and community stakeholders.
Using the scenarios, healthcare delivery organizations can describe and navigate vastly different environments within which they might be planning a housing development. The Building with Mission team has a preference for some of these futures over others. For example, we are concerned about a future that over-emphasis institutional long-term care as the solution to meet the needs of all older adults and believe that there is a need for a broader range of viable housing and care alternatives.
Your organization may feel the same way. It may be helpful to reflect on these scenarios and ask some important questions:
Given your current work and the role your organization is currently playing in the housing and care sector, which future scenario are you a part of making a reality?
On which future scenario does your organization focus its energy? Is that where you want to play? Is that the future you desire?
Reflect on the broader community you work in, towards which future is it most likely heading?
Reflect on your organization and its five-year strategic plan, which future are you planning for?
We hope that organizations will review the findings of each stage of this process, tweak those findings as they see fit for their local context and then use the scenarios developed to discuss their strategic implications.