Community visioning is a process for engaging a large number of citizens in thinking about and planning their community’s future. In doing so, visioning helps create consensus, opens the door to new ideas, and strengthens citizen support for action. Through public involvement, communities identify their purpose, core values, and vision of the future which are then transformed into a manageable and feasible set of community goals and action plan.

Visioning is not a new idea-large corporations, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations have been using these techniques for more than 40 years. Communities throughout the U.S. have created vision plans for their county, cities, and regions. Greenville Vision 2025 was the second vision plan in Greenville County, and has been recognized nationally as an excellent example of a community vision plan. Anderson County has completed their vision plan, and Oconee County is completing their plan. The Upstate region is embarking on a regional vision plan in the spring of 2008.