Futures workshop facilitation for girl-sensitive youth work
Girls’ space, part of Nicehearts ry, does gender- and culturally sensitive youth work. It offers girls and young people a safe community where everyone can be themselves. The team works close to young people’s everyday lives, in an operating environment shaped by growing pressures on youth wellbeing, uncertain funding, and rapid societal change.
In the middle of demanding everyday work, there is rarely time to pause and look further ahead. Girls’ space invited Empact to facilitate a one-day futures workshop. The day was a chance to step out of the daily constraints, look at the bigger picture together, and consider where the work should be heading over the next five years.
Project goals
The purpose of the workshop was to give the whole team a calm, shared space to think about the future and to leave the day with a clearer sense of direction. Together we wanted to:
- Identify the phenomena and changes in the operating environment that affect young people and the work of Girls’ space
- Articulate a shared purpose and a target state for the next five years
- Generate and prioritize concrete ideas, and develop the most promising ones into first concepts with clear next steps
”Working with Michelle and Anna was smooth, knowledgeable, professional, and deeply respectful, gentle, and positive from the very first meeting all the way to the workshop. The workshop was beautifully designed to meet the needs and goals of our work, and Michelle and Anna met each of us with kindness. They brought joy and positive energy to the day and created a safe atmosphere in the workshop. We were really happy with the workshop, and it gave us hope and confidence in our future work.”
– Sanna Heikkinen, Director of Girls’ space, Nicehearts ry
Methods used
We designed the day as a facilitated process that moves from broad understanding toward a concrete direction, at a pace that keeps everyone on board.
A safe and settled start: Before diving into strategic thinking, we made sure the group had time to arrive, settle, and agree together on how to work. We anchored the futures conversation in the team’s existing strengths, not only in its challenges.
Phenomena mapping: The team identified the societal changes and phenomena affecting young people and the operating environment. We clustered and reviewed them together, and used them as a mirror for a shared conversation about the purpose of their work.
Developing the target state: Through guided questions, the group articulated where it wants to be in five years. Who it wants to reach, what sets it apart, how the work should feel, and what kind of change it wants to be part of. Prioritization helped the team see which things mattered most.
Ideation: Using association techniques and voting, the team generated a wide range of ideas and prioritized the most promising ones.
Concept development: In small groups, the ideas were developed into first concepts. Each concept describing what the idea would mean in practice, what it would require, and what the first step would be.
Documentation for continuity: After the workshop, we compiled the outcomes into a clear summary the team can build on. This way the thinking moves forward rather than staying on the workshop wall.
Why Empact’s work was valuable in this project
”The workshop had a positive atmosphere, and the instructions were clear. With their help, we created a lot of ideas and good discussion! At first it felt a little disheartening to plan for the future given the current STEA funding news, but you ran the workshop really well, and it was nice to get to think about things broadly. Nothing had to be finished that same day, and that surely helped with reflecting on the future.”
– Workshop participant
Strategic thinking requires a safe space and openness. Our facilitation was designed to be nervous system friendly: a calm pace and genuine permission to participate as oneself. This made it possible for a team working with demanding topics to think about the future freely and creatively.
At the same time, the day had a clear structure and led to concrete outcomes: a shared articulation of purpose, a prioritized target state, and developed concepts with their first steps. The team left the day with both a stronger shared direction and practical material to continue from.
Looking for an experienced partner for futures workshop facilitation?
A futures workshop is a way to pause, look at your operating environment honestly, and decide together where you want to go. Empact combines structured strategic facilitation with a human pace, so that everyone can participate and the outcomes genuinely reflect the whole team.
If your team could use a calm, well-held space to think about the future, get in touch.