Our Approach to Partnership

Building a more resilient world together

From Appalachia to Zimbabwe, people across the globe face extraordinary challenges to their health, livelihoods, and the environment. Too often, “solutions” provided by outside experts have had no lasting benefit, sometimes even making things worse. People long to be interdependent, taking care of themselves, their families, and their community-at-large. Communities are seeking vibrancy and resilience.

At Future Generations, that’s exactly what we do: help equip people, in their own places, to effectively address the problems they face. To forge enduring solutions. To build their community’s resilience for today, and for the future.

Building Community’s Resilience for Today & Future - Future Generations University
Capacity Building in Community Development - Future Generations University

Capacity building with real-world results

Is your organization working to improve the lives of people? Are you trying to build community resilience in an uncertain world? Future Generations teaches your team members proven best practices that support bottom-up change in the communities they serve to:

  • Mobilize people around shared priorities to create lasting, bottom up change
  • Build momentum on local successes rather than fixating on problems
  • Bridge and negotiate differences to bring communities together in a common purpose
  • Plan, manage, and grow successful development projects at all scales: in a community, across an organization, and across a region

Through a customized and adaptable training program, we will work with you and your team to provide training, mentorship, and leadership capacity building.  Additional training is also available to direct the learning and development of your team in core areas such as: volunteer management, non-profit management, or leadership.

We deliver these courses through a unique approach we call “blended learning.” Courses are taught online, via videoconferencing, but the bulk of the training is hands-on, in your own community, putting into practice in the real-world concepts learned in class. We also customize training content and delivery according to your needs, from a short weekend-long in-person event to an in-depth, for-credit online certificate program.

Partner with us for Sustainable Community Development - Future Generations University

Why Partner with Us?

Headquartered in the heart of Appalachia, Future Generations University reaches communities worldwide teaching a method of community change that enables community-driven sustainable development using local resources. We specialize in working with marginalized communities, helping them to build on their successes.

Our students, alumni, faculty and partners across 41 countries lead non-profit organizations, manage government agencies, teach in universities, serve as international consultants, and organize civic movements for all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Our Work in Community Development - Future Generations University

Examples of our work

  • Breakthroughs in forest farming and sustainable income generation in West Virginia
  • Creation of community-based conservation projects in China, resulting in some of the largest protected nature reserves in the world
  • Improved maternal and child health in the remotest parts of Afghanistan and Peru, resulting in up to a 75% decline in infant mortality
  • Creation of sustainable community-based enterprises in Arunachal Pradesh in far northeastern India

Our Partners

RESEARCH:

  • Armonia
  • Barun Bachaon Task Force
  • Core Group
  • El Chocolatal
  • Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network
  • Loafer’s Glory
  • Makalu-Barun National Park | Local Forest User Group
  • Marshall University
  • Mekong Delta Development Research Institute
  • Microsoft AI for Earth
  • Ohio State University
  • Penn State University
  • Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing
  • Southern Syrup Research Association
  • Sweetwater Farm
  • The East Foundation
  • Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  • USDA Forest Service
  • West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
  • West Virginia University
  • Wildlife Conservation Society-Bolivia

LEARNING:

ACTION:

  • Appalachian Sustainable Development
  • Future Generations | China
  • Future Generations | Peru
  • Future Generations | Afghanistan
  • Future Generations | Arunachal
  • Future Generations | Haiti
  • Future Generations | India
  • Future Generations | Peru
  • Hanoi Innovation Learning Laboratory
  • International Institute of Rural Reconstruction
  • Kathryn W. Davis Projects for Peace
  • Kaycee Bunch Consulting
  • Posner Center for International Development
  • Share and Care Nepal
  • Strength in Peers
  • The West Virginia HUB
  • The Pendeba Society
  • Turnrow Appalachian Farm Collective
  • West Virginia Department of Agriculture
  • West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition
  • West Virginia Maple Syrup Producers Association
  • West Virginia Nonprofit Association

SUPPORTING PARTNERS:

  • Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
  • Flora Family Fund
  • IEEE | SmartVillage
  • International Community Foundation
  • Microsoft AI for Earth
  • Natural Capital Investment Fund | VC2
  • Nick Simons Foundation
  • Northeast Sustainable Agriculture, Research & Education
  • ON Semiconductor
  • Rockefeller Family Fund
  • RS Group
  • Shelby Collum Davis Charitable Fund
  • The One Foundation
  • USDA Agricultural Marketing Services
  • Van Tse Zung Charitable Trust
Chris Roper - Future Generations University

Chris Roper, Chief Academic Officer

For more information contact Chris: chris.roper@future.edu