Small-Town Regeneration Insights #7
When communities lead with vision, planning becomes a partnership, not just a process.
What do you love about your town? In Piketberg, Senekal and Modimolle, this simple question opened the door to a deeper conversation about the future.
Why Visioning Comes First: Setting Direction That Belongs to the Whole Town
Regeneration doesn’t begin with fixing potholes or planning new buildings. It begins with something quieter, but more powerful: a shared sense of direction. In the Small-Town Regeneration Strategy (STR), that direction starts with visioning. Not the abstract kind, but something rooted in people’s real hopes and day-to-day experience.
Phase 2 of the STR asks: before we start mapping assets or prioritising projects, can we first understand where the community wants to go—and why?
What Is a Community Vision?
A community vision is not a corporate slogan. It’s a clear, honest reflection of what residents value and where they want to take their town. It offers a picture of the future that includes physical improvements, but also relationships, daily rhythms, and a shared sense of pride.
A good vision does four things:
- It’s realistic and aspirational, grounded, but hopeful.
- It reflects shared values and priorities, not just individual interests.
- It acts as a framework for decisions and planning.
- It inspires unity and purpose across different groups.
“It’s less about solving every problem and more about naming what matters most. When that’s clear, the rest has something to stand on.”
How Is a Vision Created?
Developing a vision isn’t a technical exercise; it’s a social and participatory one. In the STR, towns use a mix of visioning workshops, one-on-one interviews, and community mapping to gather ideas and insights.
Some of the most common questions used in these sessions include:
- What do we want to be different in 20 years?
- What do we love that should stay the same?
- What kind of people do we want to be?
- What values should guide our choices?
Participants share, vote, and reflect. Responses are then summarised into a vision statement supported by community goals and principles. This statement doesn’t need to be long. But it needs to feel true.
️What Methods Are Used?
Communities are made up of many layers, and so the process must reflect that.
Broad-based tools (like online surveys or open visioning events) help reach the wider public.
Targeted engagements, like interviews with youth, small business owners, and senior citizens, ensure that quieter or underrepresented voices are also part of the process.
Deliberative workshops provide a space where these voices can be brought together to find common ground.
In Piketberg, for example, the CTT hosted smaller, informal gatherings alongside larger meetings. During one of the early sessions, it became clear that some of the older residents didn’t feel heard in the broader workshops. In response, the team hosted a dedicated session for the Seasoned Crew. The conversation surfaced long-held memories and quiet concerns that might otherwise have been missed, reminding everyone that inclusion isn’t just about who is invited, but how comfortable they feel to speak.
Who Makes It Work?
Visioning isn’t a one-team effort. It’s meant to bring together both the technical and the community voices, the Municipal Task Team (MTT) and the Community Task Team (CTT). When that collaboration is missing, the gap shows quickly.
The MTT is responsible for the planning and logistics: setting the dates, booking the venues, managing the process, and ensuring that the work fits into broader municipal planning frameworks. They keep the system side of things running smoothly and ensure that what comes out of the session can be taken forward institutionally.
The CTT makes sure the room is filled with the right people, not just the usual voices, but a wide range of residents who live the reality of the town every day. They help mobilise networks, create a welcoming environment, and facilitate small group conversations that allow people to speak freely and honestly.
While the MTT compiles inputs and prepares reports, the CTT helps make sense of what’s said, interpreting priorities, surfacing patterns, and ensuring the process reflects lived realities. One holds the technical thread, the other the relational one.
| MTT (Municipal Task Team) | CTT (Community Task Team) |
|---|---|
| Plans and organises the session | Mobilises participation and invites local voices |
| Manages logistics and stakeholder coordination | Facilitates small group conversations |
| Compiles input and produces reports | Helps interpret and prioritise feedback |
| Ensures institutional alignment | Ensures inclusivity and representation |
In Senekal, the MTT wasn’t present during visioning at all. While the CTT managed the process, the absence of municipal voices meant that the work wasn’t aligned with formal planning or implementation pathways. That experience reminded us: participation without connection is not enough. Regeneration requires a shared direction and shared ownership.
In Modimolle, we took a different approach. From the outset, the MTT and CTT sat together in a joint session. But instead of jumping straight into drafting a vision, we deliberately held back. We wanted them to experience what happens when there’s no shared direction. What surfaced was frustration, competing priorities, and a sense of being stuck. Only then did we move toward visioning, this time together. That shift made a visible difference in how the teams related, listened, and aligned their efforts going forward.
“Collaboration isn’t something you check off. It’s something you build and it starts with agreeing on where you’re trying to go.”
When done well, visioning doesn’t just set a direction for the town. It lays the groundwork for how people work together along the way.
What Comes Out of the Process?
A visioning exercise delivers more than a document. It offers a direction that feels like it belongs to the people who live there. Typical outcomes include:
- A clear, accessible vision statement
- A set of community goals
- A renewed sense of ownership and motivation
- A basis for Phase 3 work (Design and Resolve)
Sample Vision:
“We see a thriving, inclusive town where everyone has access to opportunity, where our natural and cultural heritage is protected, and where people work together with pride and purpose.”
And this vision doesn’t sit in a report. It becomes the anchor for projects, budget decisions, and collaboration.
💬 Points to Ponder
- Are we dreaming boldly enough to inspire, and practical enough to act?
- Have we created space for all voices, especially those often left out?
- Does our vision reflect our deepest values, not just our current needs?
What We’ve Seen on the Ground
In Modimolle, participants used sticky notes to write down what they wanted for the town. Among the most common words? “Safety,” “clean,” and “jobs.” These simple terms pointed to deeper aspirations, stability, dignity, and hope. The team used them as anchors for the vision, which later shaped how the town prioritised public space improvements and small business support.
In Piketberg, early workshops revealed a strong sense of place and a desire to see the town’s potential unlocked. But what stood out most was a recurring concern: young people lacked meaningful opportunities. As visioning unfolded, the community began to prioritise skills development, not as a side project, but as a core part of their future. That focus would go on to shape later project selection and partnerships.
In Senekal, visioning proved more complex. At first, conversations circled mostly around frustrations with service delivery. But when the process slowed down and residents were invited to reflect more personally, new themes emerged, like a desire for connection, and pride in the town’s natural landscape. These softer insights helped reframe the town’s identity and opened the door to more grounded planning later on.
Practical Tips for Visioning
- Keep sessions under 2 hours. Long meetings lose energy.
- Use visuals and everyday language. People connect better through symbols and stories.
- Don’t force agreement too early. Let differences sit before narrowing.
- Follow up. Share back what was heard. This builds trust and momentum.
- Make it visible. Print the vision and post it in the town hall, taxi rank, clinic, or local school.
What We’re Learning as We Go
- When towns skip visioning, they lose a chance to clarify direction and build unity early.
- The best visioning sessions don’t always feel tidy, but they’re honest.
- The CTT–MTT partnership makes or breaks this step.
- Visioning is not about managing expectations. It’s about opening them up, and then connecting them to what’s possible.
- What’s written down matters. But how it’s written, and by whom, matters more.
Why This Step Matters
Regeneration is not just about what’s built. It’s about what’s believed. When a town has a shared vision crafted by its own people, it gains something deeper than strategy. It gains a compass. Starting with a vision grounds the regeneration process in a shared belief expressed through vision. When a community defines where it wants to go, every plan and project that follows has something solid to stand on.
And in this work, that makes all the difference.
A strong vision doesn’t just describe the future—it invites people to build it together.
For More Information
STR Implementing Agent: CITEPLAN (Pty) Ltd | Technical Manager: Istell Orton-Nightingale at istell@citeplan.net or Communication Contact: Eriva Nanyonjo at eriva@citeplan.net
Project Sponsor: Department of Cooperative Governance | Project Manager: Prabin Govender at prabing@cogta.gov.za or Communication Contact: Moferefere Moloi at mofereferem@cogta.gov.za
