PATH

What is a PATH?

PATH  is a creative planning tool that utilises graphic facilitation to collect information and develop positive future plans. PATH  goes directly to the future and implements backwards planning to create a step by step path to a desirable future. (Inclusion Press, 2000). These tools were developed by Jack Pearpoint, Marsha Forest and John O’Brien to help marginalised people be included in society and to enable people to develop a shared vision for the future. 

PATH  can be used with individuals and their circle of support, families teams and organisations. 

PATH is a creative planning tool that uses both process and graphic facilitation to create a shared vision of a positive future for individuals, families, teams and whole organisations. PATH draws on people’s ability to visualise different futures and to plan backwards from a future vision or dream and tell stories about how that vision can come into being.

The PATH session will be led by two trained facilitators – a process facilitator who guides people through the stages and ensures that the person is at the centre throughout, and a graphic facilitator who creates a large graphic record of each of the steps in the PATH.

The key outcomes of a PATH are as follows:

• A shared vision within the group of a positive future for the pathfinder
• A commitment to invest in moving towards this future
• A sense of how to do this

This tool, like MAP, uses both process and graphic facilitation to help a group develop a shared vision and plan what they will need to do together to move towards that vision.