Ongoing Projects of QIF
Quaker Institute for the Future is a network organization that plans and coordinates research projects; some of these activities are place-based, and some are conducted by email, conference calls, and Zoom meetings. Some projects combine all three levels of communication.
In typical projects, participants bring together available information necessary for dealing with the research questions identified. With analysis and discernment, a synthesis of understanding is created that will help advance knowledge, witness, and action on the issues of concern. Participants have engaged with each other in various configurations for the creation of books, reports, position papers, videos, workshops, and conferences (see Publications page).
Click here for a PDF brochure on QIF’s activities.
The Summer Research Seminars bring participants together to share their ongoing work and benefit from collective discernment on issues of concern. Seminars have been held in Bar Harbor, Maine, Berkeley, California, Durango, Colorado, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Denver, Colorado, Ithaca, New York, and West Falmouth, Massachusetts. The Summer Research Seminar was successfully held via Zoom in 2020, which enabled a larger number of associates to participate.
The Circles of Discernment program facilitates the creation of small study groups that research and analyze particular themes and concerns. Groups may be based in one or more Friends Meetings or in a regional location, or they may work through email, conference calls, and Zoom meetings. The goal of a CoD is sometimes to produce a Focus Book publication or other text that informs readers on a critical issue, and helps equip them for witness and action. “Click here for a listing of specific CoDs which have been completed or are in progress.”
QIF Focus Books publish the manuscripts produced by CoDs and by individual authors on themes that address the Institute’s concerns.
QIF Youth Grants for Activist/Researchers support people 35 and younger in discerning a moral calling or spiritual leading. Support includes clearness meetings over a period of several months along with $500 to be used in whatever way is most helpful. It also includes support in finding Co-sponsoring organizations to arrange an appropriate venue for sharing the results of the discernment and exploring ways to follow up on it in academic study, community based projects, or whatever avenue best responds to the leading discerned.
You can learn about past projects on the History page.