Thriving Futures 2100
Connected and Regenerative Education for the 22nd Century
Thriving Futures 2100 is a global education initiative dedicated to developing practical pathways toward regenerative communities and economies.
The project brings together educators, researchers, schools, and community organizations to design and test learning programs that reconnect people with land, cooperation, and long-term stewardship.
A Networked Improvement Community
Thriving Futures 2100 operates as a Networked Improvement Community (NIC), where partners across regions work together to refine educational methods, evaluate outcomes, and share learning. This approach allows programs to evolve through real-world practice while maintaining a coherent framework that links youth education, community learning, and advanced stewardship training.
At the center of the initiative are the Global Care Packs programs, which use a combination of narrative learning, experiential practice, and cooperative community engagement to cultivate the knowledge and skills needed for a regenerative future.
NIC Initiating Team
Dr. David Krieger EdD
International Education
Project Director
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Dr. Serafina Appel
PhD Philosophy
Network Manager
Hwiemtun/Fred Roland
Cultural Ambassador & Elder
Program Advisor
Tashmyra Crowe MEd
Montessori teacher
Program Director
What Makes Thriving Futures 2100 Unique
Thriving Futures 2100 brings together education, research, and community practice in a single learning system. Rather than treating environmental, social, and economic challenges as separate issues, the project approaches them as interconnected questions about how human societies organize knowledge, cooperation, and stewardship.
Several features distinguish this initiative:
A Shared Narrative Framework
All programs are guided by the River System of Human Time. This narrative provides a common way for learners to understand the historical pathways that have shaped human societies and the choices communities face today.
Experiential and Narrative Learning Combined
Each program pairs direct experience on the land with reflective learning and dialogue. This approach, called Experiential Tracking and Narrative Tracking, ensures that practical skills and conceptual understanding develop together.
A Networked Improvement Community
The project operates through collaboration among schools, universities, Indigenous partners, and community organizations. Programs are continually tested, evaluated, and improved through shared research and practical experimentation across regions.
Learning Across the Lifespan
The Global Care Packs system connects youth programs, community learning, and advanced stewardship training. Participants can enter at different stages of life and continue developing skills, knowledge, and responsibility over time.
The Program Texts
Connect and Thrive
Community Program Text
This book functions as a field guide for community teams, mentors, and schools.
It introduces the River System of Human Time, the Seven Directions Compass, and the two linked learning paths: Narrative Tracking and the Experiential Tracking
The book shows how programs run through land routines, group agreements, and projects organized around three domains of learning:
Nature Connection and Earth Regeneration
Prosocial Connection and Community Regeneration
Universal Connection and Human Regeneration
Thriving Futures 2100
University Course Text
This volume presents the same framework in a course format used to train educators and program stewards.
It explains how narrative and experiential learning are integrated, how the Seven Directions Compass organizes reflection and planning, and how programs can be evaluated and improved across regions.
Together the two books form one integrated system:
The community text supports program delivery.
The university text supports research, training, and improvement.
The River systemof Human Time
The Narrative Spine of the Programs
All Global Care Packs learning programs follow a shared narrative framework called The River System of Human Time.
The river story traces how human societies developed core capacities such as cooperation, tracking, and multigenerational memory.
From this source, two cultural streams emerge.
The Disconnected Stream emphasizes expansion, hierarchy, and control. These systems drive many of today’s ecological and social crises.
The Regenerative Stream emphasizes relationship, reciprocity, and repair. It offers living examples of societies that maintain balance between human communities and ecosystems.
These streams converge in the present moment, described as the Anthropocene Delta, where past choices meet and future pathways open.
Beyond the delta lie three domains of regeneration: Nature, Prosocial, Universal.
1. The Glacial Source – common capacities and evolved abilities
2. The Divergent and Convergent Streams – knowledge systems and cultural streams
3. The Anthropocene Delta – experiencing and tracking the expanded present
4. The Confluence at the Bay – the 3 domains of knowledge, skills, experiences
5. The Nature Education Island – nature connection and Earth regeneration
6. The Prosocial Education Island – prosocial connection and community regeneration
7. The Universal Education Island – universal connection and human regeneration
The Seven Direction Compass
The Seven Direction Compass organizes learning, reflection, and action within all Global Care Packs programs.
Three directions correspond to the three Education Islands.
Four directions organize learning in relation to time, attention, materials, and pattern recognition.
The compass integrates the Narrative Tracking Path with the Experiential Tracking Path so that story and practice reinforce each other.
Indigneous Roots
Directional learning in the program draws inspiration from Indigenous teachings shared by mentors including Lakota Elder Gilbert Walking Bull and educators from the Wilderness Awareness School.
These teachings are respected as cultural and spiritual traditions. Within Global Care Packs they are used carefully as relational learning tools.
