The Center for Engaged Foresight is now an official organizational member of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF), a global community of futurists advancing professional foresight. It was founded in 2002 to validate the competencies of emerging futurists, and to enhance their professional excellence.

Futures thinking is not about crystal ball gazing or prophesizing to predict the future but rather it is a transdisciplinary or meta-approach to studying possible, probable, and preferable futures. Futures thinking is a rational, creative, reflective, and contemplative process of engaging citizens to be aware of and question their ways of knowing the future to create contingencies, alternatives, and strategies to