In the lead up to the forum, Australian Future Directions Forum (AFDF) participants and additional young Indigenous leaders were encouraged to devise strategies to progress this aspiration.
The Forum itself served two main purposes:
- It provided a national event for many of the young leaders from the 2006 AFDF to deliver the results of their first 15 months work promoting reconciliation.
- It provided a unique opportunity for the AFDF leaders to join with national Indigenous leaders as a coalition to develop and implement – collectively and as individuals – a 10 year action plan designed to close the 17 year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The One Future Forum was the first in a perpetual program of such forums that will continue over intervals of 5 years. This cycle of forums will seek to engage a new generation of 40 leaders – 20 Indigenous and 20 non-Indigenous to commit to closing the 17-year gap. The overarching strategy of this project is to transmit the experience and learning gained by previous participants who have developed their action plans and to ensure this important task is handed over to the new leaders.
