Every year Team Haverhill hosts Possible Dreams, an upbeat community conversation that celebrates Haverhill’s progress, elicits community aspirations, and fosters new connections.
Team Haverhill’s annual community visioning event reflects and discusses the continuing revitalization of our city. This community conversation provides an opportunity to meet new people, discover more that Haverhill has to offer and shape the future of our community by sharing and incubating new ideas.
Possible Dreams 2026 will take place on Monday, March 9, 2026, 7:00 PM at the Hartleb Technology Center at Northern Essex Community College.
If you have an idea or “a dream” that will can make a positive impact on Haverhill and are willing to share and grow it with the help of the community, in-person at Possible Dreams 2026, please click here!
This unique community conversation focuses on ideas submitted by Haverhill residents, and what steps we can take together to make them happen for Haverhill.
Ideas collected from the community will become the subjects of upbeat, lively conversations at Possible Dreams 2026. Attendees come together to find ways that they can contribute… with a thought, suggestion, a connection or resource, or with their time in helping to plan or volunteering to help a project that they find interesting. For an overview of some past ideas discussed at previous Possible Dreams events, please visit the “Past Events” section at the bottom of this page.
If you have any questions about this year’s event, or how to get involved, please email info@teamhaverhill.org or call 978-228-1060.
Thank you to everyone who participates in Possible Dreams!
What is Possible Dreams?
Possible Dreams is an engaging, resident-driven visioning event, very unique to Haverhill. Think lively brainstorming session – but with the whole city invited to participate. This positive and powerful community-wide conversation is led by Team Haverhill’s Lisa Marzilli. The evening consists of small group discussions focused on life in Haverhill and what is needed for our city to thrive in the future. Ideas from the small group discussions are then highlighted and shared with the room full of city residents in hopes of harnessing energy to realize impactful ‘dreams’.
A brief summary of Possible Dreams 2025 is available here: Possible Dreams 2025 Summary Report.
What can you expect?
As an Idea Submitter:
Idea Submitters should expect to do a one-minute pitch of their idea to the room of attendees at the event.
With the help of a Team Haverhill volunteer, Idea Submitters are also expected to lead a small group discussion around their idea, and explore ways to turn the idea into a reality for our city with other interested attendees.
Sharing your idea is an opportunity to present it to over 150 active Haverhill residents and receive direct feedback, connections, and positive support to help find the next steps to move your idea forward.
All Idea Submitters will receive pre-event support from Team Haverhill to ensure that they get the most out of sharing their idea.
As an Attendee:
Attendees should expect to explore, brainstorm and support presented projects that interest them.
All attendees are expected to participate on a basic level including joining small group discussions for individual projects and helping to move the idea forward. This could be simply by engaging thoughtfully in a conversation, to sharing specific experience or knowledge, networking or connecting with others that could support an idea, volunteering time, suggesting funding sources, proposing meaningful collaborations, or providing a different perspective that could be helpful. Sometimes even the smallest contributions make significant long-term impacts!
Attendees do not need to bring anything or prepare anything in advance of the event.
For more information email info@teamhaverhill.org.
Also, don’t forget to sign-up for our monthly newsletter!
Past Events
To see what was discussed at Possible Dreams in previous years, please view:
Possible Dreams 2025 – Summary Report, Possible Dreams 2024 Summary Report, Possible Dreams 2021: Moving Forward Together – Summary Report, Possible Dreams 2020 – Summary Report and the Possible Dreams 2020 – Full Report, the Possible Dreams 2019 Action/Idea groups – and Comments, the Possible Dreams 2018 focus group highlight videos: Positives of Living in Haverhill, Challenges of Living in Haverhill, and Closing Messages and the Possible Dreams 2018 Action Steps. You can also view our Possible Dreams 2017 Meeting Notes, Possible Dreams 2016 Meeting Notes, Possible Dreams 2015 -Topic-Group-Reports, as well as our compilation of results from 2008-2014. One important outcome from Possible Dreams 2014 was the first Haverhill Volunteer Expo. With initial leadership from the Haverhill YMCA, a consortium of four local nonprofits organized the September event, which featured volunteer opportunities with two dozen exhibiting organizations.
Several past Possible Dreams events led to major Team Haverhill initiatives: advocacy for single-stream curbside recycling, revitalization of the Haverhill Farmers Market, and the annual Team Haverhill’s River Ruckus festival.
Perhaps most important of all, the aspirations that are shared at Possible Dreams provide encouragement and guidance to all of Haverhill’s leaders, businesses, institutions, and volunteer groups, as we play our various roles in making Haverhill a strong, vibrant, and livable community.
Our year always starts with the Possible Dreams event. It’s a really upbeat, lively community conversation about the things we can accomplish as a city if we all work together. Alice Mann, President of Team Haverhill
