National Civic Review Summer Ed. – Access Code Included

The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, released the National Civic Review (NCR) Summer 2021 edition and  NCDD members receive a digital copy of NCR for free! (Find the access code below.). This esteemed quarterly journal offers insights and examples of civic engagement and deliberative governance from around the country. Thanks to Rebecca Trout, NCL’s Program Director for All-America City Award & Communications, for sharing this announcement with the NCDD network!

Friendly reminder that the League is always seeking articles for NCR on community-based examples of civic engagement, public deliberation, co-production, and democratic innovation – more info here.


National Civic Review Summer Edition 2021 – Access Code: NCDD21

The summer issue of the National Civic Review celebrates cities that are making progress on addressing challenges such as racial equity, health equity and community resilience. Review authors offer insightful ideas on measuring the value of public participation, engaging urban residents through block clubs, promoting public trust with better service delivery and digital communication, and the most effective ways of seeking input from youthful residents. Former Missoula Mayor and Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives Dan Kemmis offers his ideas on what a small “d” democratic renewal movement might look like in the 21st Century.

You can access this edition by going directly to the table of contents and entering your access code: NCDD21.

One of the Nation’s Oldest and Most Respected Journals of Civic Affairs
Its cases studies, reports, interviews and essays help communities learn about the latest developments in collaborative problem-solving, civic engagement, local government innovation and democratic governance. Some of the country’s leading doers and thinkers have contributed articles to this invaluable resource for elected officials, public managers, nonprofit leaders, grassroots activists, and public administration scholars seeking to make America’s communities more inclusive, participatory, innovative and successful.

Community Solutions for Advancing Health Equity in NYC

Public Agenda is hosting an upcoming webinar that we encourage you to join – Equitable and Inclusive Engagement: Community Solutions for Advancing Health Equity in NYC on Wednesday, August 18, 2021 from 1:00 PM to 2:15 PM Eastern, 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM Pacific. Thanks to Nicole Cabral, Public Agenda’s Associate Director of NY Engagement Programs, for sharing this announcement with the NCDD network! Learn more below and register here.


Equitable and Inclusive Engagement: Community Solutions for Advancing Health Equity in NYC

Public Agenda would like to invite you to a free webinar on August 18, 2021, led by our Associate Director of NY Engagement Programs, Nicole Cabral. Nicole will be speaking with Dr. Alyson Myers, Medical Director of Inpatient Diabetes at North Shore University Hospital, and community advocate, Lisa Foster, about how health care providers, policymakers, and residents are advancing health equity in New York City.

While this conversation will be focused on health equity in the NYC area, we believe the conversation will resonate in other communities as well. Feel free to share this information with your networks.

We hope you can join us on August 18th – You can register here!

Join three New York-based women of color as they discuss health equity, the social determinants of health, and culturally competent care from the perspective of the doctor, researcher, and patient and caregiver. Nicole Cabral, Associate Director of NY Engagement Programs at Public Agenda, will lead a very important conversation with Dr. Alyson Myers, Medical Director of Inpatient Diabetes at North Shore University Hospital, and Lisa Foster, Community Advocate, on how health care providers, policymakers, and residents are advancing health equity in New York City.

Dr. Alyson Myers is the Medical Director of Inpatient Diabetes at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York. She also is an Associate Professor at the David and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. Myers is a sought-after speaker in both academia and her community. In February 2021, she gave Endocrinology Grand Rounds at the Mayo Clinic on the topic of Diabetes and COVID-19: Tales from the Epicenter. Dr. Myers also co-hosts a biweekly webinar, Corona Conversations in the Black and Brown Community, that reaches hundreds of viewers internationally.

Serving as a reviewer for numerous journals including Minerva Endocrinologica, Journal of Affective Disorders and Diabetes Care, she is also an active member of both the Endocrine Society and the American Diabetes Association. In 2021, Dr. Myers was re-elected as a three-year member of the ABIM Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Board. In 2019 she was awarded as Doctor of the Year by the Professional Organization of Women in Excellence Recognized (POWER) and with the Salzman Award for Quality from the Department of Medicine, Northwell Health. In September 2020, she was recognized by the Department of Medicine for Women in Medicine Month.

Nicole Cabral is the Associate Director for New York Engagement Programs at Public Agenda. She manages the Public Engagement team in the development and execution of projects on a variety of local and national issues.

New Essential Partners’ Dialogue Guide on Race in America

NCDD sponsor organization, Essential Partners, recently released their new comprehensive dialogue guide titled, Race in America. This guide is designed to support community conversations on race; including instructions, a facilitator guide, and several case studies on racial dialogues happening in the U.S. You can learn more about the guide in the post below and download the guide for free via EP’s site here.


Race in America: A Dialogue Guide

Informed by decades of experience, Race in America: A Dialogue Guide will provide a roadmap for you to lead courageous, constructive conversations about race in your community.

Essential Partners has collaborated with grassroots groups, activists, schools, faith institutions, and communities across the United States to make new conversations about race possible. Recent projects include:

  • Dialogues between police and Black community members in Raleigh, NC
  • Community dialogues about faith, race, and ethnicity in Columbia, MD
  • Dialogues among BIPOC educators about the dual strains of COVID and BLM
  • A set of student-led race dialogues at a secondary school in Cary, NC

This guide contains everything you need to hold three dialogues: one for an all-white group, one for an inter-racial group, and one for a group composed of participants who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC).

The Guide contains an introduction to EP’s theory and approach, step-by-step instructions to design and lead a dialogue, a complete facilitator script, as well as tips for those new to this kind of facilitation.

Find the original version of this on Essential Partners’ site at: www.whatisessential.org/race-in-america-a-dialogue-guide.

Read Winter Edition and Contribute to National Civic Review!

With Presidents’ Day this coming Monday, we have some great reading for our network to dig into over this holiday weekend! The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, released the 2020 Winter Edition of the National Civic Review (NCR) and  NCDD members receive a digital copy of NCR for free! (Find the access code below.). This esteemed quarterly journal offers insights and examples of civic engagement and deliberative governance from around the country.

Friendly reminder that the League is always seeking articles for NCR on community-based examples of civic engagement, public deliberation, co-production, and democratic innovation – more info here! Submissions for the Spring 2021 edition of NCR are due March 15th, and Summer edition submissions are due by July 15th. You can read about NCR in the post below and find it on NCL’s site here.


National Civic Review Winter Edition — Access Code: NCDD21

With a deadly pandemic, an economic crisis, events highlighting racial inequity and a political crisis, 2020 was a year of hardship and turmoil for America’s communities. As we begin a new year, the National Civic Review offers these unique perspectives on how the public, private, and nonprofit sectors can work together on innovative strategies to promote civic renewal, community resilience, and individual well-being.

You can access this edition by going directly to the table of contents and entering your access code (NCDD21) when prompted.

One of the Nation’s Oldest and Most Respected Journals of Civic Affairs

Its cases studies, reports, interviews and essays help communities learn about the latest developments in collaborative problem-solving, civic engagement, local government innovation and democratic governance. Some of the country’s leading doers and thinkers have contributed articles to this invaluable resource for elected officials, public managers, nonprofit leaders, grassroots activists, and public administration scholars seeking to make America’s communities more inclusive, participatory, innovative and successful.

Civvys Nominations Accepted Until Friday December 4th

ICYMI The 2020 American Civic Collaboration Awards (The Civvys) are accepting nominations until Friday, December 4th. The Civvys, celebrate best practices in civic collaboration that put community and nation before party, ideology and narrow interests. These annual awards are organized by NCDD member org, The Bridge Alliance Education, Big Tent Nation, and the National Conference on Citizenship. Read the details in the post below and find more information on the main website; and most importantly, make sure you nominate those outstanding efforts of civic collaboration making impacts in local, national and youth communities!


THE CIVVYS: The American Civic Collaboration Awards

Celebrating Partnerships that Strengthen America

The 2020 Civvys are here – submit nominations here!

In its fourth year (and what a year!) the American Civic Collaboration Awards will continue to highlight outstanding initiatives working to collaborate across divides at the national, local and youth levels. In light of the events of this year that have gripped our nation – from the spread of a deadly virus to the murder of George Floyd to a highly polarized election season – the 2020 Civvys Awards will focus more pointedly on those efforts at the national, local and youth levels that work toward greater equity, diversity and inclusion.

An esteemed panel of civic leaders will review the submissions to designate finalists and winners. The 2020 Civvys Winners will be announced in a livestreamed, virtual ceremony in March 2021.

Sign up for our email list so you don’t miss any updates!

The Civvys celebrate best practices in civic collaboration that put community and nation before party, ideology and narrow interests.

Since its inaugural year, the Civvys have highlighted outstanding efforts of civic collaboration making impacts in National, Local and Youth communities.

Award Categories

National: These projects are nationwide in scope and audience.

Local: These projects are designed to serve a local, state or regional community.

Youth: These projects have a focus on children, teenagers or young adults.

Criteria

We are looking for a range of projects, programs and people that use civic collaboration best practices to achieve real results in facilitating dialogue, enabling cross-partisan action, or putting civility and community above ideology. Here are our core criteria:

Collaborative practices. To what extent does this work use civic collaboration best practices to achieve results? What groups, expertise or areas are they bringing together afresh?

Impact. Who has this work had an impact on, and in what ways?

Scalability. Is this work something that can easily be expanded to have a greater impact? Is it something that can appeal across geographic regions, or be used to effect change in other civics topics or challenges?

Equity and Inclusion: Does this initiative make strides toward creating a more just, equitable and inclusive America?

In addition, the Civvys celebrates programs and people that:

  • Engages a representative and diverse set of stakeholders
  • Cultivates civility and mutual respect
  • Creates meaningful shared goals for those involved, using the process of co-creation
  • Provides effective facilitation and supports dialogue throughout the process
  • Develops or utilizes metrics to measure outcomes

You can read the original version of this information on the Civvy’s site at www.civvys.org/.

Submit 2021 All-America City Award Letter of Intent by 12/1

ICYMI NCDD member org, The National Civic League, is now accepting Letters of Intent for the 2021 All-America City Award (AAC2021). For over 70 years, the All-America City Award has recognized communities that leverage civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local issues. Every year communities from across the country compete for the All-America City Award, telling the story of their community and their work. This coming year, AAC2021 will be a robust virtual event, lifting up communities’ work related to the theme “Building Equitable and Resilient Communities”. Submit Letter of Intent by December 1st and save $100 on your 2021 application fee. Join the free informational webinar this coming Monday, November 23rd from 12-1pm Pacific, 3-4 Eastern, to learn more about the AAC award program – register here!

Read more about the 2021 All-America City Awards in post below and find more information on NCL’s site here.


Since 1949, the National Civic League has designated over 500 communities as All-America Cities for their outstanding civic accomplishments. The Award, bestowed yearly on 10 communities, recognizes the work of communities in using inclusive civic engagement to address critical issues and create stronger connections among residents, businesses and nonprofit and government leaders.

The 2021 All-America City theme is “Building Equitable and Resilient Communities.” The 2021 All-America City Awards will recognize communities that have worked to improve equity and resilience. Equity is the fabric that allows communities to achieve broad-based economic prosperity and other goals. Resilience enables communities to face challenging times by not only preserving what makes their community great but adapting and growing stronger. Both qualities depend on inclusive civic engagement.

The need for equity and resilience has become more obvious in 2020, as communities have dealt with a global pandemic and racial bias incidents in law enforcement. Those communities with more equity and resilience have been more successful in combatting the pandemic and making the needed changes to improve the racial equity of law enforcement and other city services.

All-America City applicants for 2021 will be asked to discuss the strength of their civic capital—the formal and informal relationships, networks and capacities they use to make decisions and solve problems—and to provide examples of community-driven projects that have adapted and transformed the community to be more equitable and resilient.

Finalists are announced in March and invited to assemble a community team to present at the All-America City Event in June. Teams of residents; nonprofit, business, and government leaders; and young people from communities across the country will share insights with peers, learn from national thought-leaders, and present the story of their work to a jury of nationally recognized civic leaders. The transformational experience equips, inspires and supports leaders and communities to achieve more than they ever believed possible.

The All-America City Award shines a spotlight on the incredible work taking place in communities across the country. By celebrating the best in local innovation, civic engagement and cross-sector collaboration, the All-America City Awards remind us of the potential within every community to tackle tough issues and create real change.

We encourage you to learn more about the All-America City Award event on the National Civic League site at: www.nationalcivicleague.org/america-city-award/how-to-apply/.

National Civic Review Fall Edition Recently Released with Kettering Foundation

NCDD member org, The National Civic League released the 2020 Fall Edition of the National Civic Review, published in collaboration with NCDD member, the Kettering Foundation. This esteemed quarterly journal offers insights and examples of civic engagement and deliberative governance from around the country. Friendly reminder that NCDD members receive the digital copy of the National Civic Review for free! (Find the access code below.) We strongly encourage our members to check out this great resource and there is an open invite for NCDD members to contribute to the NCR. You can read about NCR in the post below and find it on NCL’s site here.


National Civic Review Fall Edition 2020 – Access Code: NCDD20

As this edition of the National Civic Review goes out, our nation is approaching a crucial presidential election, dealing with a terrible pandemic and grappling with vexing racial disparities. An article by Martín Carcasson discusses approaching the challenge of public deliberation as a “wicked problem,” in other words, an issue or challenge with conflicting underlying values and no technical solution. Perhaps at this juncture we are in a wicked time, a period with similar attributes of conflicting values and complexity. This edition of the Review was published in collaboration with  Charles F. Kettering Foundation. We hope the articles in the edition will provide some ideas and tools to rally communities across the country to address complex issues and thrive.

You can access this edition by going directly to the table of contents and entering your access code (NCDD20) when prompted.

One of the Nation’s Oldest and Most Respected Journals of Civic Affairs

Its cases studies, reports, interviews and essays help communities learn about the latest developments in collaborative problem-solving, civic engagement, local government innovation and democratic governance. Some of the country’s leading doers and thinkers have contributed articles to this invaluable resource for elected officials, public managers, nonprofit leaders, grassroots activists, and public administration scholars seeking to make America’s communities more inclusive, participatory, innovative and successful.

Exciting Updates from the Tufts’ Tisch College of Civic Life

We received this announcement from NCDDer Peter Levine at Tufts’ Tisch College of Civic Life, sharing many exciting updates happening at Tisch that we wanted to help boost to the larger NCDD network. Don’t miss out on the next announcement and sign up for this newsletter via the Frontiers of Democracy Updates Email List linked here. Do you have information you’d like to share with the NCDD network? Then check out this page to learn how to boost information with the expansive coalition.


Update about Frontiers of Democracy and Civic Initiatives at Tufts

Via Peter Levine on email list for the annual Frontiers of Democracy conference at Tufts’ Tisch College of Civic Life.

RE: Frontiers of Democracy conference and/or the Summer Institute of Civic Studies at Tufts’ Tisch College of Civic Life. We canceled both of those events in 2020 due to COVID-19. We will make decisions early in 2021 about whether to hold them in-person or to offer online programming instead next summer. The dates for Frontiers will be June 25-27, 2021; the Summer Institute will be June 21-25.

In the meantime, we wanted to update you about several projects involving Tisch College that may interest you.

CivicGreen is a new collaborative project (and website) meant to enrich our democratic imagination and to expand our policy options for sustainable, resilient, and just responses to climate crisis in the United States in the coming decades. It locates civic engagement at the heart of work that needs to occur in communities of all kinds, across cities and regions, and among professional and other institutional partners that are key to solving problems for the long run. CivicGreen is fundamentally about civic democracy at the intersection of green strategies to address our ecological and climate crises and to build healthy and sustainable communities for all.

Equity in America is a new online tool that allows anyone to explore dimensions of equity and inequity in the USA and generate easily-interpreted statistics and graphics. It is meant to inform public debate and deliberation (including in classrooms). The site also presents “research briefs” on current topics, including COVID-19 and policing.

Political scientists may be interested in the new Civic Engagement Section of the American Political Science Association, which is open to all members of APSA, and the APSA’s Institute of Civically Engaged Research, which is also held annually at Tisch College.

In the domain of k-12 civic education, please stay tuned for Educating for American Democracy: A Roadmap for Excellence in History and Civics Education for All Learners, a major project of iCivics, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, Tisch College’s CIRCLE (The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement), and Tisch College itself.

For youth voting and civic engagement and college students’ political engagement, please follow CIRCLE and the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education.

The Civic Studies Major at Tufts is going strong and offers a distinctive mix of theoretical, empirical, and applied courses.

Free NCDD Online Engagement Showcase Tomorrow – 9/29!

Did you know?! NCDD is hosting our first ever Online Engagement Showcase and it’s happening tomorrow! We’ve teamed up with the wonderful Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University to host this exciting free event happening on Tuesday, September 29th from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern/10:00 AM-12:00 PM Pacific on Zoom and QiqoChat. RSVP at this link in order to save your spot!

The Online Engagement Showcase will feature synchronous tools and platforms that can help you with your virtual engagement. In this uniquely formatted event, you will have the opportunity to learn about numerous platforms in a booth format in QiqoChat, where participants can learn more about each tool they choose to. Presenters will be available in private zoom rooms for participants to engage with, ask questions, and learn more!

Some of the presenters will include:

  • Axis Workshops
  • Common Ground for Action
  • Ethelo
  • GroupMap
  • QiqoChat
  • And more!

Join us for this first event in what we hope will be a recurring series featuring these and other platforms and tools in the future! To register go to https://bit.ly/3gXkllb – this will take you directly to QiqoChat.

Our event flyer is linked here – please use this to spread the word with your networks: Showcase-Announcement!

NCDD is extremely grateful for the partnership of the Center for Public Deliberation on this event. We’ve been working on a resource to share of the different tools and platforms out there as well – stay tuned!

NCDD Member Discount Available on TPC’s IAP2 Trainings

Now is a great time to strengthen your D&D skills and knowledge, which is why we are excited to announce the upcoming training schedule for NCDD member org, The Participation Company. TPC offers certification in the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)‘s model, and dues-paying NCDD members get a discount on registration! You can read more about the trainings in the TCP announcement below and learn more here.


The Participation Company’s 2020-2021 Training Events

Completely revamped in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, TPC is pleased to announce that we are ready to offer on-line courses:

The International Association for Public Participation’s flagship Foundations Program.  Module One introduces a proven method for planning effective public participation and Module Two equips students with 40+ diverse methods for accomplishing engagement objectives.  Both courses are delivered in half-day sessions full of interactive exercises and opportunities to get to work with your fellow students virtually.  Class size, as always, is limited to 25 students to provide the maximum opportunity to learn.

IAP2’s Foundations in Public Participation (9- 4 hour on-line sessions) Certificate Program:

  • Planning for Effective Public Participation (5- 4 hour on-line sessions)
  • Techniques for Effective Public Participation (4- 4 hour on-line sessions)*

*The Planning module is a prerequisite to Techniques module

  • PLANNING  SEP 28 – OCT 2; TECHNIQUES OCT 5 – 8 
  • PLANNING NOV 2 – 6;  TECHNIQUES NOV 9 – 12    
  • PLANNING NOV 30 – DEC 4;  TECHNIQUES DEC 7 – 10  
  • PLANNING JAN 25 – 29;   TECHNIQUES FEB 1 – 4
  • PLANNING FEB 22 – 26;  TECHNIQUES MAR 1 – 4
  • PLANNING APR 12 – 16;   TECHNIQUES APR 19 – 22
  • PLANNING MAY 10 – 14;  TECHNIQUES MAY 17 – 20

The International Association for Public Participation’s Strategies for Dealing with Opposition and Outrage in Public Participation. This four (4)- 3 hour on-line sessions of conflict resolution training workshop builds on IAP2’s global best practices in public involvement and the work of Dr. Peter Sandman, offered in partnership with the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2).

IAP2’s Strategies for Dealing with Opposition and Outrage in Public Participation (4- 3.0 hour on-line sessions)

  • STRATEGIES NOV 16 -19  

The Participation Company’s new course on Building Public Trust in Government
This two (2)- 3.0 hour on-line workshop will help you and your team (re)build trust with oftentimes cynical, skeptical and oppositional citizens. Attendees will better understand and manage interactions with highly suspicious and skeptical citizens who don’t believe in government authority or the value of public service professionals. Learn more about the course or choose your date below:

TPC’s Building Public Trust in Government:

  • BUILD TRUST   OCT 20 – 21  

For more detailed information: https://theparticipationcompany.com/training/

The Participation Company (TPC) offers discounted rates to members of AICP, ICMA, IAP2, and NCDD.
AICP members can earn Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for these courses.