Introducing Grande Lum and his work at the US Dept of Justice’s Community Relations Service

I want to draw your attention to the important work being done by the Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice in communities like Ferguson that are in crisis. The director of the Community Relations Service, Grande Lum, is one of our featured speakers at the 2014 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation coming up in October, and we’re honored to be following his work and to be able to hear from him at the conference.

Grande-LumThe Community Relations Service (CRS) is often called “America’s Peacemaker.” Over the years, CRS has worked with thousands of communities, many of whom came together in crisis and emerged stronger and more unified. CRS delivers four services: mediation of disputes, facilitation of dialogue, training, and consulting.

Their must-see resource page provides tips and best practices for police, schools, community leaders, and others who find themselves at the center of crises revolving around division and inequity.

In an August 18th press release from the Department of Justice on the federal civil rights investigation into the death of Michael Brown, Attorney General Eric Holder highlighted the work of the Community Relations Service in Ferguson, Missouri:

In order to truly begin the process of healing, we must also see an end to the acts of violence in the streets of Ferguson. Those who have been peacefully demonstrating should join with law enforcement in condemning the actions of looters and others seeking to enflame tensions.

To assist on this front, the Department will be dispatching additional representatives from the Community Relations Service, including Director Grande Lum, to Ferguson. These officials will continue to convene stakeholders whose cooperation is critical to keeping the peace.

And an August 20th post on BuzzFeed covers how the mayor of Sanford, Florida (the town where Trayvon Martin was shot not long ago) has urged Feruson to welcome the help of the Justice Department and especially its Community Relations Service, saying it “saved the day” in Sanford.

trayvonprotestTriplett, who is white, was the man in charge a year-and-a-half ago when the killing of Trayvon Martin spiked racial tensions in the area and far beyond. A situation that many expected to explode into violence, didn’t. Peaceful protestors were met with respectful police and public officials.

Triplett credits the the Department of Justice for the calm and in an interview Tuesday he urged Ferguson leaders to embrace the help the feds have to offer. In his town, Triplett said federal officials arrived with experience on how to handle large crowds and engage with protest movements.

They had tips on police tactics, too. “The best thing that you can do is use your mind and your mouth versus an nightstick and a gun. You know, ‘violence breeds violence’ type thing. These guys [Justice Department advisers] have been there, done it, they’re very astute,” Triplett said.

“We on the city side, we fix roads. We make sure your lights turn off and on. We make sure your toilets flush. We cut ribbons for new businesses. So you’ve got to rely on those that know.” Justice Department officials are engaged in Ferguson in full force, with six agencies on the ground in the Missouri town coordinating a federal investigation into the death, monitoring police behavior and trying to build a bridge between authorities and protesters through a previously little-known department branch called the Community Relations Service.

The agency, which has ten regional offices across the country, is specifically designed to diffuse tension after discrimination-charged events and was established as part of the 1964 Civil Rights act. On Wednesday, the head of CRS, Grande Lum, will be in the Justice Department party accompanying Attorney General Eric Holder on his trip to Ferguson.

Holder has been very critical of the police response to protests in Ferguson, and Justice Department officials have pointed to the early involvement of CRS as proof the feds have a better handle on how to deal with the Ferguson protests than local authorities do.

Read the full BuzzFeed article at http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/doj-in-ferguson#1gu9nsk for LOTS more interesting content.

CRS-officesCRS has 10 Regional Directors who supervise conflict resolution specialists (also called conciliation specialists) in regional offices and 4 smaller field offices. These offices are strategically located throughout the country to meet the unique needs of the states and communities they serve.

The Regional Directors are highly trained professional mediators, facilitators, trainers, and consultants who are experienced in bringing together communities in conflict to help them enhance their ability to independently prevent and resolve existing and future concerns.

Regional Directors oversee the regional conflict resolution teams in the development of customized and proactive local solutions. The 10 regional offices are located in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The field offices are located in Miami, Detroit, Houston, and San Francisco. The regional and field offices increase the availability of CRS services to rural communities and aid in rapid deployment during crises.

Grande Lum will be speaking during the closing plenary at the 2014 NCDD conference. Learn more about Grande here, and register today to join us at the conference!

Grande is also a Supporting Member of NCDD, and you can learn more about him on his member page. Also see NCDD’s previous blog post about Top #NCDD Resources for Addressing Racial Conflict & Inequality.

Top #NCDD Resources for Addressing Racial Conflict & Inequality

The NCDD community has a long history and strong track record of helping people address racism, racial tensions and inequity in their communities. Many of our long-time members were drawn to dialogue work during national crises we’re all reminded of as the situation in Ferguson, Missouri plays out, like the 1991 Rodney King trial, and subsequent Los Angeles riots back in 1992.

These days, with social media and 24 hour news at our fingertips, it seems like local crises can become national crises in a heartbeat. The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri is the latest in a long string of incidents that spark outrage in cities where racial tension and inequity is already high, and raise public concern about police treatment of minorities, fairness in the U.S. justice system, media bias, wealth and opportunity gaps, and more.

FacingRacism-coverIn times like these, dialogue is key to helping people come together across divides (power divides, income divides, race divides, political divides) to talk through what’s happening and see if we can agree on steps to take going forward.

I want to point you to some helpful resources on race dialogue developed by NCDD members.

Recently, we’ve shared these top-notch resource compilations from a long-time leader in race dialogue, Everyday Democracy:

In the NCDD Resource Center, where you’ll find nearly 3,000 carefully indexed resources to help you in this important work, it’s worth checking out the 67 resources in our Race Issues tag.

Maggie Potapchuk’s resource-rich website, Racial Equity Tools, is another important destination for those engaging people across racial divides.

And you should certainly utilize the discussion guides that NCDDers have developed around these issues…

  • Racial and Ethnic Tensions: What Should We Do? (NIF Issue Guide)
  • Crime & Punishment: Imagining a Safer Future for All (IF Discussion Guide)
  • Community Dialogue Guide (US DOJ’s Community Relations Service)
  • Fostering Dialogue Across Divides: A Nuts and Bolts Guide (Public Conversations Project)
  • Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation (Everyday Democracy)

In the Resource Center, I found these by utilizing the sidebar search tool that says “I’m Looking For…” and selecting “manuals & guides” for Resource Type (category) and “race issues” under On This Topic (tag).

What do YOU think are the best resources to help people run dialogues on race issues or the other issues being surfaced by the events in Ferguson? Please add them via the comments here.

NIF for the Skilled Facilitator: An NCDD 2014 Pre-Conference Training

Join Craig Paterson of the California NIF Network, Patty Dineen of the National Issues Forums Institute and Pennsylvania NIF and others (TBA) on Thursday, October 16 for a 6-hour workshop on moderating National Issues Forums to your skill set.

NIF-logoThis session, titled NIF for the Skilled Facilitator, is designed for experience facilitators who would like to add National Issues Forums to their répertoire. The aim of this workshop is to expand the use of NIF, grow the NIF network and, of course, add another ‘tool’ to the experienced facilitator’s dialogue and deliberation toolkit.

NIF is known for its amazing issue books and skilled “issue framing,” and for its close relationship with the Kettering Foundation. Check out many NIF resources in NCDD’s Resource Center on NIFI or visit the NIFI site at www.nifi.org for more information.

A modest fee of $25.00 will be charged to cover food and materials. The group will be intentionally kept small, with a maximum of 25 participants.

Please add this to your calendar if you’re interested — and make your travel plans for the 2014 NCDD conference accordingly. (You’ll want to arrive on Wednesday, October 15th if you’re flying in.)  A registration form will be online soon; just keep an eye on the conference schedule page.

Questions about the pre-conference workshop? Contact Nancy Gansneder at njg5w@virginia.edu.

NCDD’s Long-Term Mapping Efforts

Last week, I announced the visual mapping process NCDD is conducting that leads into our national conference in October. I’m excited to say that about 30 graphic recorders have expressed interest in being involved, and that the interviews are going very well so far thanks to our interviewer, Kathryn Thomson!

At and after the conference, we plan to expand the project to more fully map our field in a way that creates a valuable product for all of us.

US-GoogleMap-outlinedWe are interested in creating several maps, or a single map with multiple layers, that can show things like:

  • The geographic reach of people working in dialogue and deliberation, and of their projects and programs
  • The capacities and assets represented in the field–especially in terms of capacity to convene dialogues, capacity to mobilize others to convene dialogues, and assets that could be considered tangible aspects of civic infrastructure (like facilitator training programs, physical and online spaces for convening, etc.)
  • Consultants and facilitators who are available for hire, including information about the topics they have experience with, the methods they have expertise in, and the training programs they’ve participated in. (Note: NCDD has a member map and directory, but we’d like to find a comprehensive tool that combines map and searchable directory features, and collaborate with other networks expand it well beyond NCDD’s membership.)

We are currently looking for help from those who’ve had direct experience with mapping or data visualization tools to share their experience so we can make a well informed decision about which tool or tools to use. Ideally we would like a tool that is easy to use both to create and to understand the output. The tool also has to handle a very large dataset.

Please contact me at sandy@ncdd.org if you’d like to help advise NCDD on this larger mapping project — or add a comment if you have specific ideas or recommendations. Questions that may help guide your response are…

  1. What tool have you used to create network maps?
  2. What do you think it did exceptionally well?
  3. What do you wish it did better?
  4. What tools would you avoid?

And for those of you with mapping experience, please add your name and email to the comments and plan to join me on Friday at 11am on a group brainstorming call to dig further into these questions and mapping technologies!

So many ways to use technology, so many ways to learn at NCDD 2014

Past conference attendees* have approached technology for public engagement, dialogue, and deliberation in so many different ways:

  • Kira is hands-on and pragmatic, interested only in tools that fit into her work, today.
  • Bob’s a skeptic, so it’s tough to convince him that online technology can play a role in his work.
  • Ashante seeks technology that’ll make her dream process a reality.
  • Andrés has just scratched the surface, unsure where to begin.

LaptopsAnd they’ve all found sessions to expand their vision and knowledge at past NCDD conferences.

For all of his skepticism, Bob remembers Steven Clift’s presentation at NCDD’s 2012 conference in Seattle fondly. Clift’s 15 years of experience with email- and web-based community forums, particularly in immigrant and low income communities, and the way Clift’s work has been put to use in communities across the globe, resonated with him. Indeed, Bob surprised friends by asking Clift to help redesign an upcoming neighborhood summit using email to make it more inclusive. And he loves to tell the story of how some of his most important learning was about the value of going door to door and posting sign-up sheets at street fairs.

Few recall that Ashante’s fervor was sparked by her NCDD’s regional conference in Austin, in 2010. There, she first learned of the ways Manor, Texas used the web to harvest ideas from all residents. She realized that if a town of just 5000 residents could do this, her opportunities were far larger than she had thought. And Manor’s emphasis on low-cost technologies gave her hope that she could begin her efforts years sooner than she had planned.

That same year, at the regional conference in Boston, Kira encountered the University of New Hampshire’s efforts to facilitate discussions of state-sanctioned gambling in eleven communities. UNH had used an online forum to broaden the reach of the discussion, and she saw the potential for this approach to bring rural communities into a process she was managing in the Northwest.

LocalistoShowcaseAndrés has been energized by the more informal sessions. Face to face discussions during the technology showcase in Seattle gave him a real understanding of Mindmixer and how it compared to other web-based idea generation tools. And he dates his decision to start a blog on deliberation and outreach to old friends and new colleagues who walked him through their experiences with WordPress, Twitter, and Flickr at NCDD’s 2008 conference in Austin (and the pizza that night was delicious, too).

Of course, Andrés, Bob, Kira, and Ashante have helped one another and other attendees as well. Kira’s practical tricks for integrating technology into process work thawed Bob’s icy skepticism, and her results made him a bit envious. Bob paid that favor forward by participating vigorously in Ashante’s visioning workshop: his thoughtful cautions made Ashante set the bar for the quality of online interaction even higher. At that same workshop, Ashante’s enthusiasm fired Andrés up to explore how new social media tools could address the challenges he was facing. In turn, Andrés’ gentle but persistent questions made Kira realize that she’d have to spend more time to verify that the privacy of her participants was protected.

This interactive, top down, bottoms-up, and inside out enthusiasm is a hallmark of NCDD conferences.

So, whether you have an interest in technology for dialogue and deliberation or still need to be convinced, extensive experience or very little, you’ll find lots of opportunities to broaden your perspectives and lots of practitioners and technologists eager to learn from your experience, your insights, and your questions.

So please check out the conference schedule (Oct 17-19, 2014 in Reston, VA) for sessions suited to your own inner Kira, Andrés, Bob, and Ashante (sessions will be added within the next week!), register, and plan to share your wisdom and experience with 400 old and new friends and colleagues this October.

- Written by NCDD 2014 planning team member Chris Berendes of Netalyst, Inc.

*We confess that these four characters are fictional, but, as demonstrated by the links, the conference sessions that informed and inspired them are entirely real.

Visual Mapping Process Leading into NCDD 2014

NCDD is in the midst of an exciting mapping process leading up to our national conference in the DC area this October. We’re conducting this initial mapping project–and a more in depth mapping process we hope to launch at the conference–in collaboration with the Kettering Foundation.

Cool mapping image f

Cool mapping image from www.mindmapart.com.

There is a vast field of organizations, communities and networks whose work centers around collaborative group practices. This work goes by many different names (dialogue and deliberation, deliberative democracy, whole systems change, collective intelligence, collaborative problem solving, etc.), and NCDD was formed to bridge these and other streams of practice to help us learn from, be inspired by, and work with each other.

People use collaborative group practices to reach numerous ends:  planning stronger communities, influencing policy, addressing long-standing conflict, inspiring people to work together to solve collective problems, increasing awareness of the nuances of public issues, and helping people connect with each other across political and social divides.

The purpose of this initial mapping project is to help people working in this broad field of practice – especially those who attend the 2014 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation – get a better picture of the points of connection, the overlaps, and the possibilities for collaboration between the myriad networks and organizations that are innovating in this field.

The first stage of this mapping project is a very visual one, and was born out of a brainstorming conversation I had with Rosa Zubizarreta. We will begin by interviewing ten highly collaborative organizations that work in different spheres of this work. Kathryn Thomson of LeadershipMind Consulting will conduct the interviews, which will be recorded.

Graphic recorders will use the content generated from interviews with these key organizations and networks to create visually compelling maps of their respective “ecosystems” so that NCDD conference participants may see both the larger, interconnected system and their own points of intersection within that system. (We’re still looking for graphic recorders to partner with, so let us know if you’re interested! We’d love to work with 10 graphic recorders, so we can display a wide range of styles at the conference.)

Graphic mural created by Avril Orloff at the 2008 NCDD conference.

These maps will be on display during the opening plenary of our 2014 national conference, which will bring together about 400 of the most active and influential people in our field.

In the interviews, Kathryn and our graphic recorders will dig into the networks of connections, partnerships, overlaps, and points of possible collaboration among some of the key organizations and communities of practice whose work centers around collaborative group practices.

Kathryn is conducting interviews this month with the following organizations:

  1. Animating Democracy
  2. Art of Hosting
  3. CommunityMatters Partnership
  4. Deliberative Democracy Consortium
  5. Everyday Democracy
  6. Institute for Sustained Dialogue
  7. National Issues Forums Institute
  8. The World Café community
  9. The emerging transpartisan group led by Mark Gerzon
  10. And several other membership organizations NCDD works with, like ICA, IAF and IAP2

We chose to interview these particular organizations and networks not only because we consider them to be highly collaborative, but because they represent a variety of sectors within our broad community. Obviously, there are many other highly collaborative groups in our field that we could have selected.

It is our hope that by seeing some of these ecosystems mapped out and reflected back to the NCDD community, and subsequently creating new maps at the conference, attendees will consider how they might make further, deeper connections that will result in increased capacity for all of us in this field. My recent article in the Journal for Public Deliberation points to a growing desire among many organizations to combine forces, resources and expertise to make a greater impact, and mapping the field will help enable this.

NCDD2014_blog_post_badgeCreating these visual maps is the first step of a larger process. At the October conference, we will announce a more inclusive effort to map the NCDD network using online mapping tools.

Mapping the network is one step toward inviting more people into the kind of leadership that will enable us collectively to grow a more robust, resilient and sustainable network – and recognizing some of the organizations in our field that already embody that kind of leadership.

Let us know your thoughts on this project. And if you are interested in helping advise NCDD on the second phase of our mapping process and have some knowledge about different approaches to digital mapping, please email me at sandy@ncdd.org to let me know!

Parker Palmer’s book “Healing the Heart of Democracy” now out in paperback

One of NCDD’s most well-known and well-loved members, Parker Palmer, alerted me today that one of his newest books, Healing the Heart of Democracy, is soon to be available in paperback.

Here’s what U.S. Congressman John Lewis, had to say about the book: “We have been trying to bridge the great divides in this great country for a long time. In this book, Parker J. Palmer urges us to ‘keep on walking, keep on talking’—just as we did in the civil rights movement—until we cross those bridges together.”

The paperback edition includes a detailed discussion guide with links to 40 brief online videos where the author talks about key issues in the book. You can download the discussion guide, the videos, tips for organizing a discussion group, and more at www.couragerenewal.org/democracyguide.

HealingHeartDemo-coverThe Guide makes it easier and more attractive for people to gather in families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations, etc., and learn to talk with each other across lines of political difference. That’s what “We the People” need to do to reclaim the power of civic community in an era of divide and conquer politics.

In his email this morning, Parker wrote, “I know you’re as concerned as I am about the sad state of American democracy. ‘We the People’ are the only answer. But there can be no ‘We’ until more of us learn to value our differences, hold them creatively, talk across our divides and seek the common good so we can hold our leaders accountable. That’s what this book is about and that’s why I’m eager to get the word out, especially as we approach mid-term elections.

Among the many positive reviews, “Democracy & Education” called the book “one of the most important…of the early 21st Century.” In a Starred Review, “Publishers Weekly” said, “This beautifully written book deserves a wide audience that will benefit from discussing it.”

You can pre-order the paperback version at Amazon here, and you can visit the book’s website at http://lp.wileypub.com/healingtheheartofdemocracy/ where you can watch a video, read the Prelude, and find purchasing options.

Have you already read Healing the Heart of Democracy? Let others know what you thought of it in the comments!

Local Governments Adopting Online Engagement: An NCDD Tech Tuesday discussion on the state of the field

Join us for our next NCDD Tech Tuesday, on August 26th from 1-2pm Eastern / 10-11am Pacific, with:

  • Della RuckerTech_Tuesday_Badge, Managing Editor of EngagingCities (focusing on the intersection between internet technologies and community engagement), and Chief Instigator at Wise Economy
  • Susan Stuart Clark, Director, Common Knowledge, NCDD board member and consultant to local governments

An increasing number of local governments are adding different forms of online engagement to their public participation activities. There is a proliferation of tools being offered by different vendors, each trying to establish a unique positioning. Join Della Rucker and Susan Stuart Clark as they review examples of how local governments are using online engagement, the state of the industry, key factors to consider in planning and implementing online engagement – and how online engagement can be used to complement and enhance in-person dialogue.

The session has been designed to allow for plenty of time for Q&A and group discussion. We are especially interested in NCDD member experiences with online engagement and local government.  Click here to register.

Want to do some reading ahead of time?

By the way, you do not have to be a dues-paying member of NCDD to participate in our FREE Tech Tuesday learning events — though we greatly appreciate the support! You can join NCDD here or upgrade to a supporting membership here.

The Deliberative Mapping Approach

This 4-page publication (2004) describes the “Deliberative Mapping” approach and how it could be used to foster more productive discussions between specialists and members of the public about complex policy issues where there is no obvious way forward.

Though it only appears to have been tried once, Deliberative Mapping was a methodology that could be applied to a problem to judge how well different courses of action perform according to a set of economic, social, ethical and scientific criteria. The aim was to use the approach as the basis for more robust, democratic and accountable decision making which better reflects public values.

The methodology combined assessment by individual specialists and members of the public (or citizens). Participants:

  • appraise a complex problem for which there is no single obvious way forward
  • systematically weigh up the pros and cons of each of the potential ‘options’ under consideration, and
  • integrate their individual assessments to help identify a possible future course of action.

Deliberative Mapping integrated two independent but complementary approaches to informing decision making:

  • Stakeholder decision analysis (SDA) which is a qualitative group based process
  • Multi-Criteria Mapping (MCM) which is a quantitative, computer-assisted interview process

This briefing was authored by Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Sussex and the Environment and Society Research Unit (ESRU) University College.

Resource Link: http://ncdd.org/rc/wp-content/uploads/DeliberativeMapping.pdf (download)

Presentation from June’s Tech Tues on MaestroConference

For our June 24th Tech Tuesday, Brian Burt, CEO and founder of MaestroConference, hosted a session that gave a preview of major new changes in their platform. MaestroConference is the leader in “Social Conferencing” technology, serving more than 5 million participants, and is launching a new Social Webinar platform with a visual interface which allows people to see the faces of the people they’re talking to and edit documents together. Click here to see the PPT presentation from this session.

Tech_Tuesday_BadgeMany NCDDers are familiar with MaestroConference, as we’ve used it for past online activities courtesy of NCDD member Ben Roberts who has served as a host for many calls. MaestroConference is well-known in our field because of its alignment with group process techniques — including its unique ability to enable break-out groups to form on conference calls.

MaestroConference is interested in “conversations that change the world” and invited NCDDers to a free 30 day trial.

Look over archives of past Tech Tuesdays and news about upcoming Tech Tuesday events at www.ncdd.org/tech-tuesdays.