Category Archives: current issues

Community-Police Dialogue Resources from ED

Posted on by
Reply

The tragic killings of two NYPD officers last month has continued to ripple through our communities and our conversations as the officers’ funerals finished this weekend. As the incident and the #BlackLivesMatter movement continue to drive conversations about police-community relationships in our country, we want to highlight the resource below from Everyday Democracy – an NCDD organizational member – for those using this moment to have these much-needed conversations.

You can read ED’s post below or find the original here. We also encourage you to look into ED’s other police-community conversation resources by clicking here.

Strategies to Take Action and Build Trust Between the Community and the Police

EvDem LogoIn the wake of recent events in Ferguson and New York City, there has been a call for a new way of building relationships with the police. Leaders want to provide ways for people to have a voice, work across divides and establish equitable policing that is accountable to the community.

In our work over the past 25 years, Everyday Democracy has partnered with several diverse coalitions that have created large-scale dialogue and change processes to address community-police relations.  Though there is much to be done in communities across our country, we know from experience that change is possible.

While recognizing the complexity of the issue, we want to share some strategies you can use to create positive change in community-police relations where you live:

1. Join with others who want to create change on this issue

Community change happens when we all work together.  Join others already working toward change on this issue, or start a new group to organize community dialogue and action on community-police relations. Check out stories from South Bronx, N.Y., Stratford, Conn., and Lynchburg, Va., to see what’s possible when communities come together after a tragic incident involving a community member and police officer.

As you join with others, think about how you can:

  • Include all voices in the community, especially those who have been marginalized or excluded. Think about the neighborhoods, racial/ethnic groups, people with various viewpoints, and people who work in specific sectors who may be affected by this issue; invite them to take part in community conversations and action steps. Community conversation and action work best when people from all parts of the community come together.
  • Involve local officials and members of the police community. Having these groups take part in the conversation and action steps will begin to open a different form of communication between police and residents.
  • Involve young people. The disconnect between police and the community is particularly wide between police and young people, especially youth of color. That’s why it’s essential for young people be involved from the beginning both in decision-making and implementation of change.
  • Work with bridge-building organizations and leaders in your community. Find local organizations and people to partner with who have trusting relationships with both the police department and community members.
2. Create opportunities for genuine community engagement

Having a structured process for people, institutions, and government to work together can lead to real change. Our discussion guide, Protecting Communities, Serving the Public: Police and Residents Building Relationships to Work Together helps to create a space for community members and police to talk about trust, expectations, policing strategies and tactics.  This allows residents to communicate their concerns and allows the police community to communicate how residents can play critical roles in effective partnership strategies.

3. Address the history of mistrust and disconnection between the community and the police

Tragic incidents don’t happen in a vacuum – there are hundreds of years of history and policies that have shaped our communities today. Our Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation discussion guide can help you have a conversation with your community to begin to dismantle stereotypes, understand the impact of structural racism, build mutual trust and respect, and develop strategies for changing institutions and policies.

4. Link dialogue to action and community change

With appropriate planning and organizing, the buy-in of local officials and the police community is possible. A dialogue initiative with community residents and police can become a springboard not just for building relationships, but also for transforming the practices and policies of our public institutions. We must address the systemic roots of the recurring tragedies in our communities and work toward inclusive, equitable communities where everyone has voice and opportunity.

You can find the original version of this Everyday Democracy post at www.everyday-democracy.org/news/strategies-build-trust-and-take-action-wake-ferguson#.VKncNivF_Ze. You can find ED’s other resources on community-police dialogue at www.everyday-democracy.org/resources/police-community-relations#.VKnj6ivF_Zc.

Build Peace 2015 Conference: Peace through Technology

Posted on by
Reply

We want to make our network aware of an exciting community and conference that we know will interest many of our NCDDers, especially those of us oriented toward conflict resolution and technology.

Build Peace is a community that brings together practitioners, activists and technologists from around the world to share experience and ideas on using technology for peacebuilding and conflict transformation as well as an annual, international conference. The Build Peace 2015 conference will be taking place April 25th & 26th in Nicosia, Cyprus, and we want to encourage anyone who might be interested to consider attending.

Build Peace 2015 is titled Peace Through Technology: By Whom, For Whom and will be focused on alternative infrastructures for peace. Here is how the conference planners describe the gathering:

Where Build Peace 2014 aimed to demonstrate the potential of using technology for peacebuilding in terms of ‘breadth’ of initiatives and ideas, Build Peace 2015 will begin to examine issues of ‘depth’: How is the use of technology resulting in the creation of alternative infrastructures for peace? To this cross-cutting theme, the program adds three sub-themes:

  1. Empowerment. One key reason to use technologies in peacebuilding is that they can empower a larger number of people to engage and participate. But there are also tensions between state uses of technologies for surveillance and security implications of some grassroots uses. Who is empowered, by whom and how?
  2. Behavior change. And empowered to do what? Technological tools can affect behaviours that pertain to patterns of violence and peace: by shaping the peace and conflict narratives, through training or education, or by helping shape alternative identity formation processes.
  3. Impact. Another assumption underlying the use of technologies is that it can help ‘improve’ peacebuilding, with the caveat that there are associated risks and ethical issues. What are the actual or possible impacts of using technologies for peacebuilding? How can we measure them?

We have designed the program to weave these guiding themes through the different types of content. Because the themes are interrelated, some sessions are guided by more than one theme. Different sessions are designed to offer different modes of interaction. Keynotes aim to be thought provoking and allow for deeper exploration on one aspect of a theme or themes. Panels offer an overview of one theme and permit interaction with the audience on the broader questions raised by that theme. Short Talks provide concrete evidence of practice and/or research in a particular theme. Working sessions are more practitioner-oriented and will produce a concrete output that contributes to practice in one thematic area.

We know that there a plenty of folks in our NCDD network who would gain and contribute a lot by attending this great gathering, and we hope that some of you can make it! You can learn more at www.howtobuildpeace.org/program or get registered for the conference at www.howtobuildpeace.org/tickets.

Want to really contribute to the gathering? It’s not too late to apply to be a short talk speaker, to host a stand at the Technology Fair, or give a presentation during the Peace Lab at Build Peace 2015! But you have to act fast, because the deadline for application for speakers, stands, and presenters is this Monday, January 5th, so visit Build Peace’s call for speakers today!

We hope that some of our NCDDers will be able to take advantage of this great opportunity, and we thank Build Peace for inviting us to be part of it!

Orton’s Community Field Guide Makes Holiday Reading List

Posted on by
Reply

If you are looking for something to read during your holiday down time or gift ideas, we encourage you to check out the great community and economic planning reading list that our partners with CommunityMatters shared on their blog. We especially encourage you to learn more about the Orton Family Foundation’s wonderful Community Heart & Soul Field Guide, a resource on the list that is designed to help those of us doing community & civic engagement work. You can read the list below of find the original post here.

CM_logo-200pxThe Center for Rural Entrepreneurship shared its list of top reads of 2014. Included on the list is the Community Heart & Soul™ Field Guide recommended by Erik Pages, a CRE fellow and president and founder of EntreWorks Consulting, an economic development and policy development firm who said: “This is an excellent guide to strategic planning and community building for small towns.”

Thank you Erik! Lots of great reads to add to our holiday wish lists!

Here are the center’s Top 12 Recommended Reads of 2014:

Recommended by Erik Pages, EntreWorks Consulting and Center Fellow: The Tyranny of Experts by William Easterly. While the book is mainly about international development issues, it’s a useful caution that economic development is about individual choice and empowerment – not the latest scheme from so-called “experts.”

Recommended by Don Macke: Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson. This book provides both a framework for exploring the innovation process and wonderful stories of innovation. Check out Johnson’s program on Public Broadcasting.

Recommended to Deb Markley by Angela Lust, Amarillo Area Foundation: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. This book is a true story of innovation under the most challenging circumstances. Inspiring!

Recommended by Erik Pages, EntreWorks Consulting and Center Fellow: Community Heart & Soul Field Guide by the Orton Family Foundation. This is an excellent guide to strategic planning and community building for small towns.

Recommended by all Center staff: The Good Jobs Strategy – How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profit by Zeynep Ton. This book provides great case evidence that the race to the bottom need not be the rule as businesses struggle to be competitive.

Recommended by Don Macke: Owning Our Future – The Emerging Ownership Revolution and Journeys to a Generative Economy by Marjorie Kelly. For those of us engaged in entrepreneurship as a means to better economies, this is a must read.

Recommended by Erik Pages, EntreWorks Consulting and Center Fellow: Fueling Up – The Economic Implications of America’s Oil and Gas Boom by the Peterson Institute, an economic impact study of shale energy. Not the most scintillating read, but great data that encourages us to be cautious and realistic about the “shale energy revolution.”

Recommended by Travis Starkey, a millennial and educator in eastern North Carolina: “Creative Class Counties and the Recovery.” This Daily Yonder article shows the value of the “creative class” to the economic recovery in some parts of rural America.

Recommended by Don Macke: The End of the Suburbs by Leigh Gallagher. This book provides interesting insight on the changing spatial demographics in the United States.

Recommended by Deb Markley: Sources of Economic Hope: Women’s Entrepreneurship. This Kauffman Foundation research report suggests why accelerating women’s entrepreneurship might be the best thing we can do for the U.S. economy.

Recommended by Don Macke: The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton. This book provides insight from the Chairman of Gallup and their unique international view of global competition.

Recommended by Don Macke: What Then Must We Do? – Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution by Gar Alperovitz. Rooted in the value that economies exist to meet the needs and dreams of residents, this book provides insights worth considering as we engage in economic development.

You can find the original version of this CM blog post at www.communitymatters.org/blog/12-great-reads-add-your-list.

IF Offers Discussion Guide on Climate Change

Posted on by
Reply

The next round of UN climate talks began this week in Lima, Peru, and as global leaders debate how to avert the worst effects of climate change, our communities also need to be having conversations about this pressing topic. We learned from our members at the 2014 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation that D&D practitioners want more resources that will help them have real and productive conversations on this difficult topic.

Lucky for us, the Interactivity Foundation (or IF) – one of the wonderful sponsors of our conference – recently created a resource for exactly that. Based on three years of online discussions with international input on climate change and the lessons learned from their signature Project Discussions on the subject, IF produced a report on the discussions called “Human Impact on Climate Change: Opportunities & Challenges.” The report serves as a discussion guide designed to use non-ideological language that helps participants to separate potential policy directions from partisan agendas and arguments over science, and to explore possibilities for how they or their communities might respond.

The easy-to-use, 40-page guide frames the possibilities that discussion participants can consider in two categories. The first, “Setting the Stage”, focuses on immediately impact awareness and action, and the second, “Meeting the Continuing Climate Challenge”, is focused on the more complicated, long-term approaches needed to impact infrastructure and natural systems.

Here is how the report has framed six different possibilities for participants to discuss:

Possibilities for Setting the Stage

A. Promote Climate Awareness – Improve understanding of climate impact, climate science, and possible approaches.
B. Change Consumer Habits – Focus on human consumption as a source of carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.
C. Go for Results – Identify efficient and low-cost solutions that are available for short-term action.

Possibilities for Meeting the Continuing Climate Challenge

D. Heal the Planet – Plan and implement long-range recovery and rehabilitation of ecosystems.
E. Deal With a Different World – Adapt to changed conditions and plan for climate emergencies.
F. Focus on the Developing World – Assist developing nations in reducing climate impact activities and adopting clean technologies.

The guide expounds on all six of these frames as starting points for in-depth conversation and deliberation, and offers example policy suggestions grounded in all six frames for participants to explore. It also includes a great list of additional resources to help facilitate further conversations at the end.

With the wide range of perspectives and the depth of feelings that the general public has about the topic of climate change, this kind of resource can be an indispensable tool to help those of us seeking to have effective deliberations on the topic that can move our communities forward without descending into divisive and counterproductive arguments. We highly encourage you to take a look at IF’s “Human Impact on Climate Change: Opportunities & Challenges” discussion report and use it to you help you host these vital conversations.

To help these conversations be more inclusive and accesible, IF has made a PDF of the report available in both English and Spanish, and you can also view it online. You can go directly to the report summary page by clicking here, and there is even a Facebook discussion group based on the report. We hope that this great resource will help you start your communities, organizations, or institutions have better discussions about this challenging issue.

To learn more about the Interactivity Foundation and its innovative work, visit www.interactivityfoundation.org. Thanks so much to IF for creating this amazing resource!

Healing, Transformation, & Change from Ferguson

Posted on by
Reply

As negativity continues to swirl around Ferguson, MO and the country at large in the aftermath of the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson last week, the time is ripe for real and challenging dialogue about how we can transform this energy into something positive. Everyday Democracy program officer Janee Woods wrote a powerful piece for Guernica Magazine in which she says that both punitive justice and restorative justice models are inadequate for healing the deep wounds that racism has caused our country, and advocates instead for rehabilitative justice, saying that “[w]e need to rehabilitate ourselves and our relationships with each other, across differences of perspectives and background, before we can successfully change the way inequitable systems and institutions work.”

We were particularly impressed and inspired by the list of suggestions that Janee offers for those of us grappling with how to move our work and conversations toward the rehabilitation of people and relationships that we need now. We’ve excerpted those suggestions below, but we encourage you to read her piece in its entirety by clicking here.

Janee Woods: A Different Kind of Justice

…We may feel powerless standing in the shadow of institutions, politics and the long history that got us here but that does not mean that we are, in fact, powerless. We know there is power in public protest that demands large scale change but not all of us are ready to engage with the system in that way. Try to develop your power by engaging truthfully with yourself and with neighbors in your community on a smaller scale. The inaugural step toward rehabilitating our humanity is honest communication with those who are near us. In many ways, this might be the hardest step because we must first create spaces where we can come together as individuals with disparate life experiences, diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, and varying levels of understanding about the legacy and impact of American racism. And once we come together, we must share a commitment to follow through in learning together and moving to action together. There are many ways you can create the space and structure that allow for this kind of communication and commitment.

Bring people together for conversations that transform conflict into meaningful relationships. Use conversations to Continue reading →

Join a Live Video Chat on #TextTalkAct Tomorrow

Posted on by
Reply

Join organizers of the award-winning #TextTalkAct in a live video chat hosted by @DocForeman tomorrow (Tuesday, November 18th) at 6:30 pm Eastern / 3:30 pm Pacific. Hear what happened during our national Text Talk Act contest on October 6. We’ll connect you with:

  • Winning youth organizers;
  • Ideas texted in by participants across the country;
  • Resources for taking action.

To participate, simply click on this link on Tuesday, Nov 18 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. You’ll be connected to the live streaming video on YouTube that begins at that time, and you’ll be able to comment via Twitter or YouTube using the #TextTalkAct hashtag.

Dr. April Foreman is a Licensed Psychologist and innovator in using social media platforms like Twitter to connect with thought leaders in healthcare across the world. Currently, she works for the Southeast Louisiana Healthcare System, serving Veterans as a Suicide Prevention Coordinator in Baton Rouge.

Text Talk Act is a series of innovative experiments in texting-enabled dialogue. As part of our role in the National Dialogue on Mental Health project Creating Community Solutions, NCDD and our partners have been experimenting with how the fun and convenience of text messaging can be leveraged to scale up face-to-face dialogue — especially among young people.

In April, we featured Matt Leighninger and Michael Smith from the Text Talk Act core team on an NCDD Confab Call.  Audio from the call and an archive of the collaborative doc we created during the call for Q&A and networking can be accessed at www.ncdd.org/14741.

PCP Offers Tips on Better Dialogue about Gender

Posted on by
Reply

We encourage you to read the piece below on ways we can all improve our capacity to have real dialogues about issues of gender from our friends at the Public Conversation Project. We also encourage you to consider attending PCP’s Power of Dialogue training this December on which NCDD members receive a discount. You can learn more below or by finding their original blog post here.

Public Conversations ProjectTalking About Gender and the Power of Dialogue

Gender issues have been making some serious waves these past few months. A woman from Columbia University joined college students around the country to make sexual assault on college campuses front-page news by carrying the mattress she was assaulted on around campus. Twitter conversations surrounding #yesallwomen and #notallmen, with over a million tweets, started a nationwide discussion in the aftermath of the horrific shooting in Santa Barbara. Most recently, these conversations have culminated in a video calling out the reality of catcalling.

The video, “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman,” has since garnered over 34 million views and sparked a national conversation with implications for race, violence against women, affirmative consent, and even gun issues.

Clearly, these subjects have hit a nerve across the United States and are starting discussions at every level of our communities. Some (like this Daily Show segment with Jessica Williams) have been incredibly well received, but many have also been full of fear and hatred. So it doesn’t just matter that these conversations happen – it matters how they happen. Just like every discussion where people feel forced to defend their identity or debate a belief or value system, these are the types of conversations that can go downhill quickly.

So let’s start thinking about what we can do to build a better conversation around gender.

Ask the Right Questions

First, we can learn how to ask questions that promote curiosity and connection between people. So far, I have seen people speak, almost exclusively, at one another, instead of with one another. Rather than seeking to understand the experience of another person these conversations have centered on one gender trying to convince another gender of the validity of his or her experience and personhood. A recent CNN segment exemplifies this lack of curiosity. Here are two things that were actually said in this eight-minute segment:

Steve to Amanda: “I’m more of an expert than you, and I’ll tell you why: because I’m a guy and I know how we think…You would not care if all these guys were hot…they would be bolstering your self-esteem…There is nothing more that a women likes to hear than how pretty she is.”

Amanda to Steve: “You, as a man – what your problem is – is that you really should just be embracing and welcoming to the fact that women are saying, ‘hey, we don’t like this,’ not arguing why we shouldn’t. If we say we don’t like it, and we are demonstrating that, then you …should be saying, ‘then let’s discuss how you can feel more comfortable.’”

So often, we try to inform other people what they should think or believe, rather than asking them why they think as they do. We don’t seek to understand or fully appreciate another person as complex, beyond ideas of gender

Work on Listening

Second, we can become better listeners. At Public Conversations, we call this “listening with resilience,” and after just two months working here, I love that phrase. It means going beyond jumping to your next defense or rebuttal to some horrific thing another person just said. Listening with resilience asks us to not just ask the right questions to expand the conversation beyond “yes all women” and “not all men,” but then to actually listen to what the other person tells us – even if it’s difficult to hear.

Finding a Common Humanity

We have spent twenty-five years developing a process to help people have such conversations in a way that they feel heard and understood, while at the same time seeking to hear and understand more about other people. When it comes to issues like gender – which can touch the core of our identities – we should use conversations as an opportunity to better understand this conflict and polarization. Dialogue doesn’t have to be about convincing someone or finding common ground – sometimes, it is enough to simply look for common humanity. And wouldn’t that be a great place to start?

If you want to delve further into these three tools to create better conversations, we welcome you to join us next month for a three day training where you’ll learn about our approach and have an opportunity to practice using it. Join us for The Power of Dialogue and register here: http://publicconversations.org/workshops/power-dialogue.

You can find the original version of this Public Conversations Project blog post at http://blog.publicconversations.org/talking-about-gender-and-the-power-of-dialogue/#.VGWRj_nF8lo

Harwood: Is Focus on “Impact” Distracting from Change?

Posted on by
Reply

We are pleased to share a thought-provoking blog piece penned by Rich Harwood, director of The Harwood Insitute – an NCDD member organization. Rich reflects on a significant trend in the non-profit world that is familiar to many of us, and how our thinking around it can change. We encourage you to read the piece below or find the original here. 

HarwoodLogoThe watchword for community change nowadays is “impact.” This little, two-syllable word seemingly insinuates itself into every discussion about change. In doing so, it has redirected everyone’s attention, but not always in the right direction. If we’re not careful, we’ll lose sight of our most precious mission: to help people transform their lives and build stronger communities.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for “impact.” Who isn’t? I’ve spoken before hundreds of funders at an Aspen Forum for Community Solutions conference, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on this topic, engaged in various roundtables and webinars, and developed thousands of “public innovators” to create collective change in communities across the U.S. and overseas. But the impact of this seemingly little word is not always so productive or positive.

My experience working with people in communities, with foundation leaders, with various national initiatives, and with a variety of others is that the deifying of this word has produced a cascading effect of collective responses that endanger our mission. Consider the kind of discussion that ensues when we all start to talk about impact:

  • Our frame instantly becomes that of metrics and measurement – in other words “data.”
  • We then lunge toward enlisting large numbers of professionals and organizations to sit around a table and develop the right answers to whatever the data tell us.
  • Then we generate committees and workgroups and initiatives to implement the answers.
  • Our focus is then transfixed on the mechanics of managing all of these moving parts.

On the surface, nothing I’ve written sounds blatantly wrong. And as I’ve travelled the country, I have become convinced – indeed, moved – that those of us engaged in this work are excited about it because we so deeply want change. We believe that we, as a society, can do better. We have come to the conclusion that only by working together can we build stronger and more resilient communities and lives.

But the notion of “impact” can drive and distort our mindset and behaviors in ways I doubt most of us either intend or want.

The word immediately drives us to focus on data, activity and the mechanics of change. In the process, we can lose sight of the actual pain and suffering of people in our communities. We can forget that people not only want to alleviate their pain, but they also hold aspirations to move their lives forward.

We can get so lost in the mechanics that we fail to actually build different community relationships, norms and practices that change how a community works together – not just now, but in the future. We can wholly buy in to our own plans and initiatives without paying attention to how change truly occurs in communities.

The idea of impact can cast a spell over us. It shapes what we do and say. But if we want to create impact – to help people transform their lives and build stronger communities – we’ll need to break this spell.

Let’s make sure that in our quest for impact we keep communities and the people who live in them as our reference points.

NIF & Kettering Host Online Immigration Conversation Monday

Posted on by
Reply

We encourage NCDD members to join our partners with the National Issues Forums of Northern Virginia and the Kettering Foundation for a webinar conversation on immigration tomorrow, Sept. 29th. The conversation will use KF’s new online deliberation tool, Common Ground for Action, so make sure to join us and check it out! You can read the invitation from Bill Corbett of NIFNVA below or find the original here.

NIF-logoI’m writing invite you to an upcoming online National Issues Forum, a small, moderated, chat-based deliberation on a critical issue facing America.

It takes place on Monday, September 29 at 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm EDT. All you need to participate is a web browser and the willingness to use chat for conversation.

The topic is “Immigration in America — How Do We Fix a System in Crisis?” The issue guide is at this link. The issue guide provides the road map for our discussion and essential background. If you’d like to watch a three-minute video that previews the topic, you can view it on our website by clicking here.

You can register by reply to this message or by completing the online form at the new website of National Issues Forums of Northern Virginia. The forum is limited to twelve people…first-come, first-served…but more forums are coming.

The forum uses a new software tool from the Kettering Foundation that brings moderated deliberation on national issues to a wider audience.

Below is a screen shot of a Common Ground graphic produced by an online National Issues Forum earlier this month. It is the product of ten people working through the issues together in a discussion about how to fix American politics.

I hope you are as interested as I am in helping to develop this new tool for more people to participate in political life.

Sincerely,

Bill Corbett National Issues Forums of Northern Virginia

Bill_Corbett_NIF_of_Northern_Vir@mail.vresp.com

NCDD 2014 Feature: “What’s Equity Have to Do with It?” Workshop

Posted on by
Reply

As we get closer and closer to NCDD 2014, we have asked our workshop presenters to share a bit more info about their sessions with you. So we are pleased to start by featuring “What’s equity have to do with it? Ensuring inclusive participation”, a great session being offered by Carrie Boron, Susan McCormack, and Valeriano Ramos. Read more about their workshop below and find out more about read about all of our NCDD 2014 sessions by clicking here. Still not registered for NCDD 2014? Make sure to register today! 

NCDD2014-blogimageNext month, my colleagues and I are co-presenting a session at the NCDD conference on the role of equity in public participation. Creating Community Solutions’ Susan McCormack and Everyday Democracy’s Valeriano Ramos, and me, Carrie Boron, and will join together with conference attendees to help answer the question, “What’s equity have to do with it?”

Taking on the topic of equity is challenging, confusing and conflicted, and requires much more time, knowledge and resources than are usually available. This is especially true given our limited session time at the conference. So, we thought we would give more “air time” to the subject here on the NCDD blog.

Those who work to bring people together in their communities to talk and find ways to make progress on various public issues often use the word “inclusive” to describe diverse participation. The aim is to have people from different ethnic, gender, age, sexual orientation, educational and socioeconomic backgrounds join the effort. Although such work is well-intentioned, organizers often miss the mark because they have not considered the societal structures and policies that perpetuate inequities.

Understanding the structures that support inequity (with a particular emphasis on structural racism) is essential for effective dialogue and long-term change on every issue. For instance, there are still many public and private institutions that exclude people of color. Schools in poor neighborhoods lack resources. Many police departments protecting and serving mostly people of color often lack ethnic diversity on their own force. Ferguson, MO, is the latest example of this scenario. We need to consider these structures and policies as we work to engage people in decisions that affect their lives.

Val, Sue, and I will be offering a tutorial on concepts related to equity, power and privilege; interactive discussions; and hands-on activities as well as best practices to use in engaging all kinds of people in your community. So, join us on Sunday, Oct.19, at 9 a.m. (bring your coffee!) for “What’s equity have to do with it? Ensuring inclusive participation” and dig into how we can ensure that people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to take part in civic life.

In the mean time, here are a handful of resources to help you create opportunities for equitable public engagement:

  • Race Forward’s “Racial Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit”
  • RacialEquityTools.org, a website featuring tools, research, tips, curricula and ideas for those working to achieve racial equity
  • Everyday Democracy’s “Racial Dynamics to Watch For” – This handout provides a sampling of scenarios of power, privilege and inequity at play in organizing, facilitation and action planning, and asks organizers how they might avoid such situations.
  • Everyday Democracy’s “Focusing on Racial Equity as We Work” – This handout offers a set of questions for community organizing coalitions working to ensure that they’re working together in an equitable manner.
  • Everyday Democracy’s “Facilitators’ Racial Equity Checklist” – This handout outlines a set of debrief questions for small-group dialogue co-facilitators to use in debriefing and assessing their work together and in ensuring an equitable dialogue experience for participants.