Category Archives: educational opportunities

Register for “Trusting the Public” Talk featuring CIR, Feb. 25

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The New America Foundation is hosting a talk called “Rebuilding the Public’s Trust Starts with Trusting the Public,” this Thursday, February 25th from 10-11am Eastern, and we want to encourage our NCDD members to consider participating.

The event will focus on democratic innovations that changing the way citizens participate in government, featuring a presentation on the Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) process from long-time NCDD member John Gastil who will be on a panel with Carolyn Lukensmeyer, another long-time NCDD member, and author Hollie Russon-Gilman.

Here’s how New America describes the event:

Rebuilding the Public’s Trust Begins with Trusting the Public

From the ascent of Trump to armed protest and the tragedy of Flint, we have reason to worry about the future of our democracy. On Thursday, February 25, from 10-11am New America will host a talk that brings more encouraging news about real democratic reforms happening in the United States.

Penn State political communication professor John Gastil will share his insights on a reform that helps voters make smarter decisions in initiative elections. This innovation, called the Citizens’ Initiative Review, began in Oregon in 2009 and is appearing this year in Massachusetts. New America fellow Hollie Russon-Gilman will also share reflections from her brand new book, Democracy Reinvented: Participatory Budgeting and Civic Innovation in America.

This talk will be taking place in downtown Washington, DC and we hope lots of our DC-based members can make it. For the rest of us, the talk will be streamed live via webcast. Either way, we encourage you to RSVP here today to make sure to save your spot!

You can learn more about this event and New America by visiting www.newamerica.org/political-reform/rebuilding-the-publics-trust-begins-with-trusting-the-public.

Join OpenGov & CivicTech Online Unconference, Jan. 28th

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We encourage NCDD members to consider attending the 2016 OpenGov & CivicTech Online Unconference this Thursday, January 28th from 11am-2pm Eastern. The event is hosted by former NCDD Board member Lucas Cioffi, and NCDD members get a 30% discount on registration, so make sure to sign up today! Read more below or find the full invitation by clicking here.

2016 OpenGov & CivicTech Online Unconference

What is the purpose? Why should I attend?

  1. Spread the word about your civic tech project.
  2. Network with other innovators.
  3. Bring the toughest questions and challenges you’re facing and gain insights from other participants.

Use promo code “ncdd” when you register here to bring the cost down to just $10.

Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-opengov-civictech-online-unconference-tickets-20428926469

What is an “unconference”?

Unlike standard conferences sessions where people give presentations, unconference sessions are far more conversational.  Professionals will discuss and work through the challenges at the cutting edge of the opengov & civic tech fields.

What is the agenda?

Participants (including you!) create the agenda during the opening session.  This ensures that everyone finds a session that interests them and sets a collaborative tone for the event right from the start. Add your session to the agenda after you register.

Who will be there?

Designers, developers, activists, practitioners, and entrepreneurs working at the intersection of civic engagement and technology.  The power of this event is that it will bring together people with different skills.

You can find more information on the OpenGov & CivicTech Online Unconference by visiting www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-opengov-civictech-online-unconference-tickets-20428926469?.

Next Stage Facilitation Intensive Feb. 23-25 in the Bay Area!

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We are pleased to share the announcement below about a new facilitation training opportunity in this February that NCDD members can get a $150 discount on! NCDD Sustaining Member Rebecca Colwell of Ten Directions shared this announcement via our Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

Integral Facilitator® Next Stage Facilitation™ Intensives are 3-day workshops introducing the core competencies of an Integral approach to facilitation designed to enhance your capacity to generate greater coherence and increased collaboration and dialogue in the groups you work with.

In this three-day workshop, you’ll learn:

  • How to maintain presence in the face of challenging situations
  • How to work effectively with group energetics and emotional states
  • How to effectively build connection and working with tension to deepen coherence and intimacy
  • How to engage tension, power dynamics and conflict in a group
  • How to increase the positive impact you have on others
  • How to bring an integral approach to your work

As a Next Stage participant, you’ll learn directly from master facilitator, mediator, and former Director of Dispute Resolution for the Utah State Judiciary, Diane Musho Hamilton. Diane is author of Everything is Workable, a Zen Approach to Conflict Resolution.

Your participation will include a deep dive into your personal presence as a facilitator, including how bring an Integral approach to your work with groups, and opportunities to practice new approaches that will stretch your development as a skilled facilitator. Masterful facilitators with depth and presence are more responsive to the subtleties of group dynamics and can create more rewarding and effective dialogue and collaboration.

Two Next Stage Facilitation Intensives will be taking place in North America this year, February 23-25 in the Bay Area, CA, and in Halifax, Canada September 12-14, 2016.

Sign up for an upcoming Integral Facilitator Next Stage Facilitation Intensive and use NCDD coupon “NCDDmbrs” for $150 off the February training at http://bit.ly/1Sin6eJ.

Praise from workshop participants:

“The workshop has shifted my perception of issues such as power, and allowed me to understand where my choices lie. I feel confident to run with those issues now as opposed to fighting against them and using up all my energy.” – Marissa Moore, Senior Finance Executive

“This has been my best experience ever in a 3 day training. Diane is an amazing facilitator! I’m currently figuring out how to get myself in the 1 year program as the 3 days were so exciting and promising in terms of my personal growth.” – Tremeur Balbous, Consultant & Integral coach

“Take facilitation to a whole other level. The Next Stage Facilitation three day intensive shakes you out of conventional and stifled facilitation modes and expands your view to multi-perspectival, grows your competencies toward integral–exploring what it means to work with individuals, the collective and the topic at hand in a balanced, elegant and effective way, and, it strengthens your intuitive faculties to sense and trust the energetic field of the room and respond.” – Michelle Elizabeth, Consultant

Watch Integral Facilitator’s Lead Teacher and Author, Diane Musho Hamilton’s Google Book Talk on conflict resolution:

For more information, visit www.tendirections.com/next-stage-facilitation-3-day-intensive.

#CGAFridays Economic Opportunity Deliberations Return

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Last November, the Kettering Foundation and National Issues Forums Institute – both NCDD member organizations – teamed up to host #CGAFridays: a series of events where people can try out the new online deliberation tool, Common Ground for Action (CGA). The series is back this month, and we encourage our members to join, or if you can’t, to share this post with others you think should know about this great new tool! Learn more in the Kettering post below or find the original here.

#CGAFridays Return – Register for a Making Ends Meet Forum Today!

NIFI-CGA_Branded_LogoCommon Ground for Action, KF and NIF’s new platform for online deliberation, has been steadily growing over the past year. In fact, demand for opportunities to try the new platform has been so strong that in November of last year we launched #cgafridays, a recurring series of CGA forums held each Friday for anyone who wants to participate. This Friday forum series has been such a success, we’re continuing it into 2016!

Our January forums will be using NIF’s brand new issue guide on economic security, opportunity, and equality, Making Ends Meet. And all these forums will be included in the reporting Kettering is doing to policymakers on this issue throughout 2016, so it’s a great chance for participants who want to make sure their voice is heard!

To participate in a forum, all you need to do is register at one of the links below! And even if you can’t make one of these forums, please help by sharing this post with your networks!

You can find the original version of this Kettering Foundation blog post at www.kettering.org/blogs/cgafridays-2016.

Teach a Public Deliberation Class with NIFI & OLLI

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We encourage our NCDD members to consider taking advantage a unique opportunity to teach a course on public deliberation at a university near you in collaboration with the NCDD member organizations National Issues Forums Institute and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Helping teach an OLLI class is a great way to spread awareness and understanding of our field while also keeping yourself sharp! We encourage you to learn more about the opportunity in the NIFI post below or to find the original here.

Would You Like to Serve as a National Issues Forums Institute Professor?

The Bernard Osher Foundation has provided a $1 million endowment to 119 colleges and universities across the nation to establish Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI). These institutes are housed in the Continuing Education departments of the schools and offer noncredit courses for senior citizens. The National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) has been offering a course entitled Learning from Others: The Power of Public Deliberation through the OLLI program at the University of Dayton.

The six-week course meets weekly for two hours, and different NIFI issue guides are used each week as the focus of a forum with the class. The students obtain a copy of the issue guide from the NIFI website or it is supplied as a part of the course fee. Carol Farquhar Nugent of NIFI has been serving as the convener and recorder for the course, and various individuals have served as moderators. The course has been running for three years with a full class (20-25 students) each term and very favorable ratings.

NIFI would like to offer a similar course at each of the universities where OLLI programs exist. Click here to see a list of the schools with OLLI programs.

If you live near one of these institutions, would you like to help us establish a course there? It would be a lot of fun and would help the Kettering Foundation and NIFI spread the word about the power of public deliberation.

If you are interested, please e-mail Carol Farquhar Nugent at cfarnug@nifi.org.

You can find the original version of this NIFI post at www.nifi.org/en/groups/would-you-serve-national-issues-forums-institute-nifi-professor.

Upcoming IAP2 Trainings from the Participation Company

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Make sure to note that the at The Participation Company – one of our NCDD member organizations – is offering more IAP2 trainings that NCDD members can get a discount $30-$100 on! The trainings use the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) framework and are a great opportunity to earn an official IAP2 certification. Learn more about the trainings in the announcement below or here.

IAP2 Training Events in 2015-2016

If you work in communications, public relations, public affairs, planning, public outreach and understanding, community development, advocacy, or lobbying, this training will help you to increase your skills and to be of even greater value to your employer.

This is your chance to join the many thousands of practitioners worldwide who have completed the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) certificate training.

Foundations in Public Participation (5-Day) certificate program: PLANNING for Effective Public Participation (3-Days) and/or *TECHNIQUES for Effective Public Participation (2-Days)

  • November 3 – 5, 2015 in Fort Collins, CO — 3-day Planning
  • December 9 – 11, 2015 in Great Falls, MT — 3-day Planning
  • December 14 – 18, 2015 in Chicago, IL — 3-day Planning & 2-day Techniques
  • February 1 – 5, 2016  in Arlington, VA — 3-day Planning & 2-day Techniques
  • February 2 – 3, 2016 in Fort Collins, CO — 2-day Techniques
  • February 25 – 26, 2016 in Fairmont, MT — 2-day Techniques
  • February 29 – March 4, 2016 in Phoenix, AZ — 3-day Planning & 2-day Techniques

Austin, TX and Santa Fe, NM coming soon. Please check our website for updates to the calendar.

*The 3-Day Planning is a prerequisite to TECHNIQUES

The Participation Company (TPC) offers discounted rates to NCDD members. Visit www.theparticipationcompany.com/foundations for more information and online registration.

Register for Oct. 28th Confab on Nevins Democracy Leaders Program

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NCDD member organizations, be sure to join us next Wednesday, October 28th from 2-3pm Eastern/11am-12pm Pacific for a special NCDD Confab Call that can help your organization build capacity and contribute to the field!Confab bubble image

This call will feature a discussion with long-time NCDD member Dr. John Gastil, who will be sharing about the amazing opportunity for organizations in the D&D field to host a bright Penn State fellow next summer through the McCourtney Institute‘s Nevins Democracy Leaders Program! Stipends and living expenses are provided to the students through the program.

This is a rare opportunity for our field, and the Confab will be one of the best ways to find out more about how your organization can benefit, so make sure to register today to secure your spot on the call!

The Nevins Democracy Leaders Program – recently founded after a gift from NCDD Sustaining Member David Nevins – provides education and ­training in transpartisan leadership skills by exposing participants to a variety of viewpoints and philosophies and teaches the tools of dialogue and deliberation as well as critical thinking. But perhaps most uniquely, the Nevins Program works to grow the next generation of democracy leaders by placing students in unique fellowship position in organizations focused on D&D, transpartisan dialogue, and civic renewal – that means organizations like yours!

Mccourtney Institute LogoNCDD is partnering with the McCourtney Institute to help identify FABULOUS organizations that can host Nevins fellows (among other roles we’ll be playing).

On this Confab, John Gastil will provide an overview of the Nevins program and its aims, discuss the training that the future fellows are going through, and share more about how your organization can take advantage of this great chance to help cultivate the next generation of D&D leaders while getting more support for your work – all for FREE! You really don’t want to miss this call!

Our confabs (interactive conference calls) are free and open to all NCDD members and potential members. Register today if you’d like to join us!

Online Facilitation Unconference 2015, Oct. 22-24

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We are pleased to share the announcement below about a great online event this Oct. 22-24 that NCDD members get a 30% discount on. NCDD Member Tim Bonnemann of Intellitics shared this announcement via our great Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

As some of you may know, the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) is organizing International Facilitation Week this coming week, October 19-25. Its purpose is ”to showcase the power of facilitation to both new and existing audiences and to create a sense of community among facilitators and their groups worldwide.”

For the third year in a row, Intellitics is involved in organizing a parallel online unconference focused on “the art and practice of facilitating in virtual environments”. Topic brainstorming will kick off early next week, and sessions will take place over the course of a 48-hour window between Thursday evening and Saturday. All sessions will be documented and the results shared with all participants.

While the event remains participant-driven and not-for-profit, we’re making a few changes to the funding model this year, asking all participants for a small monetary contribution. The regular price is $24/person. However, you’ll have until Monday evening at midnight Pacific Time to take advantage of discounted early bird rates. NCDD members can use the discount code “NCDDonline” to get 30% off any available ticket.

Details and registration here: http://ofu15.eventbrite.com 

If you click through our 2013 event site, you’ll find the list topics that emerged then. Some really interesting and useful stuff there.

Whether you’re already an expert or still completely new to online facilitation, this is a great opportunity to share, learn and make new connections. Once again, it’s shaping up to be a very international crowd.

Hope to see you there!

International Facilitation Week 2015 is Here!

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As we mentioned earlier this year, we are encouraging our NCDD members to participate in International Facilitation Week, a week-long event showcasing and celebrating the power of facilitation that is catalyzed by the International Association of Facilitators. The week starts today, October 19th and runs through October 25th, so we wanted to send out a little reminder to our community to join in!

If you’re looking for events in your region, you can check out the running list of happenings that IAF created by clicking here. The good folks at Intellitics – one of our of NCDD organizational members – is also hosting an Online Facilitation Unconference from Oct. 22nd-24th, so make sure to check them out too!

We also encourage you to follow this week’s conversation and events on Twitter! You can follow the handles @FacWeek and @IAFacilitators, and search the hashtag #FacWeek to join in.

Here’s to a great IFW 2015!

PCP Interfaith Dialogue Leaders featured in TV Documentary

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We are quite excited to encourage our members to take the rare opportunity this Monday to check out D&D work on TV! The team at Public Conversations Project – an NCDD member organization – shared that two interfaith dialogue leaders that they work with will be featured in part 2 of a 7-part documentary series presented by Oprah beginning Oct. 18th. We encourage you to learn more about this great series or read PCP’s original announcement here.

Interfaith Dialogue Partners Featured on Oprah’s “Belief”

PCP new logoOn Sunday, October 18, Oprah Winfrey presents the landmark television event “Belief,” a week-long documentary series airing over seven consecutive nights that depicts how people with a wide range of beliefs search for deeper meaning and connection with the world around them.

Through vivid, emotional storytelling and cinematic visual imagery, Belief illuminates the best of faith and spiritual practices from around the world – the rituals, stories and relationships that bind us all together as human beings. This groundbreaking original series invites viewers to witness some of the world’s most fascinating spiritual journeys through the eyes of the believers.

Public Conversations Project partners Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa, of the Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC) in Nigeria, are featured in Episode 2 (on Monday, October 19, entitled “Belief: Love’s Story”). The two men have pioneered interfaith dialogue training across northern Nigeria, enhancing peace and stability in a region marred by outbreaks of religious violence. Over the past five years, Public Conversations, and our partners at UMass Boston and the IMC developed a new model of dialogue based on shared tenets of the Bible and Koran, and have trained hundreds of community leaders to facilitate dialogue about religion and other divisive issues in their neighborhoods and places of worship.

Read about our work on interfaith dialogue in Nigeria, and check out the new hybrid model of dialogue we developed together, as well as a story in The Christian Science Monitor.

Traveling to the far reaches of world, and to places cameras have rarely been, Belief searches the origins of diverse faiths and the heart of what really matters. From the epic to the intimate, webbed throughout each hour are stories of people on spiritual journeys, taking them to sacred spaces. These stories and others will all lead us to ask: “What do you believe?”.

The series will premiere on Sunday, October 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on OWN.

Check out the trailer!

You can find the original version of this PCP blog post at www.publicconversations.org/news/interfaith-dialogue-partners-featured-oprahs-belief#sthash.xoSFSVnk.dpuf