Category Archives: exploration

EP Shares Article on the Poverty of Partisan Identity

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In this piece published on The Fulcrum, “The poverty of partisan identity” by Daniel Pritchard of NCDD sponsor organization Essential Partners, he challenges the belief that our identities, particularly the partisan facets, are leading to the decline of our democracy. He responds that it is actually the immense complexity of our identities that make our democracy, and society, richer and more vibrant. He states, “To sustain this democracy, we must work to make space for the complex and contradictory identities within us and within each other. It must become the fabric of our civil and civic lives, a democratic method that makes all the rest of democracy possible.” Below is a brief write-up from the Essential Partners’ site and the original can be found here.

The poverty of partisan identity: op/ed at The Fulcrum

Today The Fulcrum published “The poverty of partisan identity,” an opinion article by EP Director of Strategic Communications Daniel E. Pritchard.

In his article, Daniel makes the case for a democracy that’s built on individual relationships rather than partisan identities, a democracy that makes space for nuance conversations and manifold identities. He writes:

Partisan identity has incorporated every fault line of American politics — with little ideological consistency — while refashioning views about wholly local problems, formerly transpartisan issues and institutional norms.

The poverty of public discourse stems from the domination of these two highly polarized identities, and the high level of polarization today stems from the flattening of every public discussion beneath this electoral opposition.

Read the rest of the article at The Fulcrum, a digital news organization focused exclusively on efforts to reverse the dysfunctions plaguing American democracy.

You can find the original version of this on Essential Partners’ blog at www.whatisessential.org/blog/poverty-partisan-identity-oped-fulcrum.

Sign up by Sept. 20th to Join “The Lovable City” Effort

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From our friends at Civic Dinners have initiated a new city-centered conversation movement called, The Lovable City, starting October! Learn more in the blurb below and make sure you sign your city up by Saturday, September 20th to participate.

“This October we are thrilled to be launching The Lovable City conversation in 100 cities across the United States. The Lovable City will support conversations between residents, local government and civic leaders as people gather around the dinner table to co-create a better future for their city.”

You can learn more in the post below and find the original on The Lovable City site here.

The Lovable City – Powered by Civic Dinners

So far, 36 cities have signed onboard to co-create a better future together around the dinner table! Shoutout to Decatur, GA and Clarkston, GA for being the first two cities to join! Want to make sure your city in in? Sign-up your city before September 20, 2019!

Why Lovable?

We believe people should love the city they’re in. A city should inspire a sense of inclusion, identity, and pride. Residents should feel engaged and optimistic about the future of their community and their place in it.

In today’s highly mobile society, it’s much easier for people to choose where they live, and people are choosier than ever. Most people may come to a city for school, for work, or for love, but they stay because of how a city makes them feel. How do we convince people to put down roots, to settle, grow, and invest in their communities? Modern cities are being challenged to provide a more lovable environment for their residents to not merely survive, but to thrive, or people will be tempted to go elsewhere.

Our award-winning platform, Civic Dinners, has helped cities create stronger social infrastructure and build greater trust between residents and civic leaders.

Love your city?

Here’s how you can bring The Lovable City to your city:

Become a City Sponsor – Do you consider yourself a civic leader, elected official or business leader invested in the future of your city? Sponsoring The Lovable City can help you create a brave space for residents to hear from one another, share what they love most about your city and what they’d love to love, and discover key insights that can be used to support future strategic planning, city branding or civic engagement. Learn more here!

Become a City Delegate – Do you love your city, despite its challenges, and L-O-V-E organizing and leading change in your community About 1% of a city’s population are “co-creators”, the ones who push a city forward, make it more lovable, more attractive, and more prosperous. If you are a co-creator, we invite you to become a City Delegate and launch the Lovable City in restaurants, homes, and offices in your city, this October! Learn more here!

Sign-up to Stay Informed – Love your city? Love food? Love bringing people together? Then you’ll love participating in The Lovable City! If your city joins the conversation, we’d love for you to host a Civic Dinner on The Lovable City to help bring people together to talk about what they love about their city, what they’d love to love, and how they’d like to be more engaged. Help voices who aren’t usually heard find a seat at the table. Learn more here!

You can learn more on Civic Dinner’s The Lovable City site at www.thelovablecity.com/.

Funder Collaborative Civic Science Fellowship Announced

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Last week we shared this great paid fellowship opportunity on our Making-A-Living listserv and we wanted to also lift it up here to tap the larger civic engagement network! The 12-month fellowship will seek to “catalyze widespread engagement with science and its societal implication” and “lead the development of a shared vision and strategy for future collaborative work among funders in the civic science space”. Location of the fellowship has the potential to be flexible and applications are due Thursday, August 15th. Learn more in the post below and find the original on the Rita Allen Foundation site here.

Position Announcement: Funder Collaborative Civic Science Fellow

To catalyze widespread engagement with science and its societal implications, funders invite applicants for a Civic Science Fellowship.

Summary

A collaboration of funders with a shared interest in the relationship between science and society invite applicants for a Funder Collaborative Civic Science Fellow. The Fellow will work for 12 months to advance emerging collaborative work among relevant programs at the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, The Kavli Foundation, and the Rita Allen Foundation. The Fellow will be part of the inaugural class of Civic Science Fellows, which aims to build the capacity of emerging leaders, networks, and institutions working to meaningfully connect science and society in a time of rapid change.

Vision, Opportunity, and Background

The need for a more robust, mutual, and equitable relationship between science and society has never been more urgent. Individuals, communities, and our global population face accelerating and increasingly complicated challenges. Rapidly evolving, highly complex science contributes to these challenges and holds the promise of shaping solutions—gene editing, artificial intelligence, and ocean conservation are just a few examples of acutely relevant, socially charged, and potentially transformative areas of research. The research community must understand and respond to the societal context in which it exists if it is to remain a relevant and robust element of society. Charting the course for this science in democratic societies requires not only technical scientific answers, but also deep engagement with issues including ethics, community values and needs, economics, and public health.

The funders in the collaborative are brought together by a shared vision, one that we bring in our efforts to serve science communication, public engagement, science, and the public broadly. We believe science is one of our most important tools for developing knowledge about ourselves and understanding the world around us; however, it has become increasingly viewed as separate from society. Many science engagement efforts seek to focus on specific effects of this disconnect (e.g., threats to federal funding for basic science). We, with our partners in the field, have begun to explore what might be the primary causes of the problem, and the opportunities they present: to form new connections and collaborations that can fuel more meaningful, inclusive integration of science in society.

This shared understanding of the opportunity space has served as a catalyst for an emerging funder collaborative. We are in the position to build bridges and leverage different expertise and resources across sectors, from our organizations and others, in order to more effectively serve the scientific ecosystem as well as diverse communities affected by scientific discovery and application. A process of shared learning and exploration can accelerate our common understanding of approaches and techniques to effectively address the roots of the disconnect between science and society, as well as help us identify areas of shared collaboration or coordination for greater impact in supporting those leading, innovating, and working at this interface.

The initial cohort of Science in Society Collaborative members are philanthropies, each with individual missions and focus, but with substantial overlap in how we approach science engagement. We all support efforts that promote science as a way of knowing. We all believe that a lack of adequate knowledge about science within communities is not sufficient to explain the growing communication gap between scientists and society. We all recognize the need to diversify who is engaged in the scientific conversation. We all recognize that the field would benefit from evidence-based approaches and methodically developed best practices. And critically, we all agree that effective work in this field requires listening to and understanding specific communities and audiences in order to effectively engage with them.

The Position

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, The Kavli Foundation, and the Rita Allen Foundation seek a Civic Science fellow who, through a 12-month fellowship, will help explore a common vision and identify paths forward for collaborative action and impact. We see an opportunity to coordinate our efforts; learn from each other; learn from grantees, partners, and diverse communities; and break down silos or jargon that may separate us. The Fellow will join a group who shares a commitment to increasing diversity in our own work and field, integrating justice and equity into the work we do, and ensuring an inclusive culture.

The Civic Science Fellow will initially work with the six foundations listed above to advance a shared vision, help each foundation learn about our peers’ specific goals and objectives related to this shared vision, and develop a strategy for moving forward on collaborations to reach our shared goals, serve diverse audiences, and catalyze more effective engagement with science. The Fellow will:

  • Lead the development of a shared vision and strategy for future collaborative work among funders in the civic science space. This may take the shape, for example, of a shared blueprint—a strategic document outlining shared objectives and goals, a common theory of change, and an articulation of what success will look like, across multiple communities and objectives.
    • Embed, or meaningfully connect with, each partner foundation to develop a more nuanced understanding of goals, trends, and theories of change.
    • Connect with the field, communities of public engagement research and practice, and communities underserved by existing science communication efforts to allow their goals, objectives, and efforts to inform the blueprint.
    • Facilitate and incorporate ongoing feedback from foundation partners. Share progress and insights on the blueprint development.
    • Apply learnings from embedded experience and other resources to inform potential collective structures and approaches that foundation partners could use to advance field.
    • Develop and present a set of recommendations (including, but not limited to, scope, sequencing, resourcing, and risks) detailing how the collaborative can work together to develop joint programming, co-invest, and share learnings, drawing on a growing body of related social scientific research, crossing disciplinary boundaries when helpful, and maintaining focus on benefiting and including diverse communities.
    • Identify areas of prospective collaboration with other foundations active in work related to civic science, or interested in contributing to and applying best practices.
  • Incorporate an approach for assessing the feasibility of ways forward described in the blueprint, as well as methods for ensuring ongoing shared learning from our collective efforts.
  • Recommend necessary inputs and key milestones/timing to meet blueprint goals.

We believe the opportunity to experience each Foundation’s culture and processes will be an asset in the Fellow’s success to coordinate and support the collaborative. The Kavli Foundation, based in Los Angeles, CA, and/or the Rita Allen Foundation in Princeton, NJ, will provide the primary post for the Fellow. We expect the Fellow will spend meaningful time embedded with each foundation partner. We are willing to discuss potential variations of this location and approach with the Fellow, as long as it prioritizes meaningful time with each foundation.

The Civic Science Fellow will be part of the inaugural class of Civic Science Fellows—individuals housed at various institutions to advance a myriad of ways people and science connect. These fellows will attend one annual convening and participate in regular monthly meetings to share learnings from their different embedded perspectives.

The Fellow will report to, and be guided by, an advisory group composed of representatives from foundation partners.

Skills and Attributes

  • 5+ years experience in science communication, public engagement with science, informal science education, learning, collective action, or related fields.
  • Experience in crafting strategic, forward-looking plans and reports.
  • Experience in program or project management.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively.
  • Shares our commitment to increasing racial diversity in the science communication landscape, integrating justice and equity into the work we do, and ensuring an inclusive organizational culture.
  • Familiarity with philanthropy.
  • Ability and flexibility to travel, primarily in the United States.
  • Have initiative, be entrepreneurial, and think strategically and long-term.

To Apply

Send a cover letter describing your interest in this position, a resume or CV, and a work or writing sample reflecting analysis of themes and opportunities, to civicscience@ritaallen.org. Applications received by August 15, 2019, will be given priority.

The salary for this full-time, 12-month position is $80K plus benefits.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds. The Rita Allen Foundation is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, sexual orientation or expression, gender, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, military status, genetic information or any other protected characteristic as established under law. All individuals are welcomed and encouraged to apply.

You can find the original version of this announcement on the Rita Allen Foundation site at www.ritaallen.org/stories/funder-civic-science-fellow/.

Chill out with this Summer D&D Podcast Compilation!

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It’s been a while since we offered a compilation of podcasts related to dialogue, deliberation, and engagement work. So for your summer enjoyment, we’ve compiled some excellent listens for you to kick back to while on your summer vacation, tune into while you’re at work, or however you enjoy! Let us know which one of these podcasts resonate with you in the comments section below. If we are missing some of your favorite podcasts or standalone episodes – we’d love to hear that as well so we can add them to this growing list!

From NCDD members

  • NCDD members, Erin and David Leaverton launched their new podcast, Hello My Name is America! Their new podcast shares the experiences of the individuals they met along the way on their one-year dialogue tour of the US and seeks to explore the root causes of divisions in the US. Listen here.
  • NCDDers Tim Merry and Tuesday Ryan-Hart host the podcast, The Outside, a joint conversation to bring in the fresh air necessary for large-scale systems change and equity. Listen here.
  • NCDD member Reva Patwardhan hosts the Dialogue Lab podcast and offers conversations to inspire listeners to thrive while making an impact. Listen here.
  • The McCourtney Institute for Democracy, an NCDD member org, has been running their podcast, Democracy Works, with hosts Michael Berkman and Chris Beem on various democracy issues and interview people working in democracy. Listen to it here.
  • NCDD member organization, the National Institute for Civil Discourse, has several podcasts related to dialogue and NICD’s work, which you can listen to by clicking here.

From the NCDD network

  • James Madison Center for Civic Engagement just released their first six episodes of Democracy Matters – “A podcast exploring themes related to civic engagement in order to build a more inclusive, just, and equitable democracy”. Listen here.
  • Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program just started a new podcast, Thanks for Listening, “this podcast will spotlight efforts to bridge the political divide in the U.S. through dialogue and collaborative processes, profiling the important and often courageous work of individuals and organizations who are helping citizens engage with one another on challenging topics”. Listen here.
  • Everyday Conversations on Race for Everyday People, “is a podcast that brings people together across race and culture for open comfortable conversations about race in a casual setting to close the racial divide”. Listen here.
  • Conversations With People Who Hate Me by Dylan Marron, was recommended to us by Sage Snider as their favorite dialogue podcast. Check it out here.
  • Real Democracy Now! is a podcast based out of Australia and has several seasons that you can listen to here:
  • Engaging Local Government Leaders has a podcast about local government called Gov Love, which you can find here, and their goal “is to tell informative and unique stories about the work being done at the local level”.
  • Center for Civic Education has a podcast 60-Second Civics, which is a “daily podcast that provides a quick and convenient way for listeners to learn about our nation’s government, the Constitution, and our history”. Listen here.
  • The Aspen Institute has a podcast which you can listen to here, and is “working across the globe, bringing together people from different backgrounds, experiences, and points of view, to work together and find solutions to our world’s most complex challenges”.
  • The Civil Conversations Project is hosted by Krista Tippett from On Being, and “is a conversation-based, virtues-based resource towards hospitable, trustworthy relationship with and across difference”. Listen here.

Standalone episodes related to D&D:

  • NCDD Board Chair Martin Carcasson spoke with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science on “Turning Conflict into Collaboration” about how we can have better conversations and work together on our “wicked problems”. Listen here.
  • NCDD board member Jacob Hess and long-time NCDD member Liz Joyner spoke on the podcast Next Door Stranger about their exciting effort their leading, Respect+Rebellion. Listen to Episode 5: Rebellion on Campus here.
  • NCDDer Lenore Bajare-Dukes helped create, “Left, Right & Center presents: Two Years, Diaries of a Divided Nation”, which is an “audio documentary following six v. different people in the Trump era has to say about polarization, identity, and dialogue”. Listen here.
  • Godcast podcast features “conversations about difficult devotion and restive religion”. Listen here.
  • The Private Side of Public Work featured CEO Matt Crozier of Bang the Table in this episode on their work and how to motivate people to be engaged. Listen here.
  • Conversations that Matter featured Valerie Lemming of NCDD member org, the Kettering Foundation. Via CTM: “In Episode 1 of our 7-part series on Democracy and the Media, Stu sat down with Valerie Lemmie of the Kettering Foundation to explore the current state of citizen engagement, the role that it plays in protecting Democracy, and how it has come under fire as the bombastic politics of the United States bleed over into the political mindsets of other nations.” You can read the article here and listen to the podcast on iTunes.
  • Shared with us via the EngagePhase Weekly newsletter:
    • EngagePhase recently shared the Talking Politics podcast and lifted up the episode on deliberative democracy. What can deliberative democracy add to traditional forms of political representation and how might it actually work in practice? Episode 135: Talking Politics guide to … Deliberative Democracy
    • “The latest episode of the No Jargon podcast features John Gastil, a professor at Penn State, in a discussion about citizen juries and some of the latest research into their inner workings and effectiveness”: Episode 117: The Citizen Expert
    • “A recent episode of the Reasons to Be Cheerful podcast featured guests James Fishkin (Stanford University) and Sarah Allan (Involve UK) in a discussion about various democracy innovations”: Episode 20. Rescuing Democracy: From Ancient Athens to Brexit

Don’t forget to check out the NCDD podcast too!

  • Episode One featured NCDD Managing Director, Courtney Breese and our former Board Chair Barbara Simonetti, on a powerful metaphor she realized which compares the D&D field to a multi-purpose public utility – click here to listen!
  • Episode Two told the story of Conversation Café by stewards of the process, co-creator Susan Partnow, past steward Jacquelyn Pogue, and NCDD staffer Keiva Hummel – click here to listen!
  • Episode Three was on the opportunities for D&D in Congress with Brad Fitch of the Congressional Management Foundation and our own Courtney Breese – click here to listen!
  • Episode Four had  Journalism that Matters Executive Director Peggy Holman and Board President Michelle Ferrier discuss their thoughts about connecting journalists and public engagement practitioners – click here to listen!
  • Episode Five featured Julie Winokur of Bring it to the Table and their work on bridging political divides and healing partisanship – click here to listen!

Stay tuned to the blog as we work to release more NCDD podcasts in the future! We have a lot of great ideas in store that we would love to share with you and we encourage you to consider donating to NCDD in show of support to the larger dialogue and deliberation community or join as a member!

Fourth Annual Civic Institute Hosted by DMC on Aug. 16

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The fourth annual Civic Institute is happening Friday, August 16th, hosted by NCDD member org the David Mathews Center for Civic Life. This will be one of the premier events dedicated to strengthening civic life in Alabama and will be a fantastic opportunity for those doing civic engagement work throughout the state.  DMC recently announced the session line up which you can read more below and on the DMC’s site here.

2019 Civic Institute: Sessions Announced

Join us Friday, August 16th at the American Village in Montevallo, Alabama for an exploration of the forces that pull us closer. 

The 2019 Civic Institute is your chance to connect with civic-minded change-makers and thought leaders from across Alabama in a dialogue on our state’s past, present, and future.

This year’s theme is “Closer to Home” and the day will be packed with engaging speakers and interactive sessions centered around some of the most profound issues we encounter as Alabamians. The Civic Institute is the perfect event to collectively ponder the power of our citizens and our communities to build the kind of Alabama they want to call home. Dr. David Mathews, president and CEO of the Kettering Foundation, will deliver the luncheon keynote address. Breakfast and lunch are provided.

We’ll gather from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM on Friday, August 16th at the American Village in Montevallo for a day of panels, sessions, conversations, and more. View FAQs and save your seat today here!

If you are registering a total of three or more people to attend the day-long event, you are eligible to save 10% per person. Contact the event organizer, Kate Zeliff, at kmauldin@mathewscenter.org with the details and you will receive a promotional code.

Interested in helping to sponsor the Civic Institute? Click here to find out more.

Sessions:
*Each participant will attend two of the six sessions, which run concurrently.

Inside Out: Strategies for Resisting Disconnection and Crafting Civic Identity in Alabama Communities and Prisons

This session will explore the responsibility we all share for welcoming the formerly incarcerated back into the fold of public life. We will deconstruct the core tenants of civiclife (education, participation, socialization, work, etc.) as they serve to define and limit the carceral subject. This session will feature speakers on the front lines of this work who are making investments into the currently and formerly incarcerated; from teaching college courses behind bars to providing housing for women during reentry, we will explore creative strategies for resisting disconnection and isolation through dialogue and deliberation. Read more and register here.

The Benefit of the Doubt: Preparing Ourselves for Authentic Engagement and Productive Disagreement

What does it mean to engage with each other in “good faith”? What does it mean to afford our neighbor “the benefit of the doubt”? What, exactly, is the benefit of assuming the best in a stranger? There are plenty of opportunities to become involved as a formal practitioner of dialogue and deliberation, but far fewer chances for us to examine the ways we interact with friends, neighbors, and strangers interpersonally. This session is about how to act—how to let down our individual and collective defenses to bring strangeness closer and become comfortable living with the ambiguity and uncertainty that characterizes community work and public identity. Read more and register here.

Building a Durable Life: The Impact of Social Infrastructure on Alabama’s Public Health

Often regulated to the realm of professionals, health may be one of the most ubiquitous, yet compartmentalized topics of daily life. And like any other issue of both public and deeply personal concern, expert terms will only ever be a part of its definition. Considering people’s lived experiences, and the spaces, networks, and cultural contexts in which they occur, is vital to understanding the importance of social infrastructure in public health. This session will view health not just as a result of research and medicine, but also as a product of dynamics hidden in plain sight. Read more and register here.

Geographical Imaginations: The Role of Storytelling in Southern Culture and Identity

Stories help us make meaning of the world, and there is perhaps no region of America more storied than the South. But Southern stories, like most, aren’t simple. The stories of home that we tell ourselves and each other are intertwined with history and collective mythmaking. Some stories are passed down from generation to generation, while some stories are lost, forgotten, and/or erased—and must be recuperated. This session will explore some of the groundbreaking work being done to resuscitate the stories of marginalized voices in Southern history, and will examine the narrative structures of feeling that undergird our public and private identities. Read more and register here.

Found in Translation: Engaging Communities Across the Language Barrier

Talking about difficult issues is challenging in any language. In every community there are problems to solve, limited resources, and different perspectives. Cultural and language barriers can make communicating about shared problems and opportunities an even greater challenge. But these barriers represent rich worlds on each side, and sometimes in order to address problems well—and heal divides—it becomes necessary to look at an issue from a broader vantage point. This session will feature community leaders who represent, and often inhabit both worlds daily, working to bring people together across language and cultural barriers in Alabama communities. Read more and register here.

A Public Enterprise: Civic Education and Community Collaboration in Workforce Development

Active citizenship and civic education are rarely the first things that come to mind when discussing workforce development. This panel seeks to change that perception. The dedicated Alabamians featured in this session are working in their communities to create programming that prepares the next generation for a successful career and for active citizenship. Panelists are leaders in Alabama’s workforce development field, who will highlight the essential role of partnership, collaboration, and community engagement in effectively preparing young Alabamians for the jobs of the future. Read more and register here.

View FAQs and save your seat today here! If you have additional questions, contact the event organizer, Kate Zeliff, at kmauldin@mathewscenter.org. We hope to see you on August 16th!

You can find the original version of this announcement on the David Mathews Center blog at www.mathewscenter.org/2019-civic-institute-sessions/.

Understanding and Engaging in Challenging Conversations

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While challenging conversations can be hard, they are not impossible, and many in this field have been working to better understand conflict and how to actually have challenging conversations. The article written by Yasmeen Wafai, called “Why Difficult Conversations Can Actually Be a Good Thing” offers several groups working to understand this phenomenon and mentions the work of NCDD member organization National Issues Forums Institute and The Difficult Conversations Lab founded by Peter Coleman. Below you can read the NIFI’s blog post with excerpts of the article (which can be found here) and we encourage you to read the original article here.

Read the Article in “YES! Magazine” – “Why Difficult Conversations Can Actually Be a Good Thing” by Yasmeen Wafai

A July 10, 2019 article in YES! Magazine, by Yasmeen Wafai, describes several examples of methods to help people talk productively about difficult public issues, including The Difficult Conversations Lab founded by Peter Coleman, and the National Issues Forums.

The following are excerpts from the article:

The Difficult Conversations Lab was founded in the early 2000s by Peter Coleman, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University. He said the lab was created to study deeply rooted, complicated, and hard-to-solve conflicts. He wanted to understand why conflicts in families, communities, and in the international arena get stuck in a destructive pattern…

Contrary to expectation, these conversations do not always go sour and are sometimes constructive, Coleman said. It is not that participants are solving the issues themselves, but they are creating the space to learn something about themselves, the issue, and other viewpoints…

However, Coleman cautions that discussing deeply polarizing issues can backfire. Instead, he suggests finding a group or organization like the National Issues Forums, which are designed to bring people together in a safe space to have wide-ranging, moderated discussions….

Click here to read the full article.

You can find this announcement on the National Issues Forums Institute blog at www.nifi.org/en/read-article-yes-magazine-why-difficult-conversations-can-actually-be-good-thing-yasmeen-wafai.

Essential Partners Awarded Grant for Community-Police Dialogue Series

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We are pleased to share that NCDD sponsor org Essential Partners has recently been awarded a $25,000 grant to support community-police dialogues in the Raleigh-Durham area. The award supports a two-year long dialogue series between communities of color and law enforcement, stemming from an earlier dialogue series pilot. You can read the press release below and find the original version on the EP site here.

PRESS RELEASE: Essential Partners Receives $25,000 Grant for Police / Community Dialogues in Raleigh-Durham

Raleigh, NC – Essential Partners (EP) has been awarded a two-year, $25,000 grant from the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution Foundation (AAA-ICDR Foundation) to support dialogues between law enforcement and communities of color in the Raleigh-Durham area.

Essential Partners will train twenty dialogue facilitators based in the local community and equip them with guides to support resident engagement and crisis response. EP will also provide coaching and consultation to support new police-community dialogues in the Raleigh-Durham area, with the goal of involving as many as 500 residents and officers.

Kate Deiter-Maradei, a mediator based in Raleigh, has led this project working with a coalition of area residents and law enforcement officers in collaboration with Essential Partners since 2016, when she first reached out to EP for support.

Essential Partners has since trained 22 local facilitators who engaged residents and officers through a pilot dialogue series.

One participant in that pilot dialogue series said: “As a black mother, I participated because I want to save my son from harm, and I feared for our safety. I no longer have that fear—just a belief that my community is stronger and there are honest police officers who care about me and my son.”

The police officers involved in the pilot dialogues spoke of forging new connections with citizens. They said these EP-designed public dialogues supported stronger community relationships in a new way.

“Kate and her amazing crew of volunteer facilitators are some of the most dedicated and courageous folks I have ever had the honor of working with,” said John Sarrouf, Essential Partners co-Executive Director.

For thirty years, Essential Partners has helped communities address polarized conflicts driven by differences in values, views, and identities. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, the nonprofit organization works around the globe on issues such as the Syrian refugee crisis, violent extremism, campus free speech, and abortion.

Established in 2015, The American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution Foundation funds domestic and international projects. Its goal is to expand the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), improving the process, increasing access to ADR for those who cannot afford it, and sharing knowledge across different cultures.

Press Contact
Daniel Evans Pritchard
Essential Partners
daniel@whatisessential.org
617-923-1216, x 24

You can find the original version of this press release on the Essential Partners’ blog at www.whatisessential.org/blog/press-release-essential-partners-receives-25000-grant-police-community-dialogues-raleigh-durham.

New Paper: Participatory Budgeting Improves Civic Voices and Tax Revenues

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NCDD member organization The Participatory Budgeting Project recently shared a new research paper on how participatory budgeting (PB) has been linked to improved civic engagement and increased tax revenue. PB is a process where community members vote on how to spend a portion of public dollars and is increasingly being attributed to bolstering peoples’ faith and practice in local governance. The article written by Loren Peabody shares the research of Michael Touchton, Brian Wampler, and Tiago Peixoto, who found that when people have the opportunity to give input on government spending, they are also more willing to pay their taxes. You can read the article below and find the original on the PBP’s blog here.

New Studies: PB Increases Tax Revenue as it Grows the Number of Voices in Government

New ideas often get a skeptical response, and participatory budgeting (PB) is no exception. One common doubt: while PB may be admirable, unfortunately governments just can’t afford it.

A new World Bank working paper by Michael Touchton, Brian Wampler, and Tiago Peixoto concludes just the opposite — PB and participatory institutions actually improve government balance sheets by boosting residents’ willingness to pay taxes. While most strategies for improving tax compliance rely on tougher enforcement or easier filing processes, these researchers provide evidence that people more readily pay their share of taxes when they feel they have a voice in the policy-making process and when they believe that governments are more transparent and deliver better services.

The study investigates a database of 5,570 Brazilian municipalities over a 13-year period, an ideal setting to see if participatory institutions have an impact on tax collection for several reasons. First, Brazilian cities have more legal autonomy and greater responsibility for delivering public services than municipal governments in the United States. One outcome of this autonomy was participatory budgeting itself–first developed in Porto Alegre in 1989 before spreading across the country. What’s less well known is that Brazil has also been a leader in developing public policy councils, which are co-governance institutions made up of officials and members of the public that formulate policy and oversee government performance.

Finally, Brazilian cities vary widely in the quality of their governance and their ability to collect tax revenue. Some municipalities have received considerable acclaim for their public administration. Curitiba, for example, has won awards for its sustainability and transportation planning. Others display a dynamic that is all-too-common in developing countries: poorly functioning governments lose public legitimacy, making individuals reluctant to pay their taxes and leading to a downward spiral as the government can’t obtain the revenue needed to improve performance.

Touchton, Wampler, and Peixoto find that both forms of participatory institutions — policy councils and participatory budgeting — have a positive and statistically-significant association with collecting more tax revenue. Municipalities with higher-than-average use of policy councils collect 27% more tax revenue than cities without the councils (averaged across different measures of tax collection). The relationship is even stronger with participatory budgeting: “On average, municipalities with PB have tax outcomes that are 34% greater than those without PB… [and] municipalities with PB for over 8 years have tax outcomes that are 39% greater than those without PB.”

Causation? Or Coincidence?

A skeptical reader would wonder exactly how the causation works here. It could be that some unobserved factor improves tax collection practices and simultaneously prompts governments to adopt PB and policy councils — rather than the participatory institutions being the cause of the improvement. To minimize this possibility, the researchers used a statistical technique called matching that pairs up cities that are similar in terms of their local economic and political conditions and in terms of proxy measures for their administrative capacity, but that differ with respect to whether or not they implemented participatory institutions.

In contrast to surveys or lab experiments, a strength of this research design is the ability to show that a link between public participation, good governance, and tax compliance can be observed in the real world. On the other hand, the study’s real-world setting could also mean that the findings only apply to the Brazilian context. To investigate the generalizability of these relationships, Tiago Peixoto teamed up with Fredrik M. Sjoberg, Jonathan Mellon, Johannes Hemker, and Lily L. Tsai for an additional study that performed an online survey experiment involving 65,000 respondents from 50 different countries. It found that across widely disparate contexts, individuals were more likely to report a stronger commitment to tax compliance when they are given an opportunity to voice their preferences about government spending (a simple simulation of taking part in PB).

Of all PB’s positive impacts that researchers have been documenting–including increased public investment in low-income communities, more active civil society, higher voter turnout, improved public health and well-being — improved tax collection may have the most impact of all, by increasing the total revenue available to address public needs. It can also help buttress the argument that deep, equitable democratic participation is valuable in itself by showing it is also a practical solution to some key problems cities face. As Touchton, Wampler, and Peixoto put it, “Governments that adopt participatory institutions make investments in democratic accountability and legitimacy that pay dividends in tax revenue. In turn, more revenue can increase the capacity to deliver better services, which begets still more legitimacy.”

You can find the original version of this article on the Participatory Budgeting Project’s blog at www.participatorybudgeting.org/pb-and-tax-revenue/.

Ben Franklin Circles Announces Free Online Course Series

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Our friends at Ben Franklin Circles shared this announcement with us about an exciting new online course they are launching at the end of July! This free course series will offer the opportunity to learn with a cohort about how to start and convene your own Ben Franklin Circle. Classes will be online every Thursday and registrants will receive a copy of Priya Parker’s book, The Art of Gathering. Registration closes July 19th, so don’t delay! If you do participate, we encourage you to share with us how it goes in the comments section below or by reaching out to keiva@ncdd.org! We’d love to hear about it and potentially share it on the blog. You can learn more about the Circle class in the post below and find the original information on the BFC site here.

Free class helps you start your own Circle

We are excited to announce that we will be kicking off something new this July – an online course in starting a Ben Franklin Circle! (New to Ben Franklin Circles? Visit our homepage.)

Have you considered hosting but first want to familiarize yourself with the format? Or want a little more guidance on how to make it a success? Join us for this opportunity to go through the process with a small cohort of other hosts who are also just beginning. Over six sessions, you’ll assemble your group, plan and hold your first meeting, and get real-time feedback along the way. By the end, you’ll have your Circle up-and-running and have a community of peers to turn to for support and inspiration as you go.

Like everything BFC, you can think of what is offered like an outfit that you try on, keep what you like, let go of the rest, and as always, include your own style.

How will it work? Starting Thursday, July 25th, 6 one-hour zoom video sessions will walk participants through the process of starting a circle. Led by experienced Ben Franklin Circle Host, Kim Crowley, each session is a chance to share your progress, workshop questions and exchange feedback on everything from location to the plan for your first meeting.

Who is it designed for?
This course is for those who:

  • Have decided to start a Ben Franklin Circle.
  • Will organize their Circle as we go.
  • Will host a first meeting in the Fall of 2019. The class will set you up to do this. Those with earlier start dates are also welcome!
  • Plan to attend all 6 sessions.
  • Are open to receiving and giving thoughtful feedback.

Start a Ben Franklin Circle Over six sessions, you’ll assemble your Circle, plan and hold your first meeting, and get real-time feedback along the way. By the end, you’ll have your Circle up-and-running and have a community of peers to turn to for support and inspiration as you go. Led by experienced Ben Franklin Circle Host, Kim Crowley, each session is a chance to share your progress, workshop questions and exchange feedback on everything from location to the plan for your first meeting.

Participants receive a free copy of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. Author Priya Parker explores how to create a meaningful gathering with helpful tips and a wide range of examples.

Schedule
Every other Thursday from 7:00-8:00 pm EST (6:00 CT, 5:00 MT, 4:00 PT)

  • Session 1: July 25th.                     Talking about BFC and recruiting members
  • Session 2: August 8th                   Outreach and invitations
  • Session 3: August 22nd                 Location, scheduling & engagement
  • Session 4: September 5th             Recruitment check-in
  • Session 5: September 19th           Plan for 1st meeting
  • Session 6: Nov 7th                        Check-in, recap and celebrate!

Registration
Complete an application and sign up HERE

Registration deadline: Friday, July 19th.
Space is limited. This is a free course.

Direct questions or inquiries to Danyel Addes at daddes@92y.org

You can find the original version of this announcement on the BFC blog at www.benfranklincircles.org/tips-advice/online-class.

Understanding Our Perceptions of Civic Language

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Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement released their new report last month, The Civic Language Perceptions Project, which explores the different perceptions of how “civic work” language is used. The initial sentence in the summary states the importance of this work succinctly, “when your work is as grand and complex as democracy—and as dependent on shared understanding and participation—language and effective communication are critical”. We encourage folks to read about the project below and find the original version of this information on the PACE site here.

Language Perceptions Project

In late 2018, PACE undertook a research effort to better understand the perceptions of language our field uses to describe civic engagement and democracy work. In other words, when we say “civic engagement” or “democracy” or “patriotism,” “activism,” or “justice” to most Americans, what do they hear?  And what does it mean to them?

The exploration took shape in both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Our research team included Topos Partnership, communications experts who led a series of focus groups to delve into these words and phrases, and Dr. Parissa Ballard, a researcher at Wake Forest School of Medicine, who developed and distributed a detailed online survey. Both approaches elicited feedback from a diverse and nationally representative sample of participants. It was limited in size and scope, but we hope may illuminate possibilities for additional exploration. (To learn more about the inspiration for our exploration, view a high-level summary.)

The research illuminated a great deal about Americans’ relationship to civic language. Click here for the summary report from PACE, highlighting what we heard.

This summary was drawn from comprehensive memos from our research teams, detailing results from both focus group conversations and survey data:

A central goal of this effort was to spark conversation—both about what we heard, and how the findings might inform the work of practitioners.  Below are two resources that can serve to guide discussions:

This project was made possible with collaboration and/or support from the Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity, Kettering Foundation, Fetzer Institute, Ford Foundation, the National Conference on Citizenship, and the Pritzker Innovation Fund. We also acknowledge the contributions of the working group that provided insight and guidance that was invaluable to the conceptualization and execution of this project.

You can find the original version of this announcement on the PACE site at www.pacefunders.org/language/.