Category Archives: From the Community

Linking Deliberation & Power for Better Democracy

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The gap between the outcomes of D&D processes and real power to implement them is one that our field has struggled with for years. What could be possible if the well-considered recommendations and outcomes of deliberative democracy processes were given the legal power of decisions made through direct democracy? That’s the question that the team at Public Agenda – an NCDD member org – asked recently in on their blog (spoiler alert: they think it would look like PB), and we think their reflections are valuable for us to consider. We encourage you to read their piece below or find the original version here.

Deliberative + Direct = Better Democracy?

Following the Brexit vote in mid-2016, many U.K. voters who elected to exit the European Union expressed remorse at their decision. Immediately following the vote, websites explaining its potential consequences received record traffic. Though the decision has yet to play out, the results of Brexit may have profound and long-lasting ill effects on the U.K. economy.

The Brexit vote was an example of direct democracy. Direct democracy enables the public to decide on policy decisions without a proxy, typically through ballot measures or referenda. California is well-known for its use of direct democracy in its many ballot propositions, a practice that started in 1911.

The counterpart to direct democracy is called deliberative democracy. In deliberative democracy, people discuss issues but usually do not make public decisions directly. In contrast, while people do make decisions in direct democracy, they usually don’t discuss those decisions first.

Each form of public engagement has its pros and cons. As we see in the case of the Brexit vote, direct democracy may not necessarily lead to well-considered decisions that benefit the common good and inspire public confidence. Meanwhile, deliberative democracy can and has led to informed recommendations based on common ground from citizens. However, in many instances those recommendations did not affect policy or other decisions. These experiences can leave citizens frustrated and even more distrustful of government.

Could a combination of direct and deliberative democracy better meet the (rightful) demand of the people tohave a greater say in the decisions that affect them? Could it rebuild trust and reduce alienation between the public and its leaders? Could it lead to common ground on decisions that benefit the public good?

These are questions that the present political moment, and its accompanying anxiety, demand that we explore. Luckily, there is a testing ground available for it right now.

Participatory budgeting (PB), a process that enables residents to have a say in how local tax money is spent, is the fastest-growing public engagement process in the U.S. While processes differ from community to community, PB has incorporated both direct and deliberative democratic practices to varying degrees.

As Matt Leighninger points out in a white paper we published in December, the steering committee meetings and neighborhood assemblies that occur at the beginning of the PB cycle, the delegate meetings that take place during the proposal development phase, and the idea expos held before the final vote can be (but are not always) deliberative. Meanwhile, the vote on the proposed ideas at the end of the cycle exemplifies direct democracy.

Can PB improve democracy? Can a combination of direct and deliberative practices achieve a balance that is both well-considered and actionable? To determine those questions, we need a critical mass of communities employing PB in a way that uses both deliberative and direct practices. We also need research that explores these questions specifically.

In the meantime, Matt, who is our vice president of public engagement, starts the conversation in the above-mentioned white paper, “Power to the People! (And Settings for Using It Wisely?)” “Power to the People” examines the extent to which North American PB processes are applying deliberative principles and practices, explores the tensions and challenges in making PB more deliberative, suggests questions for further research and offers recommendations for public officials and practitioners for improving their PB processes.

As Matt writes, “Through the creative exchange between people who care about public participation and approach it with different tools, assumptions and areas of expertise, we may gain the next wave of much-needed democratic reforms.”

To learn more about the extent to which PB employs deliberative principles and processes, click here.

You can find the original version of this Public Agenda blog piece at www.publicagenda.org/blogs/deliberative-direct-better-democracy.

NCDD Discount on Dynamic Facilitation Training

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We are pleased to share the announcement below from NCDD member Rosa Zubizarreta of DiaPraxis about an opportunity for NCDD members to receive a discount on an upcoming training in dynamic facilitation methods. We encourage you to learn more about the opportunity below!
Rosa shared this piece via our great Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news or thoughts you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

Advanced 3-day facilitation training & special offer for NCDD folks

Are you interested in effective ways to help people become curious and interested about differences, instead of defensive and threatened?

Last time I was invited to Maine to offer a Dynamic Facilitation workshop, here’s what one participant wrote afterward about the results of this work: “…a dynamic shift in the capacity of the participants and the group as a whole to hold diversity and complexity with their eyes and hearts wide open.”

It seems to me that these kinds of outcomes are needed more than ever. At the same time, to uplevel our game, we may need to learn to do things somewhat differently. In Germany, Dynamic Facilitation is often described as “ein ganz anders moderieren” (“a very different way of facilitating”). How accurate is that? Below is more info about what we do and how we do it, so you can decide for yourself.

But first, a word about the special offer. One is, as an NCDD member, you qualify for the super-low community fee: $425 early-bird rate, $525 regular rate. And in addition, we have arranged for a two-week extra time period where NCDD members can register at the early-bird rate: so instead of March 1st, you have until March 15th.  Of course, if you already know you want to sign up, here is the link.

Ok, back to what makes this work distinctive:

1) Heart-centered listening. What might “active listening” look like if our aim as facilitators or mediators was not to “be impartial”, but instead, to be “multi-partial” and to really support each participant? In this work, we take a highly relational approach. Our intention as facilitators or mediators is to establish a connection with each person, to really “get” what they are wanting to express, to let them know what we are hearing, and to create a space where they can hear themselves.

As we do this, others are better able to hear that person, too. After facilitating high-friction meetings, it’s quite common that a participant will come up afterward and confess, “I had never really heard before, what so-and-so was trying to say, until you reflected it back to him… It’s like some part of my brain would shut off, whenever he (or she) would start to speak.” While there’s more nuance to heart-centered listening than simply reflecting back what someone is saying, this is one key feature of our work.

2) Welcoming initial solutions. What would happen if as facilitators or mediators, we viewed each person’s “initial solutions” as their best creative effort to date to make sense of a complex situation and to come up with an appropriate response? Of course most initial solutions are usually quite limited, as they are based on the narrow amount of data each person has from their own vantage point in the larger system. And of course we want to support participants in moving beyond initial solutions!

Yet what we’ve discovered is that by welcoming and listening deeply to each initial solution, participants are much more able to take in new information afterward. Once they start hearing one anothers’ initial solutions, along with one another’s various concerns about the various solutions… many of which correspond to divergent ways of framing the initial problem… participants are quick to realize the limitations of these initial proposals. At the same time, by creating a relational, heart-centered space that honors each person’s best creative effort to date, we can easily build on the positive seeds within each of these partial perspectives. So, we are “going slow” in order to “go fast”…

3) Receiving and translating critical energy. As facilitators or mediators, what would happen if we viewed any criticism as a sign that the person offering the criticism, really cares about a positive outcome? Furthermore, what would happen if we understood our role as being the “designated catcher” on the team, so that each participant can more easily stay in their creative brain rather than shifting into their reactive brain?

In this work, we create a trusted space for the co-existence of creative thinking AND critical thinking by inviting participants to re-direct any charged or critical comments toward us, instead of toward one another. That way, each participant can speak freely and be heard, with less likelihood of setting off reactive triggers. This might sound a bit challenging — all of that energy directed toward us, as the facilitator or mediator?? I know it sounds paradoxical, yet one of the benefits that practitioners of this work frequently report, is a greater sense of ease in working with conflict.

4) Harvesting each contribution. What would happen if we saw each contribution as a piece of the larger puzzle that is emerging, and our own role as creating a faithful map of that larger whole, while staying in “beginner’s mind” or “don’t know” space? As we record each contribution, it adds another layer to the trust that is building. Each person is being heard, each offering is being gathered…. not just the “major decisions”, not just whatever the facilitator deems as important. Each bit is being gathered, for our collective work of bricolage… And, as we pause to verify with participants whether what’s on the chart paper is an accurate reflection of their contributions, it creates yet another opportunity to deepen the shared weave of meaning-making that is taking place.

So, those are four key elements of this practice. You are welcome to experiment with any one or more of these elements on your own. I’ve also written a book that goes into much more detail about what it looks like, when all of these elements are used together. I love it when people tell me that they have been able to start exploring this approach just by reading the book! There are also free articles and short videos available on our webpage.

At the same time, I’ve also heard this practice described as “simple, but not easy.” So if you’d like an opportunity to practice in a supportive context, you are warmly welcome to attend our upcoming workshop in Maine.

In this highly experiential learning journey, we will have plenty of opportunities to see Dynamic Facilitation in action and to experience it as participants. We will also be practicing it in small groups, where you’ll be receiving appreciative feedback from peers as well as in-the-moment coaching and support from the instructor.

We’ll also explore various special topics, including how to work with power differences, how to engage in “skillful interrupting” as a facilitator, how to manage flow when emotions are high, and how to adapt this approach when working with two people instead of with a group.

I’ll close with another quote from a participant in the 2015 Maine workshop:

“…an elegantly simple process for helping people call their power back from interpersonal or group conflict, and recast it in the direction of the change they want to see in the world.”

If you feel called, I look forward to having you join us!  Here’s the link for signing up.

If you’d like more info first, the sign-up page also has links to how this work is being used in Europe for the participatory design of public policy.

New D&D Job Openings

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We’ve heard about several job openings this month in the NCDD network, and so we thought we’d share about them here on the blog.  We know that there are many people in our network who would be great fits for these openings, and we strongly encourage you to apply to these positions or share them with your networks!

The list of the openings and links we’ve seen lately is here:

Public Agenda – an NCDD member org – has an opening for a Public Engagement Assistant. Learn more about the position and how to apply here. This would be a great position for younger or newer folks in our field!

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard – another NCDD member org – is in search of a new Associate Director for Democratic Governance. Learn more about the position and how to apply here.

The Environmental Dispute Resolution Program at University of Utah – also an NCDD member org – is hiring for an Associate Director / Senior Mediator. Learn more about the position and how to apply here.

The City of Laguna Niguel, CA is hiring for a Community Engagement Manager. Learn more about the position and how to apply here. The deadline to apply is March 14th.

The US Department of State is seeking a Regional Public Engagement Specialist. Learn more about the position and how to apply here. The deadline to apply is tomorrow, Feb. 28th, so don’t waste time on this one!

We’d love to see NCDDers fill all of these positions, so we encourage you to apply if one or more of these positions sounds up your alley. Best of luck to all the applicants!

Treating Tension Across Difference as a Positive

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As the week closes, we wanted to share an piece from the New Directions Collaborative, one of our NCDD member organizations. In it, NDC shared some useful insights into how they have changed their practices to make differences among participants in their programs and meetings into assets for learning in the face of discomfort. We hope you’ll check out their piece below or find the original blog post here.

Engaging Across Differences

Many of us are working hard to generate solutions to today’s complex and interrelated challenges in ways that are resilient and beneficial for all. This requires new and creative ways to bring people together who have not traditionally worked together.

This is hard work. As a facilitator, I had multiple experiences with groups where not everyone felt heard and the group did not reach its potential. This set me on a journey to understand how we can engage with difference and create spaces where difference can be generative and creative.

Critical to this work is creating environments where different perspectives and experiences within a system can be openly shared and all are equally valid and valued. It requires us to develop our capacity to respond to difference with curiosity, not defensiveness, and to respond to the discomfort that may result with a learning orientation, not withdrawal. When groups come together with this stance, new insight and possibilities almost always emerge.

Building relationships across difference is a necessary foundation. In our work, one way we explore difference is from the inside out beginning with engaging across internal differences in how we learn, process and communicate. Through experiential exercises we invite participants to engage in self-reflection about individual internal differences (such as our sense of time, or our patterns for processing new information). The purpose of this starting point is to establish an environment where everyone can participate in the conversation while shifting the entry point to one that is less charged.

We also introduce the Power and Privilege Progression to help us understand how internal differences are “preferenced” in systems and how power and privilege accrue as a result. Participants can begin to recognize systemic archetypes of power and privilege and build capacity to engage with the tensions around difference for the more emotionally and socially charged conversations around race, culture, class, gender, and historical oppression.

While difference and tension around difference can be thought of as negative, as something that slows us down and gets in the way of progress, our experience has been just the opposite. Acknowledging tension and getting curious about it can help us ask questions about whether an action we are considering has the potential to perpetuate negative aspects of the old system or to be transformative and create a better future for all.

You can find the original version of this New Directions Collaborative blog piece at www.ndcollaborative.com/difference.

From the Listserv: Is Dialogue Under Attack?

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In the past week or two, there has been a lively conversation about the post that former NCDD Board member John Backman shared on the NCDD Discussion Listserv. In the post, John shared an article he wrote asking whether or not dialogue itself has come under attack since the election in November, and since it sparked such a rich discussion, we thought we’d share the post here on the blog as well.
We encourage you to read John’s piece below or find the original here, then tell us, what do you think? Is dialogue under attack? If so, how should our field respond? If not, is there anything you think we in the D&D field should be doing differently in this time of tension?

In Mr. Trump’s Escher World, Is Dialogue Under Assault?

There’s been a lot of talk in the dialogue field since the U.S. presidential election. Practitioners are talking about the meaning of Donald Trump’s victory for dialogue efforts, our collective failure to listen to a wide swath of the American electorate, etc. Many have voiced the belief that we need dialogue more than ever.

And yet, ever since hearing this talk, something has felt off to me. I’m just starting to put my finger on it, and I’m surprised by how dire it feels. In a nutshell, if I’m seeing this right, the very underpinnings of dialogue are under assault.

Consider three of these underpinnings:

Words mean things. To state the obvious: dialogue depends on words. To understand each other, we have to agree on the meanings of those words, or at least understand each other’s meanings. If we don’t, how can I can begin to know what you’re saying?

Yet this very notion is going away. All too often Mr. Trump appears to use the first word that comes into his mind, not caring what it might mean or connote. He makes great use of “throwaway lines,” easy to deny or reinterpret later. Or he dismisses what he’s said as “locker-room talk.” It’s as if, in this new era, words really don’t mean anything, and we should dismiss the value of any given word or phrase. What kind of dialogue could possibly arise from that?

Believe your own eyes. There’s a reason police officers are now being equipped with
body cameras, or private investigators take photos of people in compromising positions. We believe what our eyes (and ears, nose, etc.) tell us. By and large, we should: they’re pretty reliable. So we consider video and photographs compelling evidence.

Yet so often, when confronted with video of himself saying something, Mr. Trump says, “I never said that.” How can there be any room for the give-and-take of dialogue once you get to “This evidence says you said x” / ”I never said x”?

The truth will set you free. While objective truth is a slippery concept—and often not the primary aim of dialogue, which may tilt more toward mutual understanding, conflict resolution, etc.—a certain dedication to the pursuit of truth can promote dialogue in compelling ways. If we aim for truth, we move beyond ourselves in pursuit of something larger. We hold our convictions more lightly to inquire what this truth might be. As a result, we are more open to hearing others’ perspectives on truth: the kind that come forth in dialogue.

It’s one thing to say we cannot ever arrive at most truths. It’s another to stop caring about truth entirely. Mr. Trump’s behavior implies that he is not concerned with the accuracy of any statement he makes. I hear this same sort of thing from some of his supporters. If we can say anything without caring if it’s true, what is our dialogue but babble?

Now weirdly, each of these corrosive trends has a healthy flipside. It’s good to take the words of another “seriously but not literally”: we do well to consider the context in which they’re said, the background of the person who says or writes them, the surrounding culture that shapes the meanings of words, etc. Similarly, it’s good to step back and consider that the “compelling video” might have a context of its own. (Plus, there’s Photoshop.) And we know the value of skepticism about truth claims.

But here’s the thing: in each of these healthy flipsides, there is one thing present that is absent from the current Trump-inspired manifestation: thought. Without thought, dialogue truly becomes babble.

I have no idea what to do with this. Perhaps we who care about dialogue will have to fight in some way for these underpinnings, to insist they be observed. Maybe we defend them at every point where we find them assailed. Maybe we simply do our own dialogue thing and thereby serve as a witness to its power in a world of degraded communication.

What do you think?

You can find the original version of this piece from John Backman’s blog at www.dialogueventure.com/2017/01/26/in-mr-trumps-escher-world-is-dialogue-under-assault.

Lessons on Turning Deliberation into Action from Alabama

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The David Mathews Center – an NCDD member org – recently completed a great deliberative process focused on helping Alabama communities take action together to improve their town, and we think many in our network could learn a thing or two from it, so we’re sharing about it here. The DMC team wrote an insightful piece on their three-stage process of moving the town of Cullman from talk to collaborative action, and we encourage you to read it below or find the original version on their blog here.

What’s Next, Cullman? Pilot Program Wraps Up

The DMC recently wrapped up its pilot forum series for What’s Next, Alabama? in the city of Cullman, with promising results.

What’s Next, Alabama? (WNAL) is shaping up to be the Mathew Center’s largest programmatic undertaking to date. WNAL is a part of the DMC’s flagship program, Alabama Issues Forums (AIF), and will feature three deliberative forums in each community, focused broadly on issues of community, economic, and workforce development.

The first forum will ask, “Where are we now?” How did your community get to where it is today? What has been working well, and what hasn’t? What are the assets already have at your disposal? The second forum will ask, “Where do we want to go?” What would you like to change about your community? What would you live to preserve? What issue(s) would you like to tackle? What are your priorities? The third forum will ask, “How do we get there?” Using the resources you have, what is most doable? What are the next steps? How can you move from talk to action? Partnering with local conveners including the LINK of Cullman County and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, we were able to launch What’s Next, Cullman? as a pilot program and our first WNAL community.

The first forum gave the community an opportunity for deep reflection on the changes Cullman has seen through the years. Attendees crafted an exhaustive list of what they loved about their community and what assets they could leverage, before moving on to discuss the challenges that face their community. The second forum allowed the community to take the challenges identified, and craft them into opportunities for action. Of all the issued discussed, two rose to the surface, and were identified as priorities for the community: developing “soft skills” in the community’s young people, and expanding options for public transportation.

In the final forum, attendees really prioritized the lack of public transportation options, and began to make a plan to move toward action. After much deliberation, the community came to an ingenious, asset-based plan for creating more options for transportation: tapping into the vast network of churches in the community, they could create an inter-congregational ride share program. With each church operating on a neighborhood-wide level, and with the cooperation of the many other churches in the city, even the tiniest effort by an individual church could have a huge impact, when combined with the efforts of other churches.

This is a prime example of how ordinary citizens, in no official “position of power” are able to leverage their inherent power and expertise as members of a community in order to take a fresh look at the assets of their community, and build a local solution to address a local challenge. This is the kind of locally-grown civic action that the DMC hopes to cultivate with the WNAL forum series.

As we have worked towards launching this forum series, we are invariably heartened by the care and dedication exhibited by Alabamians for the place they live. We are incredibly grateful for our conveners in Cullman, and the community at large, for embracing us and giving us the opportunity to work with them. We are confident that as WNAL evolves, and more resources become available, the potential for Alabamians to build civic infrastructure in their own communities will increase exponentially.

You can find the original version of this David Mathews Center blog post at www.mathewscenter.org/wnal-cullman-pilot.

Leading Organizational and Community Change

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We are happy to share the announcement below about a series of D&D skills trainings being offered at Humboldt State University this year. NCDD Supporting Member Mary Gelinas shared the announcement below 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!

If you are an elected official, community leader, manager, planner, consultant or facilitator who wants to be even more effective than you already are, these workshops are for you.

The Leading Organizational & Community Change program is a transformative professional development program focused on creating collaboration at work and in your communities. Offered through the College of eLearning and Extended Education at Humboldt State University in Northern California, this program offers courses designed to help organizational managers, community leaders, public officials, city managers, planners, facilitators, and consultants to be more effective in getting things done and creating sustainable change at work, in communities, and in municipalities.

Grounded in the behavioral sciences and brain science, along with effective and innovative process skills and approaches, the curriculum is designed to build your knowledge and develop your skills so you can work more constructively and productively with colleagues, constituents, neighbors, and clients to solve problems, resolve conflicts, build lasting agreements, develop public policy, and plan for the future.

The courses still available in 2017 include:

Consulting  Skills: Bringing Our Authentic Selves Forward
Feb. 15-17, 2017

Increase your ability to have a strong and positive impact on your client’s results as a staff person or external consultant or facilitator by applying the eight keys to effective consulting and using the phases of the consulting process. Learn how to establish and maintain effective partnerships with clients and have your expertise and experience more fully utilized.

Graphic Recording
March 16, 2017

Increase your ability to serve meeting participants by writing and drawing their conversation live and large to help them do their work. Graphic Recording is a powerful tool to help people feel heard, develop shared understandings and be able to see their work in real-time.

Effective Meetings: The Key to Getting Things Done
May 11-12, 2017

Effective meetings are the building blocks of creating sustainable change. Learn key elements to build collaboration in meetings in order to get stuff done. Acquire tools to plan and conduct meetings, get and stay focused, and handle difficult behaviors.

Advanced Meeting Leadership for High-Stakes Meetings
August 16-18, 2017

Learn and practice strategies and techniques to design and facilitate high-stakes meetings with complex power and group dynamics. Become more adept at engaging diverse stakeholders in constructive and productive interactions. Practice using your internal state of being, body language, pace and tone to help meetings state on track and move forward.

Designing Multi-Stakeholder Collaborative Change Processes
Oct. 25-27, 2017

Develop the ability to design collaborative and inclusive multi-stakeholder processes to solve complex problems, resolve conflicts, develop a vision, craft a policy, or create change.  Learn how various change models can help you plan processes and engage multiple stakeholders in various ways. Understand the key differences between designing change processes for organizations and communities.

For more information, visit www2.humboldt.edu/locc.

NIFI Hosts 10 Online Community-Police Relations Forums

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In addition to offering free copies of their new Safety & Justice discussion guide on community-police relations, the National Issues Forums Institute – an NCDD member org – is also hosting ten online forums to discuss the issue using their Common Ground for Action online deliberation tool, including two training webinars for prospective forum hosts. We encourage those in our network focusing on related issues to consider joining the forums or the training. You can learn more about the CGA forums in the NIFI announcement below or find the original here.

Common Ground for Action 2017 Forum Series

The Common Ground for Action (CGA) Forums Series is Back!

The 2016 CGA Fridays were a huge hit. Demand for trying the new platform and giving our network of moderators more practice was so high that we’re back at it for 2017. This winter, we will have a CGA forum each week, with some in the evening and Saturdays so more of our network can join in. If you’re a CGA moderator and want practice or a refresher workshop, we’ve got those too.

In February, the CGA Forum Series will be using the NEW Safety and Justice: How Should Communities Reduce Violence? issue guide. These forums will be part of our 2017 series of reports to policymakers on how people are thinking about issues.

  • Friday, February 3rd 12:00pm EST – Register
  • Friday, February 10th 4pm EST – Register
  • Wednesday, February 15th 7pm EST- Register
  • Tuesday, February 21st 10am EST – Register
  • Saturday, February 25th 4pm EST – Register
  • Monday, February 27th 2pm EST – Register
  • Saturday, March 4th 4pm EST – Register
  • Friday, March 10th 12pm EST – Register
  • Monday, March 13th 2:30pm EST – Register

NIF member Kara Dillard is also leading a webinar specifically about the Safety and Justice issue guide for moderators who want to hold CGA forums. Kara says the online prep session will “discuss each of the three options in depth, outline key questions to ask in the personal stake sections as well as in the options, and consider ways to help your participants reflect on this controversial topic.”

The workshop will be offered twice in February; you can register at the links below.

You can find the original version of this National Issues Forums Institute blog post at www.nifi.org/en/youre-invited-online-forums-and-moderator-webinars-choose-dates-february-and-march.

Citizen University Conference on “Reckoning & Repair”

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We want to make sure that our network has heard that the 2017 Citizen University Conference is coming up this March 24th-25th in Seattle. Citizen University conferences bring together key civic leaders from many different part of society around how to improve our country’s civic engagement and spur civic change.

NCDD members will be able to both contribute and gain a lot by attending, so we encourage you to register to attend. Regular registration is $250, with some scholarships and discounts available. We encourage you to attend!

The theme of this year’s conference, “Reckoning and Repair in America,” is quite in line with NCDD’s #BridgingOurDivides work, and we know NCDDers can continue the conversation about how we heal the division in our country in powerful new ways at this conference. Here’s a bit of how the organizers describe it:

Our theme for this year’s conference is Reckoning and Repair in America. We face deep divisions across the country. Now more than ever we the people have to step up: to reckon with injustice across ideological divides and to repair our frayed social fabric.

Join hundreds of change-makers, activists, and catalysts to learn about power, deepen your networks, and recharge your sense of purpose. With luminary speakers, master teachers, and lessons on civic power, the conversation will be rich and provocative. Join the movement to rekindle citizenship and remake the narrative of America.

You can learn more about the Citizen University Conference at www.citizenuniversity.us/conference. We hope to see some of you there!

Bridging Our Divides with NCL’s All-America Conversations

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NCDD members might want to check out the All-America Conversations initiative being hosted by the National Civic League, an NCDD member organization. NCL is encouraging communities across the country to host short, public conversations focused on questions of how we can begin #BridgingOurDivides, showing that our country can still work together. They are providing a toolkit and webinar training series to help conversation hosts plan and convene these events, and we encourage practitioners in our network to consider hosting one yourself. You can learn more in the NCL announcement below or by learning more here.

All-American Conversations: Bridging Divides. Building Community.

National Civic League is launching All-America Conversations to demonstrate that locally, we are still able to work together across dividing lines to create stronger, more equitable communities.

Communities that host All-America Conversations will:

  • Better understand residents’ aspirations for the community
  • Learn how residents talk about and see community challenges and divisions
  • Gain clear insight into what small actions would give people confidence that we can work together across dividing lines
  • Help residents engage with one another in a productive conversation
  • Demonstrate a commitment to inclusive engagement

All-America Conversations are designed to help cities and other groups understand residents’ aspirations for the community, the divisions facing the community and, most importantly, the small, specific actions that give people a sense of confidence that we can work across dividing lines.

The format/template for All-America Conversations is flexible and scalable. Some communities will decide to focus on engaging underrepresented residents about their specific concerns and perspectives. Others will hold conversations designed to bring together people on different sides a specific divide to talk with one another and explore shared values. Some communities will use these questions and conversations as part of a large public meeting with breakout conversations.

Conversation Resources and Support

All-America Conversation Toolkit

Everything necessary to hold a productive and meaningful conversation – just add residents.

The toolkit walks you through:

  • How to identify whom you want to engage and how to recruit participants
  • Where to hold the conversations
  • How to set up the room
  • Selecting and preparing facilitators and note takers
  • What questions to ask
  • How to adapt the conversation guide to different types of meetings

The kit also includes a tips for facilitators and note takers, a note taking tool, ground rules, a sign-in sheet, sample recruitment letter, sample email to engage the media around these conversations.

Download the Toolkit and other resources

Support and Coaching Calls

NCL is hosting a series of 1-hour conference calls to provide support for communities or organizations hosting All-America Conversations. Calls will include a brief overview of the purpose and potential of these conversations and available resources. The main focus is providing local communities with the support, coaching and guidance necessary to make the conversations work for them. So, each call will include dedicated time for support and coaching from NCL experts to help you adjust the conversations to fit with existing efforts, your local context, staff resources and community needs.

You can watch the Jan. 31st, 2017 toolkit webinar here:

You can find the original version of this National Civic League announcement at www.nationalcivicleague.org/all-america-conversations