Statewide Deliberative Forum Series Launches in Alabama

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

In case you missed it, we wanted to share some exciting news about deliberation in the South that we heard from the team at the National Issues Forums Institute. NIFI and the Mathews Center for Civic Life, both NCDD member organizations, will be partnering to host a series of deliberative forums aimed at helping Alabama residents plan for their futures over the next two years. We encourage you to read more about the initiative below or find the original NIFI blog post here.

“What’s Next Alabama?” Statewide Initiative Moving Forward

The David Mathews Center for Civic Life (DMCCL), based in Montevallo, Alabama, has launched an ambitious project to help residents of the state take stock of how well their communities are working for them, where people would like to see their communities be in the future, and how they might get there. Titled, What’s Next, Alabama? a recent DMCCL newsletter described pilot activities leading up to the initiative:

In preparation for our 2017-19 AIF initiative, What’s Next, Alabama? Mathews Center staff is piloting this new approach in Cullman, Alabama. Our second of three public forums is scheduled for October 25. The community will ask itself, “Where do we want to go from here?” as they uncover common ground for economic, community, and workforce development. From local news source Cullman Tribune, read about the first forum, focused on answering the questions, “Where are we now, and who else should be at the table?”

The following excerpt is from a more complete description of the initiative:

The David Mathews Center for Civic Life (DMC) is gearing up for its most ambitious forum series to date; throughout 2017 and 2018, we will launch our first-ever two-year Alabama Issues Forums (AIF) series entitled, “What’s Next, Alabama?” AIF is a series of community forums across the state that is designed to help Alabamians talk through issues, rather than just about issues. AIF provides citizens with an opportunity to come together and address an issue of local concern through public deliberation.

The issue at hand our upcoming AIF series will be focused on the hyper-local geography of prosperity and, with an eye toward the future, will urge each community to frame its own assets and challenges in order to intimately imagine new futures for the community by asking the question: What’s Next?…

Read the full description of What’s Next, Alabama?

The What’s Next, Alabama? initiative is modeled after the What’s Next, West Virginia? project that the West Virginia Center for Civic Life is coordinating in the state of West Virginia.

You can find the original version of this NIFI blog post at www.nifi.org/en/whats-next-alabama-statewide-initiative-moving-forward-david-mathews-center-civic-life.

Utah Citizen Summit: Bridging Divides After the Election

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

For those eager to continue the conversation we began at NCDD 2016 about how to bridge our nation’s divides after the election, we encourage you to attend or tune in to the Utah Citizen Summit on Nov. 12th in Salt Lake City. The day-long event has been organized with the help of many NCDD members, and the centerpiece of the event, a conversation across partisan divides about the common good, will be livestreamed. You can learn more about the Summit in the announcement below from NCDD Sustaining Member John Steiner, or by clicking here.

An Invitation to Participate in a National Conversation

The national heart of the Utah Citizen Summit – to be held on Saturday, November 12th in Salt Lake City – is an afternoon, 90-minute dialogue, which will be facilitated by Mark Gerzon, with a leading Democrat, Republican, an Independent, and a major civic leader. The animating question will be: Now What? After this election how can we, as Americans, come together across our many divides to address challenging issues and to work for the common good?

We’ll be asking the following or similar questions of our participants:

Now that the election is over, what are your hopes and dreams for Americans coming together?
How might we learn to better live with our differences – with greater mutual respect and honor, with civility and compassion – in order to address challenging issues and to make progress for the common good?
What first step might you (and your organization) be willing to take to help make this possible?

This conversation will be live streamed and recorded.

With the intention of recreating our public square – as Hannah Arendt once said, “Democracy needs a place to sit down” – we would like to catalyze similar conversations around our country after the election and before the inauguration. We’re reaching out to national organizations and networks with which we’ve been involved to see who might want to host similar dialogues in their communities, whether in living rooms, public libraries, at universities, etc.

The questions we’ll be asking can serve as a template or model. While we encourage local facilitators or Living Room Conversation hosts to follow this format, anyone can certainly create their own questions within the spirit of our session in Salt Lake City.

We have a website – www.utahcitizensummit.org – which is being enhanced so that dialogues can be registered and results reported, harvested, and shared with those involved.

Many thanks for considering participating,

John Steiner & the Utah Citizen Summit team

P.S.: Online collaboration resource

Our wonderful Salt Lake City colleague, John Kessler, who is largely responsible for the Utah Citizen Summit, is also offering the following as part of our national outreach process, for those communities who would like to participate in a more ongoing way:

One of the deeper purposes of the Utah Citizen Summit is for communities to be creative and emergent in becoming more civil, compassionate, inclusive, and collaborative in conversation, policy making, and action. In addition to connecting around the Utah Citizen Summit, we have an interactive web tool, which, on an ongoing basis, can provide a convening space for communities in an interactive, collaborative, online learning and practice environment. There exists the capacity to do this locally, nationally, and/or globally in an online environment, where communities and community based groups meet, connect, co-learn, and collaborate.

We have developed developed this resource in partnership with uBegin, a web based platform. Our civil network can now do this in a partnering way and invite other communities into this space. We’d like to make this available more broadly. Please let me know if you’re interested in exploring this option.

You can find more information on the Utah Citizen Summit at www.saltlakecivilnetwork.org/utah-citizen-summit.

Free Webinar on Making Participation Accessible, Oct. 27

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

As you may have seen recently on our NCDD discussion listserv, NCDD members are invited to attend a free webinar this Thursday, Oct. 27 on how to make our processes more accessible. The webinar is being offered by MH Mediate, and will be a good opportunity for practitioners to continue to learn new tools for going beyond “the usual suspects” for participation in our events. You can learn more in MH Mediate’s announcement below or register here.

Become Accessible to a Wider Audience

Thursday, October 27th, 1-2pm Eastern / 10-11am Pacific

Accessible processes are equally appealing to people with diverse abilities and needs, including people with disabilities. After we explore a universal design framework for creating accessible dialogue processes, we’ll apply key accessibility principles to some examples. Finally we’ll discuss how to communicate your accessible practices to constituents and organizational partners.

E-mail dan@mhmediate.com if you have any questions or examples you’d like to cover during the presentation. You can also submit them when you register for the webinar.

About the Presenter
Dan Berstein is a mediator living with bipolar disorder and the founder of MH Mediate. He has hosted a variety of dialogue events, including the first New York City National Dialogue on Mental Health event which became a model for inclusive discussions around the country. Dan is an expert in accessibility, having trained practitioners across a dozen states. Dan’s workshops stress designing processes that work better for everyone while ensuring they work with people living with disabilities and other needs.

Attend the Everyday Democracy Nat’l Convening, Dec. 8-10!

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

We want to encourage everyone our NCDD network to consider registering to attend the Everyday Democracy national convening, The Moment is Now: Democracy that Works for All. The gathering will take place Dec. 8-10 in Baltimore, and it will be a great opportunity to learn from and connect with EvDem’s national network of community leaders and practitioners who are working to create change for racial equity, economic opportunity, and deep democratic engagement through dialogue in their locales. Learn more in EvDem’s announcement below, visit the conference page, or register today!

Everyday Democracy’s National Convening

There is no time like now to come together, share experiences, learn, and expand our impact.

At Everyday Democracy’s National Convening, The Moment is Now: Democracy that Works for All, this December 8-10 in Baltimore, MD, you will join hundreds of active, engaged and influential individuals from across the country who are making positive change in their communities.

The Convening will be a space for changemakers of all backgrounds and sectors to share lessons and ideas on how to build equity, inclusivity, and increased voice and participation in our communities and our country. You will meet people doing great work – people like the residents of Wagner, South Dakota who, for the past nine years, have used Everyday Democracy’s coaching and materials to organize dialogue circles to work through issues of intergenerational poverty and racism. The program has decreased tensions and helped build trust between native and white residents. Results include a significantly higher native graduation rate and the establishment of a small business incubator with a racially diverse board. Read more about their work here.

This is just one of many examples of people coming together across divides for honest, productive dialogue on tough issues and then solving problems together. Let’s connect these local efforts for greater national impact.

Highlights of the Convening

This will be a collaborative, arts-oriented, multi-cultural event. Some of the noteworthy features include:

The release of the new edition of Everyday Democracy’s guide on community-police relations with a special focus on racial equity,
Panel of young community leaders,
Arts to connect and inspire us,
A photography/storytelling exhibit that will be created during the convening,
An opportunity to hear from John W. Franklin, curator for the newly opened African-American Museum, and
An opportunity to hear from national leaders in participatory democracy, criminal justice, education, and health.

The election is almost here, and afterwards, no matter what the outcome, we will need to build on positive examples of dialogue and deliberation and real work towards equity. Please join us in Baltimore, MD, December 8-10, and get ready to be inspired.

Click here for more information about the Convening and click here to register. More stories of change, and resources for all communities, are here at our web site, also.

We hope to see you there!

Application for Nevins Fellow Placements Closes Friday!

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

As our NCDD 2016 emcee John Gastil reminded us during our incredible conference this weekend, time is running out for D&D, public engagement, and transpartisan organizations to apply to receive a Nevins Democracy Fellow! The application to host a D&D-trained honors student to work with your organization for two months at no cost is closing this Friday, October 21st, so be sure to apply today!

You can find the application at www.tinyurl.com/NevinsFellowApplication.

Haven’t heard of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy‘s Nevins Democracy Leaders Program before? We’ve mentioned it on here on the blog, and we also recommend that you look over the Frequently Asked Questions document that McCourtney created for potential applicant organizations. NCDD also hosted an informative discussion about the program with the McCourtney team during a recent Confab Call, you can listen to the recording of that call by clicking here.

Hosting a Nevins Fellow is like bringing on a new full-time staffer for the summer, and it’s a great way for your to build organizational capacity while helping bring more young people into our field and growing the next generation of D&D leaders. We strongly encourage our member organizations to apply today for this amazing opportunity!

Turning Dialogue into Action & Other Skills for Engagement

Posted on September 30, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

You might have missed it, but the team at NCDD member organization Public Agenda have been running an incredible blog series on “Key Talents for Better Public Participation” this summer. The posts are a great set of resources for D&D practitioners, and we wanted to share an important one about making the often difficult transition from talk to action here. We encourage you to read the piece and find links to the 14 other series posts below, or find the original here.

Supporting Action Efforts

Ideas for action emerge naturally in many different forms of public participation. When people talk about issues that are important to them, they often want to:

Develop new problem-solving partnerships and new ways to work with others.
Express their ideas, concerns, and recommendations to public officials and other decision makers.
Strengthen practices and policies within departments, agencies, community organizations, workplaces or other groups.

During participatory processes, people often think about action ideas they would like to take individually and as a community. It is important for participants to be able to hear one another’s ideas and decide together which actions to take.

In some single-day participatory processes, action ideas are shared at the end of the day. In others, there is a separate action-focused event where participants can come together to share ideas. Still others facilitate action efforts with online tools and tactics.

Two skills, planning action events and supporting action teams, can be helpful for all of these processes. (Many of these tips, along with more information on supporting action, are described by Everyday Democracy here.)

Planning an Action-Focused Event

Events that help people transition from dialogue to action typically have three elements:

Opportunities for dialogue groups to share their ideas. If participants brainstormed and prioritized action ideas, then the action event should include opportunities for each group to share their top ideas.
Prioritizing action ideas. During the action event, give people the opportunity to vote for their top three choices for action ideas (perhaps by using keypad polling or dotmocracy). Participation leaders sometimes encourage a mix of short-term and long-term action projects. Short-term projects keep the momentum of the dialogues going and provide an immediate success to share with the community. Long-term goals require more planning, but such efforts can result in lasting change.
Creating action teams. Identify the action ideas with the most votes or support. Ask people to divide into groups based on the action they would like to work on and explain that the people in these new “action teams” will work together to put the idea into motion. During the action event, give these new teams some time to introduce themselves, gather contact information and identify co-leaders who will help the group move forward with the idea.

Supporting Action Teams

Promoting team pride, hosting regular meetings with action team leaders and fostering a creative environment are some ways to help a group or team prepare a plan and then take action. Action teams should:

Set clear expectations. What needs to happen, by when, and who is responsible? If people know what they are expected to do and by when, they are better able to develop a roadmap for achieving specific tasks and goals.
Identify two leaders per team. Co-chairs can share the responsibility of keeping the team on course and moving forward.
Share skills and talents. Ask team members to write down some of their talents and skills, so when the group needs to complete tasks, requests can be made to people who have the requisite skills.
Foster a creative environment. Be open and welcome diverse ideas and ways of thinking. Show that everyone is valued and is an important part of the group.
Continue recruiting volunteers. Even if people were not involved in the initial conversations, they may be interested in taking action. Allowing new people to join brings in fresh energy and cultivates a larger network, greater inclusion and a stronger sense of ownership of the effort.
Keep in touch. Meet regularly and keep everyone informed via emails and calls. Consider forming an online network and using online tools and tactics.
Share documents and plans. Wikis can be used to help team members work together on documents and stay informed about plans.
Connect teams to resources. Participation leaders can provide information, contacts and resources to action teams.
Celebrate progress. Keep the work of the team in the public eye by engaging media and sharing success stories.

Read other blogs in this series:

Part 1: Ten Key Talents for Better Public Participation

Part 2: Building Coalitions and Networks

Part 3: Cultural Competence and Engaging Youth

Part 4: Recruiting Participants

Part 5: Communicating About Participation

Part 6: Managing Conflict

Part 7: Providing Information and Options: Issue Framing

Part 8: Providing Information and Options: Sequencing Discussions and Writing Discussion Materials

Part 9: Managing Discussions, Blog 1 of 3: Facilitating Face-to-Face Groups

Part 10: Managing Discussions, Blog 2 of 3: Recording and Online Moderation

Part 11: Managing Discussions, Blog 3 of 3: Ground Rules and Feedback

Part 12: Helping Participants Generate and Evaluate Ideas

Part 13: Helping Participants Make Group Decisions

Part 14: Supporting Action Efforts

Part 15: Evaluating Participation

You can find the original version of this Public Agenda blog post at www.publicagenda.org/blogs/supporting-action-efforts.

Join EvDem’s Monthly Twitter Chat for Young Leaders

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

We encourage our younger members to join the Twitter chat that our NCDD member organization Everyday Democracy hosts every 2nd Tuesday. It’s a great way to connect and get new ideas out there, so we encourage you to learn more in EvDem’s post below and join them today using the hashtag #EvDemChat! Save the date for next month’s chat on October 11th!

Twitter Chat for Young Leaders

Everyday Democracy hosts a Twitter chat the second Tuesday of every month at 2pm ET.

September’s Twitter chat will highlight the work of young leaders organizing and creating change in their communities. Join us this month for a great discussion!

We’ll talk about:

What inspires you to do community change work
Strategies you use to engage people
How you’ve overcome barriers you’ve faced as a young leader
How you talk about racism and racial equity in your work
How do you make sure young people’s voices are heard

Details:

Date: Tuesday, September 13
Time: 2-3pm ET
Hashtag: #EvDemChat
Host: Everyday Democracy (@EvDem)

The Bridge Alliance Presents “Moving America Forward”

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Andy Fluke

The Bridge Alliance, an NCDD 2016 All-Star Sponsor, is hosting a free event in Washington DC this Thursday, September 15th exploring many of the same issues we will tackle together in Boston this October.

Moving America Forward, co-sponsored by the Bridge Alliance and Updraft America (an art installation to be unveiled alongside the event featuring 10,718 paper airplanes symbolizing a desire to rise above partisan politics), will feature a panel discussion on How To Bridge the Partisan Divide.

Moderated by author and journalist, Cokie Roberts, and featuring members of the Bridge Alliance, the panel will “present alternatives to the partisan narrative that permeates the political process and there will be presentations by organizations representing a cross-spectrum of civic engagement and collaborative problem-solving that is already present across America”.

The event is free but requires an RSVP and will be held at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center (4400 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC) beginning at 7:00 pm. Visit the Updraft America Reception page on Eventbrite to learn more and sign up!

NICD Brings Civility to Nat’l Conf. of State Legislatures

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

In case you missed it, last month was a busy one for the Reviving Civility initiative from the National Institute for Civil Discourse – one of our NCDD organizations – and we wanted to share their update. NICD has been elevating the conversation about civility in politics to new levels and even awarded several elected officials for their work to revive civility this summer. We encourage you to read their August update below or learn more about the initiative here.

Reviving Civility at the National Conference of State Legislatures

This week, we were Reviving Civility at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) 2016 Annual Legislative Summit in Chicago August 8-11th. On Tuesday, August 9th, NICD’s Ted Celeste hosted “Building Trust with Citizens: Text, Talk, Revive Civility, A National Conversation About Civility” with more than 100 participants.

This very diverse, highly engaged crowd worked in small groups of 4-8 people to discuss and brainstorm ideas about reviving civility in our nation while utilizing our innovative text-messaging platform. Many state legislators made commitments to take Text, Talk, Revive Civility back to their states.

NICD awarded Representative Stephanie Howse (D-OH), Representative Matt Pouliot (R-ME), and State Treasurer Terry Hayes (I-ME) with the NICD Award for Civility in State Governance at a reception on Tuesday, August 9th.

NICD also presented its inaugural Award for the State Most Committed to Civil Governance to the state of Maine this year. Representative Pouliot and State Treasurer Hayes, along with Maine State Representative Andrew McLean and Maine State Senators Andre Cushing, Rebecca Millette, and Roger Katz accepted the award on behalf of their state legislature.

The NICD’s National Network of State Legislators Committed to Civil Governance held it’s annual meeting on Tuesday, August 9th.

You can join in the conversation too. By texting CIVILITY to 89800 you can participate in Text, Talk, Revive Civility as well!

Learning from Feedback Frames: An Innovative Decision Making Tool

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Andy Fluke

Long time NCDD member Jason Diceman is introducing an accessible new tool for public engagement this summer called Feedback Frames. His project is a great example of the innovation and creativity inherent in our network, and we thought the strategies he’s using to leverage social media, crowdfunding, and crowdspeaking platforms would be useful one for other NCDDers to learn from.

The love child of a polling station and a game of Connect Four, Feedback Frames offers a fun and flexible way to gather input from participants at large or small group events. Featuring private voting, built-in validation, flexible data-gathering, and quick visual results, this highly adaptable tool offers an elegant solution to group think and the bandwagon effect that can adversely affect any deliberation program.

Creator of Idea Rating Sheets, originally called Dotmocracy (featured at NCDD2006), Jason serves as Senior Public Consultation Coordinator for the City of Toronto. He has led public consultations for some of the City’s most controversial and high profile infrastructure studies, including downtown separated bike lane installations, the redesign of Front Street at Union Station, new roads and bridges in Liberty Village, contentious multi-use trails, and the Gardiner Expressway financing.

Jason is about to launch an Indiegogo campaign to support the manufacture of Feedback Frames, and he’s tapping into every modern tool and technique he can find to get the word out. Having started with more traditional media (check out his humorous Prototype Video below), Jason has now turned to Thunderclap to make sure he can get his crowdfunding endeavor off on the right foot.

Thunderclap is especially useful for smaller programs which can’t effectively encourage the critical mass needed to benefit from the power of Twitter, or Facebook, or even the likes of Tumblr. Thunderclap is very much the “Kickstarter” of social media, but instead of pledging money a supporter pledges their social connections. When a project successfully hits its goal, Thunderclap will “blast out a timed Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr post from all your supporters, creating a wave of attention.” Referred to as “Crowdspeaking” platforms, Thunderclap and its competitor, the more economical Headtalker, have been around a while and provide interesting companion services to crowdfunding projects. Both are interesting strategies that may be useful for helping NCDDers launch or promote their projects.

And Jason is facing the same problem all limited-budget social entrepreneurs face: how do you get the word out and make your great idea a reality without a second mortgage and an exclusive diet of ramen noodles? Of course, Jason could use all the “likes” and “upvotes” NCDDers can give him, so visit his project on Thunderclap at www.thunderclap.it/projects/39641-feedback-frames-are-coming if you’re interested in showing your support.

But even if you don’t support it, we encourage our members to take note of Jason’s strategy for getting this D&D project out there into the public eye. We think there are some good lessons from this kind of effort that can apply to all of our members.

Learn much more about Feedback Frames at www.feedbackframes.com.

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