Category Archives: JLA

Bullying: What is it? How do we prevent it?

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This issue guide was created by the David Mathews Center for Civic Life in 2012 for Alabama Issues Forums that took place in 2012 and 2013. The issue guide provides a brief overview of the bullying issue and outlines three approaches to addressing this public issue.

Bullying-coverThe David Mathews Center—a non-profit, non-partisan, non-advocacy organization—does not advocate a particular solution to the bullying issue, but rather seeks to provide a framework for citizens to carefully examine multiple approaches, weigh costs and consequences, and work through tensions and tradeoffs among different courses of action.

The issue guide’s introductory essay, authored by Dr. Cynthia Reed of Auburn University’s Truman Pierce Institute, outlines the impact the bullying issue has on Alabama and the nation:

“Although bullying is often thought of as only a school-related problem, in reality it affects us all. Bullies can be students, parents, teachers, administrators, work colleagues, or others in the community. Likewise, bullying can occur at school, at work, at church, or at other community functions… Today, most states have legislation requiring schools to address bullying. Yet bullying remains prevalent in our schools, workplaces, and communities.”

The issue guide outlines three possible approaches to addressing the issue:

Approach One: “Get Tough on Bullying”
Reports of bullying incidents are reaching epidemic proportions. Bullying is unacceptable. It must be treated with zero tolerance. Increased reports of bullying in our schools demand that schools, principals, and school districts do more to help prevent and provide tougher consequences for bullying. We must ensure that district anti-harassment policies and student codes of conduct in Alabama are strictly enforced.

Approach Two: “Equip Students to Address Bullying”
Students need practical knowledge and skills to react to and report bullying. Not every young person understands what constitutes bullying and how to respond to it. Many feel powerless as victims and/or bystanders. Many bullies do not understand the effects of their actions. The lines between victims and bullies often become blurred when circumstances change and/or victims retaliate. The bullied may be charged as bullies if they retaliate. We should concentrate our efforts on educating students about bullying and how to respond to it. We should create supportive, enriching school cultures that equip young people to address the root causes of bullying.

Approach Three: “Engage the Community and Parents in Bullying Solutions”
Bullying is a widespread behavior. It is not limited to schools. Parents and the community should accept more responsibility for talking about and preventing bullying. The cost is too high for the community if bullying is not addressed. Bullies take up school time and police time. Bullies can end up convicted of crimes when they reach adulthood. Teachers and administrators do not have the time, personnel, and resources to eradicate all bullying. They cannot address its complex root causes outside the school environment. We, individually and through our community organizations, must communicate to young people that bullying is unacceptable. A great amount of bullying and violent behavior begins in the home. We must reach out to parents. We must reach out to young people. Some young people do not have supportive home environments and need community help.

More About DMC Issue Guides…

David Mathews Center issue guides are named and framed by Alabama citizens for Alabama Issues Forums (AIF) during a biennial “Citizens’ Congress” and follow-up workshops. Alabama Issues Forums is a David Mathews Center signature program designed to bring Alabama citizens together to deliberate and take community action on an issue of public concern. Digital copies of all AIF issue guides, and accompanying post-forum questionnaires, are available for free download at www.mathewscenter.org/resources.

For further information about the Mathews Center, Alabama Issues Forums, or this publication, visit www.mathewscenter.org.

Resource Link: www.mathewscenter.org//wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Bully-Brochure_press_PMS.pdf

This resource was submitted by Cristin Foster of the David Mathews Center for Civic Life via our Add-a-Resource form.

Strategic Planning for Sustainability in Dauphin Island

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This mini case study was submitted by Dr. R. Warren Flint of Five E’s Unlimited via NCDD’s Dialogue Storytelling Tool.

Title of Project:
Strategic Planning for Sustainability in Dauphin Island

Description
I was contracted to design and facilitate a long-term strategy and implementation plan (more here) to create a more resilient community able to balance economic development with environmental protection and conservation. I facilitated planning meetings that included the public, the Town Planning Comm., the U.S. EPA’s Mobile Bay NEP, the NOAA Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Program, and state/county agencies toward designing a strategic planning process to achieve sustainable community goals, adhering to NEPA guidelines and the protection of threatened species. I assisted the community in identifying how strategic planning process could better inform the Island’s Comprehensive Plan and enhance future community resiliency.

The results of this strategic planning process emphasized major issues such as water conservation, community behavior changes related to climate change strategies, including energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions, eco-tourism programs, rising sea level, protection of pristine coastal environments, diverse land-use strategies, and the general assessment of best uses for existing community assets (capital) to achieve long-term community resiliency.

The project planning activities developed both short- and long-term strategies for these issues and more. This project was recognized as a finalist in the International Association of Public Participation’s (IAP2) 2009 Project of the Year Award. The international recognition by IAP2 on pages 8 and 67 in the above linked report acknowledged the diversity of environmental, social, and economic issues addressed, as well as the project’s promotion of the IAP2 Core Values in public participation.

Which dialogue and deliberation approaches did you use or borrow heavily from?
Open Space / Unconference, Study Circles, World Cafe, Appreciative Inquiry, Public Conversations Project dialogue, Technology of Participation approaches, Future Search, Charrettes and Deliberative Polling

What was your role in the project?
Project director; Primary facilitator; Process design specialist

What issues did the project primarily address?

  • Economic issues
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Planning and development
  • Science and technology

Lessons Learned

  • Important to employ multiple ways of engagement for the different publics in community.
  • Make sure an implementation group is in place before project of planning is completed.
  • Keep reminding stakeholders of the role of sustainability in all discussions for actions.
  • Public engagement includes the promise that the public’s contribution will influence the decision.
  • Public participation seeks input from participants in designing how they participate.
  • Public participation must provide participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.

Where to learn more about the project:
www.eeeee.net or www.eeeee.net/dauphin_island/dauphinisland.htm

Dropouts: What Should We Do?

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This issue guide was created by the David Mathews Center for Civic Life in 2010 for Alabama Issues Forums that took place in 2010 and 2011. Dropouts: What Should We Do? provides a brief overview of the dropout issue and outlines three approaches to addressing this public issue.

Dropouts-coverThe David Mathews Center—a non-profit, non-partisan, non-advocacy organization—does not advocate a particular solution to the dropout issue, but rather seeks to provide a framework for citizens to carefully examine multiple approaches, weigh costs and consequences, and work through tensions and tradeoffs among different courses of action.

The issue guide’s introductory essay, provided by the Alabama State Department of Education, outlines the impact of the dropout issue on Alabama and the nation:

Every 26 seconds a student drops out of school.

The dropout crisis is one of the greatest threats to the United States. The students that leave our education systems without a diploma create an economic, social and generational crisis for the entire nation. Every state and its students are impacted by dropouts, who create deficits in the educational wealth and financial stability of the population.

The issue guide outlines three possible approaches to addressing the issue:

Approach One: “Emphasize Achievement”
Dropouts from our K-12 schools are regrettable, but our primary focus should be on emphasizing achievement, initiative, discipline, and creativity among those who choose to stay in school. These characteristics are best promoted through competition and recognition of success in that competition. These are characteristics we want in our work force. These are characteristics we need to be successful in individual life, community vitality, and global competiveness. We need our best young people to be all they can be.

Approach Two: “Emphasize Preventative and Corrective School Programs”
Social costs are too high if we do not address dropout prevention and correction. Dropouts don’t always simply lack individual initiative, discipline, and perseverance. Some young people come from poor family backgrounds and lack support for learning outside the school environment. Others get behind early in reading ability and lack positive role models. Some students have understandings and skills that are not easily quantified and measured, and they give up competing in situations that are beyond what they see as leading to productive lives. Some have family situations that require their primary attention, including those who serve as the primary wage earner for the household. We need solutions that take into account students backgrounds and situations.

Approach Three: “Emphasize Community Responsibility”
Ideally schools might emphasize both achievement and prevention, but some problems are beyond the resources and capacities of schools to address. Some young people need more help than they can get during school hours. Communities should think broadly and creatively about their overall educational resources, not just their schools. Moreover, some young people have substance abuse problems and/or such rebellious behavior that they cannot be kept in schools. Yet, if they do not receive constructive attention, they may become even worse problems.

More About DMC Issue Guides…

David Mathews Center issue guides are named and framed by Alabama citizens for Alabama Issues Forums (AIF) during a biennial “Citizens’ Congress” and follow-up workshops. Alabama Issues Forums is a David Mathews Center signature program designed to bring Alabama citizens together to deliberate and take community action on an issue of public concern. All AIF issue guides, and accompanying post-forum questionnaires, are available for free download at www.mathewscenter.org/resources.

For further information about the Mathews Center, Alabama Issues Forums, or this publication, visit www.mathewscenter.org.

Resource Link: www.mathewscenter.org//wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Issues-Brief_web.pdf

This resource was submitted by Cristin Foster of the David Mathews Center for Civic Life via our Add-a-Resource form.

E. Coast Forums on Lessons Learned from Hurricane Sandy

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NIF-logoFor those of you working on the East Coast or in community preparedness, we recommend you check out a recent post from the National Issues Forums Institute on a series of public forums being hosted by WHYY and the Penn Project for Civic Engagement.  The goal of the forums is to engage local communities in discussion on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and what individuals, communities, and governments can do to be better prepared next time. With two forums already having been hosted, the next forums are slated for August 27th along the Jersey Shore.

The project description, dates, and locations for the forums can be found at WHYY’s website here.  You can read NIFI’s coverage of the project and find links to the audio commentary below, or you find the original post here.

Engaging the Public to Talk about the Jersey Shore after Hurricane Sandy – Listen to Audio Commentary by Chris Satullo at WHYY

Listen to “Restoring the shore is about emotions as well as engineering”
Listen to “Ready for next time? Rethinking the Jersey Shore after Sandy”
Project description with dates and locations

This summer in Philadelphia, WHYY/Newsworks is sponsoring a series of public forums titled Ready for Next Time? Rethinking the Shore after Sandy. Five public forums are being held during July and August 2013 in a variety of locations around Philadelphia. Forums are free to attend but registration is requested.

Chris Satullo, executive director of news and civic dialogue at WHYY, Inc. describes the public forums project in a number of brief audio, print, and photo pieces including:

Restoring the shore is about emotions as well as engineering (An audio file posted July 21, 2013):

Restoring the Shore is not just about flood maps, building codes and economic multipliers…

But as this nostalgia inspires, can it also blind and distort? Might we throw good money after bad, ignoring the storm’s clear evidence about where unwise risk lies?  In striving to hang onto what we love most about the Shore, might we strew too much treasure right in the path of the next storm.

Because there will be a next storm.

These questions sit at the heart of WHYY’s community forum series called: Ready for Next Time? Rethinking the Shore After Sandy…

Rethinking the shore forum zeroes in on better planning leadership (a slide show and article posted July 16, 2013)

It was a night for expressing hopes, and the skepticism that undermines them.

About 60 people gathered at WHYY Monday night for the first event in our summer-long civic dialogue project: “Ready for Next Time? Rethinking the Shore After Sandy.”

The group divided into four smaller breakout sessions, each led by a moderator from the Penn Project for Civic Engagement and using an issue guide we prepared. Folks talked through the long-term choices facing New Jersey as it responds to the challenges left behind by the storms known as Irene and Sandy….

Ready for next time? Rethinking the Jersey Shore after Sandy (listen to an audio file/read this piece posted June 24, 2013, describes the project and lists dates and locations of forums)

For the last year, a horde of Jersey Shore property owners have been muttering an F-word under their breath.

An F-acronymn, actually. As in FEMA – short for Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Post-Sandy, people down the Shore have had many complaints about FEMA – confusing rules, late-arriving checks and, above all, those flood maps.

FEMA issued revised maps last week, which sharply reduced the size of the highest-risk flood zones and let many homeowners sleep easier.

So perhaps this is a moment to invite some calmer discussion about how to respond long-term to the lessons of Sandy – and Irene before her…

For more information about this project, contact Chris Satullo at csatullo@whyy.org, or NCDD supporting member Harris Sokoloff at harriss@gse.upenn.edu.