Many people are reluctant to discuss politics across party lines.  This 4-page guide entitled Reaching Out Across the Red Blue Divide, One Person at a Time (available for download in PDF format) by PCP Associate and NCDD member Maggie Herzig is a step-by-step approach to inviting one other person—someone whose perspectives differ from your own—into a conversation, focusing on developing a better understanding of each other’s perspectives.  Here’s an excerpt from the guide… Why bother to reach across the divide? Many people have at least one ... (continue)

The first three years of a child’s life are a time of great opportunity, as well as risk. We can tip the scales in favor of healthy development by providing early experiences and relationships that help babies and toddlers thrive. Our failure to do so can lead to long-lasting harm to our children, communities, and economy. In order to consider ways to ensure a good start for all West Virginia’s children, the Early Childhood Advisory Council of West Virginia joined with the West Virginia Center ... (continue)

On February 1, 2013, National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) released an Issue Advisory that contains materials that communities might wish to use in deliberating over the issues raised by the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012. This “issue advisory” is not a full NIF issue guide, but a basic outline of the options, entitled How Can We Stop Mass Shootings in Our Communities? It can be downloaded here. The 4-page issue advisory was written by NCDD member Brad Rourke, a Kettering Foundation program officer. (continue)

This 1994 discussion guide from Everyday Democracy (then the Study Circles Resource Center) is designed to help you run a series of small-group dialogues that will enable participants to consider what they can do to prevent crime and violence in their homes, schools and neighborhoods. Resource Link: www.ncdd.org/files/etc/ConfrontingViolenceInOurCommunities-1994.pdf (continue)

How should schools and communities respond to the Newtown tragedy? The Deliberative Democracy Consortium produced, in partnership with the National School Public Relations Association, a guide for discussion and action on school safety and other issues raised by the events in Newtown. (DDC executive director Matt Leighninger serves on the board of NSPRA.) A number of other deliberation practitioners (all NCDD members) contributed to this guide, including: Will Friedman of Public Agenda, John Dedrick and Brad Rourke of the Kettering Foundation, Martha McCoy, Pat Scully, and Molly Barrett ... (continue)

Public servants and community leaders get a lot of things right; however, a few crucial decisions can become lightning rods for communities they serve. The Moment of OH! by John Blakinger and Greg Ranstrom of CivilSay (an organizational member of NCDD) was written with those high-voltage community decisions in mind. The authors distill the essential elements of tough community-decision processes. Their approach starts from the perspective of the individual community member and considers his or her current level of engagement with the issue. The first part ... (continue)

This issue guide was created in 2007 by Kansas State University’s Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy (ICDD) in association with the National Association of Mental Illness (Kansas).  David Proctor, ICDD director, has made this issue guide available for anyone who is interested in using it to deliberate about mental illness and public policy. The 16-page guide, titled Addressing Mental Health Care: a handbook for discussion & deliberation, presents three possible approaches for deliberation: Approach One – Consumers Come First Supporters of this approach believe that privacy is paramount and that individuals should have ... (continue)

Australia-based Bang the Table, offers a 14-page guide on how Facebook can best be used as part of a community engagement strategy. With tips on common questions like “pages vs. groups” and “anonymity vs. transparency,” this is a great guide for those new to using social media for engagement. Check out the 11 tips on page 13 for tips like: Use appropriate language and tone. Remember Facebook is a social network and people go there to be social. Reflect this in the type of language you ... (continue)

The American Democracy Project’s Global Engagement Scholars have produced the 2nd edition of their Educating Globally Competent Citizens: A Toolkit. Edited by Steven Elliott-Gower (Georgia College), Dennis Falk (University of Minnesota Duluth) and Martin Shapiro (California State University, Fresno), this toolkit is a guide for faculty and staff who want to educate globally competent citizens using CSIS’s 7 Revolutions Framework. The toolkit is a companion guide to AASCU’s Global Challenges: Promise and Peril in the 21st Century national blended-learning course. (continue)

One of the National Issues Forums Institute’s issue guides, Jobs: Preparing a Workforce for the 21st Century outlines this public issue and several choices or approaches to addressing the issue. National Issues Forums do not advocate a specific solution or point of view, but provide citizens the opportunity to consider a broad range of choices, weigh the pros and cons of those options, and meet with each other in a public dialogue to identify the concerns they hold in common. From the issue guide… Welcome ... (continue)