This primer for revitalizing democracy from the ground up can be downloaded for free or ordered for $1.50 per copy. (continue)

Search for Common Ground's "Conversations About Conflict" are 1.5- to 2-hour workshops that can be run for any given audience interested in conflict resolution. The purpose of the Conversation is to help people develop a new awareness of conflicts in our lives - how we currently respond to them, what they cost us, and the alternative approaches that can be used to deal with them in a more constructive manner. SFCG offers a dialogue guide and other resources to help you lead Conversations About Conflict. (continue)

This 2011 workbook has been designed to support scholarly role playing in the arena of global diplomacy and human system planning.  Audiences include students, faith-based groups, and community members who like to grapple with the big picture — arguably the biggest picture — or our times:  global sustainability. The modular 4 or 5 week course can be extended as different groups might choose. Through role playing, audiences will collaborate with others in an authentic engagement with the world’s complexity through participatory democracy. This experiential learning ... (continue)

This spiral-bound manual describes a transformational approach for facilitating dialogue in situations where people are highly invested, emotionally charged or polarized, and helping groups arrive at practical and creative breakthroughs. (continue)

This lovely 8-page Field Guide to Convening Dialogue was written by Joanna Ashworth, M.Ed., Ed.D. of Simon Fraser University (2010) with funding from Imagine BC. Download a copy from www.sfu.ca/dialogue. (continue)

This 2010 Public Agenda Choicework guide explores the question: What can we do in our schools and community to inspire and help more parents to become more involved in their children’s education? If there’s one thing that just about everyone involved in education agrees on, it’s that when parents are actively and constructively involved in their children’s education it can make a very big difference in how well students do in school. Parents (or grandparents or guardians) are not only their children’s first teachers, they ... (continue)

This guide moves beyond the traditional discussions of transparency as a means for good government, and considers the real life logistics of implementation for a federal agency, as well as the benefits that an agency may incur from developing a transparency program that fits their mission and improves their internal capacity. (continue)

Participatory Budgeting (PB) programs are innovative policymaking processes. Citizens are directly involved in making policy decisions. Forums are held throughout the year so that citizens have the opportunity to allocate resources, prioritize broad social policies, and monitor public spending. These programs are designed incorporate citizens into the policymaking process, spur administrative reform, and distribute public resources to low-income neighborhoods. Download the 32-page guide directly from the NCDD website. (continue)

This 50-page report expands on previous Center reports by adding an important practical tool for managers in networks: how to manage and negotiate the conflicts that may occur among a network's members. The approach they describe - interest-based negotiation - has worked in other settings, such as bargaining with unions. Such negotiation techniques are becoming crucial in sustaining the effectiveness of networks, where successful performance is defined by how well people collaborate and not by hierarchical commands. (continue)

The Obama Administration’s Open Government initiative is now three years old.  But is it making a difference?  Tina Nabatchi’s new report (2012), published by the IBM Center for The Business of Government, provides a practical assessment guide for government program managers so they can assess whether their efforts are making a difference.  The report lays out evaluation steps for both the implementation and management of citizen participation initiatives as well as how to assess the impact of a particular citizen participation initiative.  An appendix provides helpful ... (continue)