This 6-page resource developed by the Orton Family Foundation guides you through six steps to help you identify and map key community networks and stakeholder groups and identify how to reach them. Community Network Analysis (CNA) is a powerful tool for understanding who lives, works and plays in your community and how best to reach them. It’s meant to be used repeatedly to identify: 1) project leadership, 2) partners and 3) participants. (continue)

The December 2012 issue of the Journal of Public Deliberation focuses on participatory budgeting and its spread across the globe. Guest editors of the issue are long-time NCDD supporting member Janette Hartz-Karp from Curtin University, Australia, and Brian Wampler from Boise State University. This article is by Hartz-Karp. Participatory Budgeting (PB), an institutional innovation to promote democratic change, is a form of collaborative governance in which citizens are involved in decision-making processes about how to spend part or all of available government funds. Like the broader concept ... (continue)

Everyday Democracy welcomes you to use and adapt this one-page tip sheet freely. The tip sheet lists ideas on how you might organize a one-day event on school violence. The summit they describe is intended to help a community address the issue, but also lay the groundwork for a long-term citizen involvement effort. Contact Everyday Democracy if you would like to organize this kind of an event with their help. Visit www.everyday-democracy.org for more details. Resource Link: http://ncdd.org/rc/wp-content/uploads/EvDem-OrganizingASummitOnSchoolViolence.doc (Word doc download) (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)

The mission of the William D. Ruckelshaus Center is to act as a neutral resource for collaborative problem solving in the State of Washington and Pacific Northwest. The Center provides expertise to improve the quality and availability of voluntary collaborative approaches for policy development and multi-party dispute resolution. The Center is a joint effort of Washington’s two research universities and was developed in response to requests from community leaders. Building on the unique strengths of the two institutions, the Center is dedicated to assisting public, private, ... (continue)

Are you interested in finding a way of working with diverse stakeholders to co-create enduring solutions to complex issues? This 2012 book is about Collaborative Governance, or the Power of ‘Co’. This book provides real evidence of the benefits of collaboration as well as a theoretical framework on which to build the capacity of organisations and individuals to collaborate more often and more effectively to address dilemmas and find solutions that stick. Collaborative Governance demands the sharing of both power and trust. It also requires a ... (continue)

Based on more than 60 interviews, this 2007 article by Peter Levine of the University of Maryland and Rose Marie Nierras of the University of Sussex explores the tensions between deliberation and various forms of political activism and advocacy. It identifies more than 20 objections to deliberation that are proposed by political activists in various countries and contexts. It concludes with suggestions for combining deliberation and advocacy. Download the article here. (continue)

This is the pilot version of a new discussion guide from Everyday Democracy. Adapted from a 2006 guide created by LaGuardia Community College, One Nation, Many Beliefs helps people of different faith groups and secular groups develop relationships to work together in creating a community where everyone can thrive. Go to www.everyday-democracy.org//en/Resource.182.aspx to download the 43-page discussion guide as a PDF for free. Once you use the guide, the folks at EvDem would love to hear how it worked for your community and what they ... (continue)

The Red Lodge Clearinghouse (RLCH) website, at www.rlch.org, makes participation in natural resources decision-making easier than ever before. The RLCH website — originally founded in 2001 by renowned fashion designer and philanthropist, the late Liz Claiborne and her husband, Art Ortenberg — has served the needs of individuals and organizations engaged in collaborative natural resources management for nearly a decade. The Natural Resources Law Center took over the project in 2007 and, with continued funding from the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation, recently resolved to broaden the mission of the project to support a wider variety of problem-solving methods and to break down the barriers impeding citizen engagement. (continue)