Worldwork is an experiential training seminar in conflict work and community building. The seminar provides a unique opportunity for people from all over the world to come together in a powerful forum for focusing on and working with social, environmental, and political issues using group process skills. Between two and three hundred people from over thirty countries and all walks of life participate in these 7 – 10 day gatherings. The large staff facilitates a diversity of learning experiences that include large group focus and ... (continue)

The CivicCommons.com is a new way to bring communities together with conversation and emerging technology. We provide the place and tools for citizens to connect with and inform one another and to take action. It’s a bit like a virtual pub or coffee house, where citizens and officials can gather to talk about community issues, brainstorm solutions, coordinate plans –  and maybe even have fun and meet new people along the way. We take some of our inspiration from Clay Shirky’s book, Cognitive Surplus, which ... (continue)

In “Slow Democracy,” community leader (and NCDD Sustaining Member) Susan Clark and democracy scholar Woden Teachout document the range of ways that citizens around the country are breathing new life into participatory democracy in their communities. (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012.) Large institutions and centralized governments, with top-down, expert-driven thinking, are no longer society’s drivers. In fact, they are often responsible for tearing communities apart. New decision-making techniques now pair with cutting-edge communication tools to make local communities—and the citizens who live there—uniquely suited to meet today’s ... (continue)

Here’s a great resource from our friends at Project for Public Spaces (PPS), outlining the qualities of successful public spaces.  PPS is NCDD’s fellow partner in CommunityMatters. Learn more about PPS’s approach to community building and design at www.pps.org. Great public spaces are where celebrations are held, social and economic exchanges take place, friends run into each other, and cultures mix. They are the “front porches” of our public institutions – libraries, field houses, neighborhood schools – where we interact with each other and government. When the ... (continue)

Front Porch Forum‘s mission is to help neighbors connect and build community. We do that by hosting regional networks of online neighborhood forums. Common sense and a growing body of research tell us that well-connected neighborhoods are friendlier places to live, with less crime, healthier residents, higher property values, and better service from local government and public utilities. (continue)

The MIT Center for Civic Media creates and deploys technical and social tools that fill the information needs of communities. We are inventors of new technologies that support and foster civic media and political action; we are a hub for the study of these technologies; and we coordinate community-based test beds both in the United States and internationally. Bridging two established programs at MIT—one known for inventing alternate technical futures, the other for identifying the cultural and social potential of media change—the Center for Civic ... (continue)

Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit planning, design and educational organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities. Our pioneering Placemaking approach helps citizens transform their public spaces into vital places that highlight local assets, spur rejuvenation and serve common needs. PPS was founded in 1975 to expand on the work of William (Holly) Whyte, the author of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Since then, we have completed projects in over 2500 communities in 40 countries and all 50 US states. Partnering ... (continue)

One of the National Issues Forums Institute’s issue guides, Making Ends Meet: Is There a Way to Help Working Americans? 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 ... (continue)

Written and self-published by Sami Sunchild of the Peaceful World Foundation in 2008 and 2011, this is a short, readable, simple and lively manual for holding meaningful circle conversations in public places where traveler’s gather. The impetus for the manual comes from the idea of turning the tourist industry into a conscious vehicle of social transformation by systematically inviting people to host conversations in tourist centers. The booklet, which can be purchased on the Peace Arts website, includes “Six Ingredients of a Good Conversation” which focuses ... (continue)

This ten-page article titled Mr. Boyd Connects describes Representative Allen Boyd’s (D-Florida) experience with National Issues Forums and public deliberation. Boyd first took part in the taping of A Public Voice at the National Press Club in 2004 and then went on to organize similar events in every county in his district in Florida.  Mr. Boyd Connects was published by the Kettering Foundation in 2005. Find more details on the NIF website. More about National Issues Forums and their Reports on the Issues… The National Issues Forums ... (continue)