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)

Everyday Democracy’s Issue Guide Exchange, at everyday-democracy.org/exchange/, is a free online resource available to anyone who is interested in broad-based, inclusive dialogue leading to community action. It is a place for people to share, create, and discuss dialogue guides. The Issue Guide Exchange has three parts: An exchange – a place for people to upload issue guides of their own, search for and review others’ guides, and download and adapt them. A forum – a place for people to discuss specific guides or dialogue in general. ... (continue)

Written by NCDD director Sandy Heierbacher to expand upon the text on our “What Are Dialogue & Deliberation?” page. This resource provides enough details to enable you to decide which of these leading dialogue and deliberation methods you should learn more about. In addition to looking at which methods fit your intentions, you will need to consider which methods are aligned with your resources, timeline, and the people you feel need to be involved. The text below is drawn from NCDD’s Engagement Streams Framework. AmericaSpeaks ... (continue)

Those of you who are interested in how evaluation can be used from the outset of a public engagement initiative may find this 2-page chart useful. It was developed in 2008 for Everyday Democracy by the Center for Assessment and Policy Development (CAPD) for EvDem’s Communities Creating Racial Equity project, which involved about a half-dozen community coalitions around the country addressing various forms of structural racism.  Download the chart here. (continue)

Everyday Democracy and the Kettering Foundation published a must-read research report (October 2009) that provides insights on how public engagement activities can grow into a diverse, ongoing practice in communities. The report, Sustaining Public Engagement: Embedded Deliberation in Local Communities, was written by Harvard University researchers Archon Fung and Elena Fagotto. (continue)

Dave Davenport, research fellow at the Hoover Institute and professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, wrote a great article for the Hoover Digest titled Why Conservatives should Embrace Deliberative Democracy. The article refers to some deliberative efforts – CaliforniaSpeaks, a European deliberative poll, the Canadian citizens assemblies for electoral reform, etc. – and talks about how, when he describes these experiments to his political and policy friends, he gets more enthusiastic reactions from people on the Left than those on the Right. “Perhaps,” Davenport ... (continue)

The issue guide, “Fulfilling Our e-State Potential: Building Community in a ‘Connected’ Age” on Everyday Democracy’s Issue Guide Exchange, is designed to help citizens deliberate about ways to use e-state technology to help enhance community and civic life. It’s designed to be used during a one-day symposium and includes an exploration of community, scenarios to help explore e-state opportunities and challenges, an exercise to identify e-state values, and opportunities to identify action steps. (continue)

This is the 2006 revision of the Facing Racism discussion guide from Everyday Democracy (formerly the Study Circles Resource Center). Available in both English and Spanish – with a supplementary guide for affinity-group dialogues, this six-session discussion guide helps all kinds of people take part in meaningful dialogue to examine gaps among racial and ethnic groups and create institutional and  policy change. The guide is endorsed by a wide range of public figures including Bill Bradley, Jack Kemp, Spellman College President Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, ... (continue)

The theme for Arsalyn’s 2007 annual youth conference, which took place in D.C. August 9-12, 2007, was “Bridging the Partisan Divide: Rediscovering Deliberation,” and NCDD was proud to play a major role at the event. Arsalyn invited 150 young people ages 16-20 to the 2007 conference to learn the art of political deliberation. This event is part of a series of conferences geared toward helping young people – especially politically active youth – develop skills that will help them communicate effectively with those of opposing ... (continue)

Dialogue and deliberation are dynamic processes which can be empathy-enhancing, relationship-changing, problem-solving, action-planning, organization-developing, community-building, conflict-resolving, skill developing, prejudice reducing, consciousness-raising, and more! The various models and methods that are used in our field often emphasize, strive for and obtain different outcomes. Click on this resource for quotes from over a dozen leaders in the D&D community about what "dialogue" means to them. (continue)