When we think of learning by cultural immersion, many of our minds jump to study abroad programs and foreign language courses.  But we were struck by Steve Seeche’s recent blog post on his new opportunity to learn about one side of the gun control debate through a different kind of immersion – taking a gun safety course from a second amendment group.  Below is the first installment of Steve’s reflections on his experiment in dialogue, which will be followed soon by an update after on ... (continue)

We had another great NCDD “Confab Call” last week and as always, if you couldn’t join us we welcome you to listen to the audio recording. Our latest Confab featured NCDD members Jacob Hess and Phil Neisser, co-authers of “You’re Not as Crazy as I Thought, But You’re Still Wrong,” leading a discussion on red-blue dialogue. We had over 100 participants, 75 of which dropped in on the call’s collaborative doc, which this time was hosted on Hackpad.com and focused on several thoughtful questions and next ... (continue)

In preparation for our NCDD Confab call on Wednesday at 2pm on the current state of liberal-conservative dialogue, we’ve been thinking about key milestones and programs in this area that NCDD members have spearheaded or have played a major role in. Andy Fluke, NCDD’s creative director and co-founder, created a timeline for us to take a look at during this popular confab call (over 120 people have signed up so far!), to help us think about the trajectory of red-blue (or transpartisan, or political bridge-building) dialogue ... (continue)

When I heard that my friend and colleague Rich Harwood of The Harwood Institute was invited to Newtown to help local leaders and residents make decisions about what to do with Sandy Hook Elementary School, I asked him if he’d be willing to send us a post about his work for the NCDD blog. It looks like we’ll be sharing a series of posts as Rich’s work in Newtown progresses.  Here is the first… This week I am going to Newtown, CT, where I’ve been ... (continue)

Public engagement practitioners commonly note that it seems easier to garner participation from women in dialogue processes than it is to engage men.  Our friends at the Network for Peace through Dialogue have noticed the same issue, and we wanted to share their recent post highlighting the White Ribbon Campaign, a newly formed movement aimed at getting men involved in crucial conversations around gender, which you can read about below or find here: www.burl.co/241FDC2. We at the Network for Peace through Dialogue are very interested in promoting ... (continue)

AmericaSpeaks, an organizational member of NCDD, facilitated the District of Columbia Mayor’s Youth Bullying Prevention Task Force over the past year, and the District’s citywide prevention policy was recently released. The policy sets an important precedent by being one of the first city-wide anti-bullying policies, and it has already begun to be implemented.  Here is Steve Brigham’s recent blog post outlining AmericaSpeaks’ role in this important project.  Steve’s original post on the AmericaSpeaks blog can be found here: www.americaspeaks.org/blog/forging-a-citywide-policy-on-bullying. Bullying has been a chronic problem for ... (continue)

Have you experienced organized disruptions in your public engagement work?  At last fall’s NCDD conference in Seattle, we had a great workshop on “Embattled Public Forums – When Vocal Opponents Try to Discredit/Derail the Process” facilitated by Susan Stewart Clark, Janet Fiero and Christine Whitney Sanchez.  Yet not much systematic research has been done to explore and learn from this phenomenon, how it effects our work in dialogue and deliberation, and how we can best handle organized disrupters. Our colleagues Kirk Emerson, Frank Dukes, Wendy Willis, and Kim Hodge ... (continue)

From Upworthy… (A 2-minute video everyone in our field should watch and then share widely!) Mark Meckler (co-founder, Tea Party Patriots) and Joan Blades (co-founder, MoveOn.org) come from opposite ends of the political spectrum and should be mortal enemies if the current level of political discourse in Washington D.C. is anything to go by. Instead, they found a way to calmly share their beliefs and discovered that while “right” and “left” obviously don’t agree on everything, they share a lot more common ground than anyone ... (continue)

For those wondering what they might do to help heal rifts or navigate the difficult issues in our communities, Sarah Read at The Communications Center, Inc. offer two resources… The first is our essay on dialogues on gun violence which was recently recognized by the National Institute for Civil Discourse. It can be downloaded on our blog, and the end notes contain many additional resources: http://buildingdialogue.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/planning-for-civil-discourse-about-gun-violence/ We also recently published a workbook to help communities evaluate their readiness for difficult dialogues and to better plan for and ... (continue)

Last Wednesday, NCDD hosted its April 2013 Confab Call with featured guest Brad Rourke.  We focused on Brad’s recent Issue Advisory How Can We Stop Mass Shootings in Our Communities? (pdf) prepared for the National Issues Forums Institute in response to the mass shooting in Newtown, CT last December. It was a well-attended Confab, with more than 150 sign-ups and a healthy conversation during the call and on the collaborative document we created to allow participants to ask questions and introduce themselves. If you missed the ... (continue)