Essential Conversations is celebrating one year! Essential Conversations was created by the Center for Purposeful Leadership as a response to the disruption felt worldwide with the events of 2020, in the hopes of engaging and activating leaders.  If you haven’t checked it out yet, Essential Conversations is a weekly event with the purpose of hosting provocative and evocative conversations, interactive breakouts, and community conversations  to equip you with strategies, inspiration and ideas to create change and innovation needed for  coherence, resilience and positive impact.  Anyone looking […] (continue)

Ten Directions invites you to an exciting development opportunity with their anticipated Next Stage Facilitation Program. The 6- weeks online training goes live from April 20th- May 25th and is oriented for professionals who want to push their edge, take more risks and find more flow, ease and effectiveness in working with groups. This is perfect for anyone who is interested in taking the first step in the Certified Integral Facilitator ® path and is officially accredited by the ICF to provide 23.5 CCEU’s Even better, in partnership […] (continue)

On February 17th NCDD held our first call of 2021. This all-network call asked participants to share where they are putting energy into their work this year. They proposed topics they would like to discuss with others, and we had about 6-7 active sessions going on simultaneously. It was a great networking event! Topics mainly focused in a few areas: Online engagement, including expanding participation, access, and inclusion Diversity, equity, and inclusion Building others skills and increasing the value of good process In the wrap-up […] (continue)

NCDD sponsor organization, Essential Partners, recently released their new comprehensive dialogue guide titled, Race in America. This guide is designed to support community conversations on race; including instructions, a facilitator guide, and several case studies on racial dialogues happening in the U.S. You can learn more about the guide in the post below and download the guide for free via EP’s site here. Race in America: A Dialogue Guide Informed by decades of experience, Race in America: A Dialogue Guide will provide a roadmap for […] (continue)

With Presidents’ Day this coming Monday, we have some great reading for our network to dig into over this holiday weekend! The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, released the 2020 Winter Edition of the National Civic Review (NCR) and  NCDD members receive a digital copy of NCR for free! (Find the access code below.). This esteemed quarterly journal offers insights and examples of civic engagement and deliberative governance from around the country. Friendly reminder that the League is always seeking articles for NCR on community-based […] (continue)

Happening this Thursday, February 11th is the launch event for the film, The Reunited States. This film is inspired by its’ namesake book, The Reunited States, authored by Mark Gerzon, president of Mediators Foundation, an NCDD member org. The Reunited States is a powerful and urgent documentary that follows the unsung heroes on the difficult journey of bridging our political and racial divides. The film, like the book, urges us to consider that everyone has a role to play in reuniting the country. To attend […] (continue)

Students spend most of their days in school. Naturally, when national events occur, this extends the teachers regular duties to the role of  “first responders”. This publication from Essential Partners was adapted for the classroom from their Reflective Structured Dialogue, and is offered as a tool for teachers to create a space of self- reflection, deep listening and open sharing in the classroom.  The prompts and guidelines to consider, proactively invite the students to process crisis in a healthy way. Read about the structure and prompts […] (continue)

NCDD is excited to kick off our 2021 network programming with an all-network call Wednesday, February 17th at 1:00 PM Eastern/10:00 AM Pacific. Register today to secure your spot! Unlike many of our past webinars and calls, this all-network call will put participants in the driver’s seat. As we all start 2021, there is so much work to be done with regards to engaging our communities, bringing people together across differences, and tackling the challenges of this moment. We know you are all thinking about […] (continue)

Antioch University’s Graduate School of Leadership and Change (GSLC) is announcing new exciting opportunities for professionals and executives with the launch of their Professional Certificate Series.  These two certification programs are timely with the presence of the many changes felt by our communities. Each course offers the convenience of being self-paced with a weekly average of 4-5 hours over the duration of three months. Certificate 1: Leading for Inclusion and Racial Justice Certificate is designed for anyone with an interest in challenging racism at a structural […] (continue)

NCDD partner organization the National Civic League is hosting a webinar this Thursday, January 21st at 2:00 PM Eastern/11:00 AM Pacific. The webinar, titled Bridging Divides through Community Dialogue features NCDD’s own Courtney Breese as well as members John Sarrouf of Essential Partners and Hollie Cost, former mayor of Montevallo, Alabama. We hope you will join this exciting event! For more information, check out the event announcement below, or go to the webinar registration page to sign up! Join the National Civic League for a webinar […] (continue)