educational opportunities

The Project on Civic Reflection will be holding two Facilitation Training Workshops in Northern California during the first week in November. The two-day workshops, hosted by Cal Corps Public Service Center (Berkeley) and California Campus Compact (Daly City), are open to interested individuals and organizations. Workshop participants may include program directors, teachers, faculty members, students, service-learning staff, national service groups, community partners, and anyone wanting to deepen community and commitment in their organizations.

NCDD Member Discounts!

You’ll find more information in this informational flyer, including a registration form. Dues-paying NCDD members pay only $225, a 10% discount off the already low registration fee of $250. Please note on the registration form that you are an NCDD member.

Participants will gain hands-on facilitation skills taught by expert trainers and be equipped to lead civic reflection discussions in their communities. They will also receive a facilitation handbook with tips and answers to frequently asked questions, a copy of The Civically Engaged Reader, and program consultation and ongoing support.

Please submit the registration form to Debbie Garbukas at . If you have questions, please contact Kelli Covey at or at 312.750.1760. Registration closes on October 1, so register soon!

I shared this on the NCDD Discussion list today, but wanted to post it here as well for those of you not on the listserv. Our Canadian sister organization, the Canadian Community for Dialogue & Deliberation (C2D2), invites interested NCDDers to participate in a conversation (the first of an ongoing dialogue) to explore the all-important topic of evaluation of dialogue and deliberation processes.

C2D2′s Miriam Wyman, Jacquie Dale and Pattie LaCroix are the dynamic trio moving the evaluation discussion forward.

The conference call will take place on August 17 from noon-1:30pm EDT. Note that C2D2 is asking people to respond to some questions by August 9th (Monday) if they’d like to participate in the call.

And for those whose interest is piqued by this invitation, you might want to also check out the Assessment Tools category in NCDD’s Resource Center, where we currently have 30 tools listed and described.

Here’s the full invitation… (I was given permission to extend the invitation to NCDDers) (more…)

Patricia Neal of Heartland, Inc. has asked us to let our community know about the special summer rate (for July-September 2010) of $495 (regularly $550-595) they are offering to NCDD members for their next “Art of Convening” teletraining.

The Art of Convening - Authentic Engagement in Meetings, Gatherings & Conversations

In an age of reduced travel budgets and reliance on effective, virtual communication, the AoC adds crucial capacities to leaders who are conveners/facilitators of conversations and meetings that matter and work. Not just another meeting methodology, the Art of Convening Core TeleTraining (AoC Core) provides the practices, tools and skills that create the conditions for authentic engagement to transform your meetings, gatherings and conversations. As you meet with, convene, facilitate and gather people (virtually or in person), The Art of Convening will expand your capacity and thought leadership in depth and breadth.

You can learn more or register at the program’s website.  NCDD members should use the following discount code at checkout while registering:  DSC-HeartCom

The next 3-month AoC Core Series begins July 13. The series meets via teleconference for 2 hours every other Tuesday morning.

For more information about the teleconference or the discount contact Patricia Neal () or visit their website at http://heartlandcircle.com/.

If you’ve been thinking about enrolling in Fielding’s award-winning Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement Certificate program, now may be a good time. They’ve just extended the deadline to apply for sponsorships to July 2nd and wanted to invite all NCDD members to apply!

Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement Certificate (DDPE)
August 16, 2010 – January 18, 2011

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Deadline Extended to July 2, 2010

The dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement certificate helps you build mastery by working with a scholar-practitioner model of collaborative learning and reflective practice. An exceptional faculty of scholar-practitioners who do real world work in diverse contexts and cultures, will support your learning and provide coaching for a culminating capstone project over 19 weeks of online, telephone, and 2 face to face workshops. (more…)

Susanna Haas-Lyons just shared this with the NCDD Discussion list, and I thought it was worth posting here for those of you in the U.K…

Deliberative Democracy Master-class and Workshop, John Dryzek, 30 June – 2 July 2010

John Dryzek will be leading a one-day master-class in deliberative democracy at the London School of Economics on 30 June 2010. Immediately following the master-class (1 and 2 July) there will be a two-day workshop of presentations on the theme ‘The epistemic potential and empirical realities of deliberative democracy’. (more…)

NCDD member Adrienne Dessel has asked us to invite all NCDD members to the Intergroup Dialogue National Institute from June 16-19, 2010 at the Four Points Sheraton hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan, hosted by the University of Michigan’s Program on Intergroup Relations. The Institute is designed for faculty and staff who are interested in expanding and assessing intergroup dialogue programs already in place or are interested in starting one at their institutions. We hope that you and/or others from your institution or program can participate in the upcoming institute. The goals of the Institute are to:

• Participate in engaging activities commonly used in intergroup dialogue settings
• Explore the overall dialogue framework and The Michigan Model
• Strategize the development and support of academic and co-curricular programs

While we will engage in interactive activities, the purpose of this Institute is to demonstrate the curriculum and structure of intergroup dialogue. Facilitator and “train the trainer” workshops are not included as part of this Institute.

In addition to the Institute, we will be offering a pre-Institute workshop focusing on religion dialogues. This workshop is recommended for campuses considering focusing on this specific dialogue topic area. It is also recommended for those campuses with a religious base and/or campuses that are currently experiencing tension between academia and faith perspectives.  The pre-Institute workshop is free to registered Institute participants and will include the following highlights:

• A keynote speaker who will discuss interfaith issues and dialogues
• A panel of diverse, local interfaith leaders engaged in interfaith dialogue
• Exposure to various experiential activities unique to religion dialogues

When you register, you will have the option to register for the pre-Institute workshop as well.

Registration, as well as, housing information can be found at http://www.conferences.housing.umich.edu/igr/.  More information about the national institute is available at http://www.igr.umich.edu/about/institute.

Our friends at Fielding wanted us to make sure NCDD’ers saw the announcement for this year’s Dialogue, Deliberation & Public Engagement certificate program (NCDD members get a 10% discount) running from August 16, 2010 until January 18, 2011.

Fielding Graduate University has announced the seventh year of their award-winning graduate level certificate program in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement.  2010′s DDPE Certificate Program will be held in partnership with the University of Western Sydney, Australia. This distinctive program strives for the development of mastery through building the skills, knowledge and intuitive sensibility that are needed to make wise choices about how to bring forms of dialogue, deliberation, and engagement into situations where they are most effective.

Designed and delivered in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, the Kettering Foundation, and the Public Dialogue Consortium, the DDPE program focuses on foundations and innovations in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement. It features outstanding faculty (Hal Saunders, Barnett Pearce, Phil Stewart, Jan Elliott, Lyn Carson, Keith Melville, John Dedrick and Linda Blong) as well as widely recognized scholars and innovative practitioners who join us as guests in Phone Dialogues. Previous featured guests have included: Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Juanita Brown, Martha McCoy, Bob Stains, Shawn Spano, Rich Harwood, Janette Hartz-Karp, Matt Leighninger, Joseph Peters, and Adam Kahane.

Tuition & Registration:

Tuition is US$ 3,740 if you register by July 16, 2010.  NCDD and IAP2 members will receive a 10% discount. A late registration fee of $250 applies to all registrations after July 16th.  There are a limited number of sponsorships available for up to $1,300. Selected applicants must be based in the United States and working with a community or organization to build capacity for and through dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement. The application process for these sponsorships closes June 25, 2010. For more information, contact Dr. Katrina Rogers, Fielding Graduate University, (805) 898-2924 or email:  .

Information Calls:

You can get more information about the program by joining one of the DDPE’s Teleconferences.  The first is May 18 at 5 pm EDT.  To register for information calls, contact Amy Boutell at . For a program description and registration visit  http://www.fielding.edu/programs/ce/ddpe.

I wanted to remind everyone that today is the last day to register for Friday’s 1pm EST joint PublicDecisions/NCDD webinar titled “Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in Dialogue & Deliberation: What Are the Implications for Practice?” with guests Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta.  Over 80 people have registered so far, and it’s quite an amazing group of people.

Here is the registration link:  http://www.publicdecisions.com/publicforum_2010May14.html (don’t worry – the form is super-short!)

Note: you’ll receive an email from PublicDecisions that includes instructions for participating in the webinar.  I suggest looking that over and preparing (doing any downloading required, etc.) the day before the webinar if you can.  We’ll be using Microsoft Live Meeting.

Full details on the webinar can be found in the original blog post at www.thataway.org/?p=2535.

Join us for a free webinar titled “Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in Dialogue & Deliberation: What Are the Implications for Practice?” on Friday, May 14 from 1pm to 2:30 Eastern (10am Pacific) with NCDD members Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta. The webinar is jointly sponsored by the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) and PublicDecisions.

The field of public dialogue and deliberation (D&D) is growing dramatically—so dramatically, in fact, that no one fully knows what the field looks like: who is doing public dialogue and deliberation work, what forms their work is taking, what common challenges they face. This webinar will use the results of a recent survey of dialogue and deliberation practitioners as a jumping off point for a wide-ranging discussion of current and future issues in the public engagement practitioner community.

We’ll discuss results that shed light on topics such as how people get started in D&D practice, the role of gender in deliberation, and how best to measure and market D&D outcomes. In this interactive program, webinar participants will be invited to identify the emerging challenges they see and to share steps they are taking to chart the course of 21st Century public engagement. Come prepared to engage and be engaged!

Caroline Lee and Francesca Polletta, the sociologists who conducted the survey, will join hosts Sandy Heierbacher of NCDD and Beth Offenbacker of PublicDecisions in a highly interactive, dynamic discussion that will delve into tough issues and exciting possibilities.

Register by the end of the day on Wednesday, May 12th at http://www.publicdecisions.com/publicforum_2010May14.html . This webinar uses Microsoft Live Meeting, an online meeting platform. You will click on a unique weblink we send you to view the slides, etc., and you can either plug in a computer headset or call a U.S. telephone line (long distance charges apply, but you can always use Skype) to hear/speak.

I encourage you also to check out the survey results before the webinar at http://sites.lafayette.edu/ddps/. (more…)

Catherine Tufariello at the Project on Civic Reflection at Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, Indiana) wanted to share this announcement with the NCDD community (note the NCDD discount on this already reasonably-priced training!)…

From volunteers to educators, nonprofit leaders to community organizers, civic reflection discussions engage participants seeking to make a difference in the world.  If you are interested in learning to facilitate civic reflection discussions, consider attending the Project on Civic Reflection‘s next Facilitation Training Workshop.  The two-day workshop, to be held at Columbia College in downtown Chicago, will begin at noon on Thursday, April 29, 2010 and conclude at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 30.  Dues-paying NCDD members pay only $225, a 10% discount off the already low registration fee of $250.

Workshop participants receive hands-on facilitation skills taught by expert trainers, a facilitation handbook with tips and answers to frequently asked questions, a copy of The Civically Engaged Reader, and program consultation and ongoing support.   In addition, we can provide continuing professional development credits (CPDU’s) to participating Illinois teachers.

You can access an informational flyer and registration form here:
http://civicreflection.org/resource/d/52331/Training_Flyer_April_October_2010.pdf

Please submit the registration form to Debbie Garbukas at or by fax at 219.464.5496.  Note on the form that you are an NCDD member. If you have questions, please contact Program Coordinator Liz Granger at or by phone at 312.750.1760.  Registration closes on March 26, so register soon!

IFES is pleased to announce its annual Manatt Democracy Studies Fellowship Program. Mr. Manatt, former U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic and former Chair of IFES’ Board of Directors, and his wife Kathleen fund one fellowship (6-8 weeks, dates flexible) each year exclusively for graduate students at universities in the American Midwest. The Manatt Fellow receives a stipend of $5,000 and works in our international headquarters in Washington, DC. A PDF flyer and application are available at http://www.ifes.org/fellowships-manatt.html. (more…)

NCDD member and director of the Jewish Dialogue Group, Mitch Chanin, contacted us with news of an excellent opportunity.  His organization is seeking interns to help them create a new Guidebook for Deliberation about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Interns will have the opportunity to assist with a number of research and writing tasks.  Here’s a little more about this group and the guidebook:

The Jewish Dialogue Group (www.jewishdialogue.org) is a non-partisan, grassroots organization that works to foster constructive dialogue within Jewish communities about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other difficult issues. We lead structured dialogue programs in synagogues, colleges, and other venues and also train dialogue facilitators, create publications that empower people to lead dialogue programs of their own, and provide advice to people who are engaged in dialogue work. We seek to make these services and resources available to all who need them.

In early 2011, we will publish a new guidebook for deliberation. Jews across the U.S. will use the guide to conduct workshops in which participants systematically explore how they can respond to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in ways that are as ethical and effective as possible, in a supportive, non-adversarial environment. Read more about the guidebook.

Visit their website to learn more about this internship opportunity and  how to apply. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact them at or 215-266-1218.

The latest newsletter from the David Mathews Center for Civic Life arrived in inboxes over the weekend featuring their upcoming Connect the Dots Conference.  Here’s an excerpt from the email:

From March 3-6, 2010 in Point Clear, Alabama, the David Mathews Center for Civic Life’s Community-Based Research Internship Program in New College at the University of Alabama will host CONNECT THE DOTS, a national student conference that will focus on the democratic practices of public dialogue, deliberation, and community problem solving and action.

During the conference, students, faculty, program administrators, practitioners, and community members from across the nation will have the opportunity to share their ideas about democratic practices with one another. Examples of workshops that will be held during the conference include: “Models and Approaches to Deliberative Democracy,” “Issue Naming and Framing,” Introduction to Facilitation,” “Sustained Dialogue,” and many more.

We’ll Be There!

NCDD will be well represented at this event. Sandy Heierbacher, NCDD’s director, will be running two workshops on approaches to deliberative democracy.  NCDD Board member and director of Everyday Democracy, Martha McCoy, will speak and be joined by several other NCDD members leading workshops or learning exchanges, including Najeeba Syeed-Miller, Nancy Thomas and Matt Leighninger.

If you’re an NCDD member and will be at the event, .  Or, if you live anywhere near Point Clear and are interested in meeting up with Sandy and other NCDDers, send her an or connect with her on Facebook.

All NCDD members are welcome to join us on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 3:30-4:00 Eastern for the first in a new series of “NCDD Confabs” — conference calls for NCDD members where we’ll explore dialogue & deliberation’s role in current issues, learn about exciting projects and interesting methods from fellow NCDD members, and just get to know each other a little better.

At this first NCDD Confab call on the 17th, we asked NCDD member Beth Offenbacker from PublicDecisions to talk with us about the upcoming Including the Excluded Online Conference, scheduled for March 2 through 4, so we can learn about the upcoming conference, and about online conferences in general.

UPDATE: We will be encouraging questions, comments and networking over Twitter during the call.  Add the hashtag #NCDDConfab to the end of your Tweet to contribute during the call.  To see what participants are posting, search for the hashtag #NCDDConfab.

The online conference is the latest way people are using technology to bridge geographic distances and save money ordinarily spent on travel costs. How might this new way of sharing best practices assist those of us in the D&D community?

Join us for a great conversation with Beth as she uses the Including the Excluded conference as a case study, telling us:

• Why online conferences are becoming more popular
• How online conferences are similar to/different from face-to-face events
• What technology is involved and how does it work
• What registrants need to know to have a successful online conference experience

Special Offer for NCDD Members

Of course, Beth will also answer any questions you have about the Including the Excluded conference, and we hope this call will encourage more of you to attend this unique event. NCDD is an affiliate of the conference, and members of the NCDD community (basically, anyone who hears about the conference through NCDD!) are eligible for a special conference rate of just $139 USD (a $40 savings) the full 3-day conference, or just $70 for a one-day pass. By registering, you’re also supporting NCDD, since we receive a portion of each registration fee. Be sure to use the discount code NCDDSpecial when registering at www.seconf.org.

Please RSVP for the Confab call to me () so we get a head count, and join us on Wednesday, February 17 at 3:30pm Eastern (for a 30 to 45 minutes). The dial-in number for the call is 1-605-475-6350 (it’s a long distance call) and the participant access code is 444839.

Here’s a little more detail about the Including the Excluded online conference:

If you experience challenges with effectively engaging diverse people or groups, you won’t want to miss the Stakeholder Engagement 2010 Online Conference: Including the Excluded.

Held on Tuesday, March 2 through Thursday, March 4, the conference program highlights practical insights and best practices for engaging people. It focuses on individual presentations, case studies and research findings on engaging those

• who have historically been excluded (for example, those subject to racial or ethnic discrimination),
• individuals with physical or mental disabilities, and
• people who are socially excluded for a variety of reasons (such as people who are homeless or in a country illegally).

All sessions and activities are held on the internet, so no travel is required. Among the many benefits of participating include:

• Keynote address from John Ott, co-author of The Power of Collective Wisdom one of today’s leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of community change, which will inspire and challenge you with practical strategies and illustrative examples.
• Insights into today’s state-of-the-art best practices that practitioners and organizations are using to address social inclusion, social/environmental justice and accessibility.
• Real-world examples and key knowledge that you can apply right away in your work with stakeholders.
• Access to conference session recordings and presentation materials for at least six months after the conference concludes.

Learn what SMART Conversations are and how to have them. In this workshop on Monday, April 19th, discover how to engage yourself and others in dialogue, productive conversations that build trust and respect, foster a participative environment, encourage authenticity, invite all perspectives and have a bias for action. Dialogue is essential for building consensus, encouraging public engagement, enhancing organizational effectiveness and sparking creativity and innovation.

If you need to train others in the conversation style of dialogue, join us for the optional two-day facilitator certification immediately following this workshop on April 20 & 21. The one-day workshop is a prerequisite. Please contact Paul Weisman at (617)-413-4291 or at for more information or to reserve your space. 10% discounts are available for NCDD members, nonprofits and government agencies. Workshop fee: $500.