With the Spring 2006 Harwood Public Innovators Lab only a week away, now is the time to register for the Fall Lab, scheduled for Sept. 11-15 at the Pier 5 Hotel in Baltimore, MD. By signing up and paying your tuition, you will secure your seat – or your team’s seats – in the space. The folks at the Harwood Institute anticipate that the Lab will fill up fast, so securing your slot as early as possible is important. Register at www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=83146

The American Library Association (ALA) has recently developed a focus on civic engagement. Invigorated by questions like “What has gone wrong with our democracy, and what should we do about it?” and “what is the public’s role in democracy?” the ALA Fostering Civic Engagement Membership Initiative Group (MIG) will sponsor a Forum on Democracy’s Challenge, Saturday, June 24, 2006, 1:30-3:30, at the upcoming ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. This forum is particularly important because it is critical to the success of a democracy that citizens learn how to deal with complex issues in company with people of diverse opinions. Anyone attending the conference is welcome to the workskhop. For more information on the Civic Engagement Membership Initiative Group, contact the MIG Co-Conveners: Nancy Kranich, ; Taylor Willingham, or Mary Ghikas, .

Roberta Wall will present Nonviolent Communication 101, a free workshop on Nonviolent Communication (NVC) for women this Wednesday, May 17th, 7-9:30 pm at the Red Tent Women�s Project. NVC skills, as formulated by Marshall Rosenberg, help us express feelings and needs without attacking, to make requests without demanding, to receive seemingly critical or negative messages without taking them personally, giving up or giving in. The Red Tent Women�s Project is the only women�s community center in New York City. They welcome all who identify as women to the Red Tent Women�s Project, whatever your walk of life, race, ethnicity, age, spiritual path, sexual orientation, country of origin, citizenship status, size, or socioeconomic level. It is located in Park Slope, Brooklyn at 338 4th Street between 5th & 6th Avenues in the ground floor apartment. For more information, call 718-866-5859 or check www.redtentwomensproject.org.

Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action (www.demos.org) and the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) (www.nvri.org) have just signed a formal collaboration agreement. NVRI and Demos have partnered on many important activities in recent years�spotlighting problems with provisional balloting before the 2004 election, launching the Buck Buckley coalition to support campaign spending limits, working together to seek compliance with voter registration laws, and others. The new collaboration will allow them to combine staff resources and program strategies to maximize the effect of the campaigns they currently share, bring these strengths to bear in all of our current election-related work, and launch new joint initiatives to improve American democracy. In particular, the Demos / NVRI collaboration will expand efforts to restore voting rights to citizens with felony convictions, achieve full and proper implementation of the National Voter Registration Act, combat burdensome voter identification requirements and archaic barriers to voting, and promote Election Day registration. For more information, visit Demos’ website.

A Non Violent Communication (NVC) “Compassion in Action” conference is being organized for June 30 – July 2nd in Oakland, California. This event is geared towards NVC people in the US coming together to support and network with each-other. The gathering costs $350 – $260 per participant to attend 9that includes room & board costs). More information on this event can be found here:
www.cnvc.org/usa-community-building-gathering.htm and here: www.baynvc.org/calendar/view_entry.php?id=CD1004&date=20060629.

Matt Minahan send us a reminder that the May 15th application deadline is approaching for the NTL Institute’s Diversity Practitioner’s Certificate Program. NTL’s Diversity Practitioner Certificate Program builds on the skills of both beginning and experienced diversity practitioners seeking a life changing development experience. This 18-month program offers participants more than 35 days of facilitated face-to-face interaction. During the program, participants will examine diversity theory and practice from multiple perspectives and explore eliminating systems of oppression based on race, gender, ability, sexual orientation, religion, age, class, and other social constructs; incorporate the “use of self” as an instrument of change; develop skills for working as a diversity practitioner from one’s dominant and subordinated group memberships; integrate multiple levels of system thinking and human systems perspectives; develop consulting, facilitation and intervention skills for diversity work at individual, group, organization, nation and world system levels; and identify policies, behaviors and diagnostic interventions that create and facilitate inclusion, equity, access and opportunity and support their application in systems, organizations and cultures. For questions, please contact NTL at 1-800-777-5227, or visit www.ntl.org.

The Presidio Dialogues (www.thepresidiodialogues.org) will be hosting a dialogue about “The Art of Light-Handed Convening” on May 23, 2006 at 7PM. Some of the questions they’ll consider are: What habits do we need to let go of in order to have true dialogue? When does facilitation draw attention to the process or the moderator rather than furthering the inquiry? How does dialogue emerge from among a group of strangers, and what conditions are the most evocative for true inquiry? What role does individual ego play? Registration is at 7:00 PM and the meeting begins at 7:15 pm. The location is the Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, 747 Front St. (@ Broadway) 3rd Floor, San Francisco. Cost is $20 in advance by registering online; $25 in advance (by email, phone or check); $30 at the door. To register online, go to the website listed above. Or email .

Fielding Graduate University (www.fielding.edu) is offering its third innovative certificate course and has expanded the program to the University of Sydney, Australia. This year’s program dates are August 21, 2006 to January 15, 2007. This distinctive program focuses on recent innovations in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement featuring faculty who have played key roles in developing these approaches. It strives for the development of “virtuosity” in our practice of dialogue and deliberation. Designed and delivered in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue and the Kettering Foundation, it features an outstanding core faculty of scholar-practitioners, (Hal Saunders, Barnett Pearce, Phil Stewart, Keith Melville, Jan Elliott, Lyn Carson), it also features guests in Phone Dialogues who are widely recognized scholars and innovative practitioners. Participants from at least two continents will learn together online, on the phone and will participate in face to face workshops in either the US or Australia. For a course outline and to check out testimonials see www.fielding.edu/hod/ce/dialog/index.html. To find out more, you can also join a Teleconference Thursday May 11 at 8 pm EDT (New York time) with Core Faculty. If you are unable to participate there will be an autopodium of the call available. To register for the call or the autopodium, email . For directions on how call the audioconference directly, click on the link below.
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The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is announcing the opening of its 2007-2008 Fellowship competition. The Center awards approximately 20-25 academic year residential fellowships to individuals from any country with outstanding project proposals on national and/or international issues. Topics and scholarship should relate to key public policy challenges or provide the historical and/or cultural framework to illuminate policy issues of contemporary importance. Applicants must hold a doctorate or have equivalent professional experience. Fellows are provided stipends (which include round trip travel), private offices, access to the Library of Congress, Windows-based personal computers, and research assistants. For more information and application guidelines please contact the Center at: Tel: 202-691-4170; Fax: 202-691-4001; E-mail: . You can download the application from the Center’s website at www.wilsoncenter.org/fellowships. Application deadline: October 2, 2006.

Created by Enterprise Community Partners in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Green Communities (http://enterprisefoundation.org/resources/green/) is a five-year, $555 million initiative to build more than 8,500 environmentally healthy homes for low-income families in the United States. Green Communities is now offering charrette grants of up to $5,000 each for green affordable housing developers who want to convene intense working sessions with the development team and others who share an interest in promoting health and livability. A Green Communities charrette will involve an intense working session that brings together a diverse group of housing development professionals as well as funders, policy makers, and community stakeholders (where possible) to integrate sustainable green design principles into affordable housing developments. Enterprise will award grants to cover the cost of facilitating a charrette during pre-development and to cover the cost of facilitating a post-construction sustainability training session. The charrette grant program is open to 501(c)(3) nonprofits, public housing authorities, and tribally designated housing entities; for-profit entities; and for-profit entities participating through joint ventures with qualified organizations. Visit the Enterprise Web site for complete program information and application materials. The deadline for applications is open.

The Gleitsman Foundation (www.gleitsman.org) encourages individual commitment and leadership by recognizing the exceptional achievement of those who have initiated positive social change. The foundation seeks to honor “those individuals whose vision and courage inspire others to join with them in confronting and challenging injustice.” The foundation’s 2007 International Activist Award will honor those who have struggled to correct social injustice worldwide (excluding the United States, which is the focus of the foundation’s Citizen Activist Award in alternate years). The award is not presented posthumously, nor is it given to groups or organizations. The honorees will share $100,000 and will receive a specially commissioned sculpture designed by Maya Lin, creator of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Visit the Gleitsman Foundation Web site for complete program information and nomination procedures. Deadline: November 3, 2006

The Indigenous Issues Forums (IIF) is planning a three day workshop called “Circle of One,” to be held July 6-8 in Rapid City, South Dakota. The workshop will develop and practice circle facilitation skills, will focus on how to work from our strengths as we strive to facilitate difficult dialogues across difference, to restore relationships to wholeness, and to provide safe and respectful spaces to make collective decisions together. The workshop will also feature children’s activities, elder speak, arts, games and reflection. Registration fees are $300 for the three-day workshop. The fee includes workshop materials and meals. Children 12 and under are free. For more information, please contact members of the IIF team: Harley Eagle at 204-786-6372 or 204-997-4838 ; Ruth Yellowhawk at 605-574-2165, or Lily Mendoza-Ducheneaux 605-341-7534, . Please register by Friday June 23rd.

The European Foundation Centre (EFC) is the gathering point for independent funders active in and with Europe. This May 26-28, they are sponsoring a conference and annual general meeting on the theme of “Foundations for Europe: Supporting European Citizens’ Participation” in Brussels. The conference will promote practical sessions for funding professionals to help improve their management, leadership and grantmaking skills. This event offers a valuable opportunity for networking and a chance to experience Europe’s and indeed the world’s diverse funding community. For more information, visit www.efc.be/aga/aga2006/default.htm.

Sam Kaner, author of the international best-seller, Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making (now in its 15th printing), will be leading workshop on group facilitation skills this June 20 – 22 at Community At Work in San Francisco. This is a unique opportunity for beginning and intermediate level facilitators to study with a nationally-recognized expert in the field. For more information, contact Duane Berger at (415) 641-9773 or .

Policy Consensus Initiative�s newest report paints a picture of the changing roles legislators are playing to enable them to work more effectively in the current polarized political environment. Legislators at a Crossroads: Making Choice to Work Differently, describes how some legislators have learned to use the power of their elected office to act as conveners, bringing all sectors to the table to find solutions to public problems that go beyond what any one sector could achieve on its own. In the course of working with state leaders over the past few years, PCI has gleaned their insights and ideas about what legislators need to know in order to play this convening role. An elected leader�s authority to convene is based on the office, not the person. Generally, when an elected official or a respected leader convenes a meeting, people from across the spectrum are willing to come. But to keep them there, and keep them participating, people must believe that the leader is not predisposed to one side or another and is trying to find a solution that all sides can embrace. Convening does require a different way of interacting with the public. It is different from telling citizens what the solution is or talking to them about what needs to be done. It is different from chairing a committee or leading a meeting to gather “input.” Rather than making decisions for people, legislators who act as conveners get people involved in finding effective solutions together and taking action themselves. Often this requires leaders to hone new skills.To download the report, go to www.policyconsensus.org/publications/reports/docs/Crossroads.pdf.