Due in part to the interest expressed by participants at the August NCDD conference in San Francisco, Mariah Howard and Nancy Margulies will be presenting a workshop on Graphic Facilitation in the San Francisco Bay Area in January or February.  Nancy and Mariah graphically facilitated the plenary session on the second day of the conference.

NCDD members will receive a 20% discount on the $150 registration (just let them know you’re an NCDD member when you register). Participants will learn to present their ideas using Mindscaping and Mind Mapping, take notes more effectively, creat attractive flip charts that are clear and memorable and plan projects in a more effective way. Basic drawing skills will be taught as well.

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On December 2, thousands of New Orleanians will gather at five town hall meetings and fifteen webcast meetings to discuss and choose investment priorities to rebuild their hometown. Community Congress II will utilize interactive TV to link thousands of participants attending events in New Orleans and four other cities with high concentrations of New Orleans evacuees: Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Dallas, and Houston. In addition, New Orleans residents living outside those cities can view and call into the meeting at participating libraries in more than 15 cities nationwide. There are an estimated 267,000 New Orleans residents who have not yet returned to the city – 60 percent of the city’s pre-Katrina population – according to a study commissioned this summer by the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

AmericaSpeaks has been working with an amazing team of community organizations, planners, service agencies and individual volunteers to prepare for next Saturday’s meeting. Everyone can be part of this effort by (more…)

The Western Justice Center Foundation is looking for a Program Director of Conflict Resolution Education. This position directs the work of the Western Justice Center Foundation (WJCF) a non-profit organization strives to create a more civil society through a process of engagement and education that will enable individuals and institutions to become partners in peace-building . The WJCF works with communities, courts, schools, and governments on a variety of programs. These WJCF programs fall into two areas: 1) Community Engagement 2) Conflict Resolution Education. The available position falls under the programmatic area of conflict resolution education. WJCF programs range from birth until high school in this area. WJCF clients include school districts, parent engagement programs and government and non profit coalitions. (more…)

The overall theme for the 2007 CIVICUS World Assembly is “Acting Together for a Just World.” This theme will be explored through a central focus theme “Accountability: Delivering Results.” At the 2007 CIVICUS World Assembly in May, CIVICUS will convene representatives of civil society organizations, government and international government organisations, media, business and donors to discuss and debate how to assist each other to be more accountable, and will encourage better engagement across sectors to achieve accountability. Be sure to complete the call for workshop proposals at www.civicus.org/new/media/CallforWA-WorkshopsProposals.doc or www.civicus.org/new/media/CallforProposals2007WAEng.PDF by the December 20th deadline.

The Princeton Public Library has received a grant from The Nathan Cummings Foundation for a series called “Deliberative Community Forums @ your Library”. The library will host a workshop on December 4 (1:00 p.m.– 8:30 p.m.) and December 5 (1:30 p.m.– 5:30 p.m.) for librarians and community members interested in learning how to moderate and convene deliberative forums using the National Issues materials. The Princeton Public Library is generously extending its offer of this free training to people outside of the Princeton, NJ area. (more…)

The Network for Peace through Dialogue and Marymount Manhattan College are organizing a conference in June 2007 called Why Dialogue? (and when, and how, and where?) A Conference for Community Groups, Researchers, Teachers, Students and Others. The conference will consider the place of dialogue in democratic and global societies, examine the uses of dialogue in education, planning, management, negotiation and conflict resolution, examine the challenges and risks in engaging in dialogue, explore how dialogue differs from other forms of conversation, and provide a forum for networking. Save the dates: Friday evening, June 15 & all day Saturday, June 16, 2007 in New York City. For more information contact the Network for Peace Through Dialogue (NPD) at (tel.) 212-426-5818; or www.networkforpeace.com. To submit a session proposal, contact Virginia Dorgan at the telephone or email address above.

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which recognize outstanding works that contribute to our understanding of racism or appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures, is accepting entries. Now in its 72nd year, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards continues to be the only American book award designed specifically to recognize works addressing issues of racism and diversity. The awards are administered by the Cleveland Foundation. Awards are given for both fiction and nonfiction. Award recipients traditionally receive a monetary gift of $10,000 from the Anisfield-Wolf Fund. To be eligible, books must be written in English and published in 2006. Plays and screenplays are not eligible, nor are works in progress. Manuscripts and self-published works are not eligible. Submission information and form, as well as a complete list of winners, can be found at the awards program Web site: www.anisfield-wolf.org. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2007.

Study Circles Resource Center recently published an article on how school principals can use study circles to address challenges and change in their communities. Growing numbers of school districts across North America are using study circles to build community-wide coalitions that make schools work better for everyone. To read the article, visit www.studycircles.org/en/Article.480.aspx.

Conflict Resolution Network Canada (CRNC) is seeking nominations for individuals interested in joining our Board of Directors. CRNC is a national, charitable organization dedicated to helping Canadians find better ways to deal with everyday conflicts. Established in 1984, CRNC is dedicated to providing public education about conflict resolution in order to bring about social change. CRNC has built a reputation as the pre-eminent Canadian source for information and resources on conflict resolution. Through their publication, Conflict Resolution Today, their mail-order bookstore and their lively Web site, www.crnetwork.ca, they offer current information to everyone interested in learning about conflict resolution. (more…)

We just heard about a great film resource for dialogues on racism and immigration in the US. The Letter: An American Town and the ‘Somali Invasion’ is directed by Ziad H. Hamzeh. Produced by Ziad H. Hamzeh, Bert Brown, and Marc Sandler, 2003. This 76-minute documentary film tells the story of 1,100 Somalian immigrants who relocated to Lewiston, Maine. At first the immigrants were welcomed, but soon fear and distrust broke out amongst the townspeople. Tensions erupted after the mayor sent a letter to the immigrants requesting that they tell their friends and family not to move into the town. The mayor claimed that the newcomers were straining town services. The conflict escalated into competing “hate” and “peace” rallies held simultaneously and separated by only a few miles. “The Letter” could help dialogue programs raise awareness in their communities about how racism and immigration intersect. The film could also help planners decide which of these issues to address in their community. If you are based in North America, you can purchase the DVD for $24.99 at www.arabfilm.com/item/300/ (VHS tapes are $19.99). For all purchases outside of North America please contact . Learn more about the film at www.hamzehmystiquefilms.com/theletter/.

The Policy Consensus Initiative (PCI) is conducting a survey to gather examples of where citizen engagement strategies have been used in combination with either community problem-solving or multi-stakeholder dispute resolution. (An example of such a combination would be a project that was identified in a public forum and implemented through a community group or a stakeholder group.) This initiative follows from a Hewlett Foundation report identifying community problem solving and multi-stakeholder dispute resolution as two major types of collaborative governance actitivities (For more information on this report, please click here) The results will be shared with participating organizations. To complete the survey, please visit: www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=284742730370.

On the weekend of the 7 and 8 of October 2006, 200 citizens from all 25 Member States met in Brussels to set the agenda for the national consultations to take place in all EU Member States in the coming year. Three topics for national level consultations emerged: Environment and energy; Social welfare and family; Europe’s global role, its external borders and immigration.

In November and December 2006, two “test groups” of 40 citizens will meet in so-called citizens’ juries to discuss and assess which kind of information participants of the national consultations require to lead fruitful discussions. Then, national consultations will take place from February to March 2007 in all EU Member States. Citizens will discuss the overarching question “What is needed to achieve the Europe we want?” based on the three topics selected at the agenda-setting event in October. (more…)

Operation Understanding DC seeks a Program Instructor to work with African American and Jewish high school students.

Responsibilities of the Program Instructor include:

• Working directly with 32 African American and Jewish students, in both educator and mentor capacities for Sunday afternoon programs, weekend retreats and July Civil Rights Journey;
• Working closely with Program Director and Program Committee on program development, including new initiatives, continuation of the current program and evaluation;
• Providing assistance with outreach to schools, churches and synagogues for participant recruitment and student speeches and facilitations; and
• Representing OUDC at public forums.

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Peace Tiles organizers Nil S. Navaie of Arts for Global Development and Lars Hasselblad Torres of Peace Tiles were on hand during our conference in San Francisco as part of our Arts programming to provide a creative resource for participants, allowing for a different and unique way to process the day’s intake. They have collected photographs of the tiles created in a photo set on Flickr.

The Critical and Creative Thinking Program at The University of Massachusetts (Boston) will host a Dialogue Processes Online Graduate course beginning February 2007 through till May 2007. Structured as an online learning community, the core objective of CrCrTh 616 is to cultivate practical know-how and theoretical knowledge of Dialogue Processes with a focus on Otto Scharmer’s model of Generative Dialogue, which follows from William Isaacs work with the MIT Dialogue Project and David Bohm’s understanding of dialogue.

The course offers a range of learning spaces designed to develop our individual and collective capacities for bringing significant changes in how we think, communicate and learn together. In addition to online inquiry, there are weekly skill and capacity building exercises, coaching triads, collaborative assignments and a real-world component where participants conduct a dialogue-based project within their own organization or community. The course will be delivered through WebCT, phone coaching, web-based synchronous meetings, web-based audio and video files. To register, visit  http://ccde.umb.edu/dl/spring07/crcrth616/ Note that the 2007 course description has not yet been loaded. Contact the course instructor Olen Gunnlaugson () for further information.