A Community Builder's Tool Kit: 15 Tools for Creating Healthy, Productive Interracial/Multicultural Communities

Anti-Racism Initiative of the Institute for Democratic Renewal and Project Change, 2001.

This primer for revitalizing democracy from the ground up can be downloaded for free or ordered for $1.50 per copy.

Resource Link: http://www.race-democracy.org

A Conversation About Conflict

Search for Common Ground's "Conversations About Conflict" are 1.5- to 2-hour workshops that can be run for any given audience interested in conflict resolution. The purpose of the Conversation is to help people develop a new awareness of conflicts in our lives - how we currently respond to them, what they cost us, and the alternative approaches that can be used to deal with them in a more constructive manner. SFCG offers a dialogue guide and other resources to help you lead Conversations About Conflict.

Resource Link: http://www.sfcg.org/resources/training/resources_conversation.html

A Guide to Participatory Budgeting

Brian Wampler.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) programs are innovative policymaking processes. Citizens are directly involved in making policy decisions. Forums are held throughout the year so that citizens have the opportunity to allocate resources, prioritize broad social policies, and monitor public spending. These programs are designed incorporate citizens into the policymaking process, spur administrative reform, and distribute public resources to low-income neighborhoods. Download the 32-page guide directly from the NCDD website.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Wampler_PBGuide.pdf

A Manual for Group Facilitators

Brian Auvine. Center for Conflict Resolution; reprinted by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, 1981.

The role of group facilitator is often pivotal to good results for groups making the transition to consensus. The Manual is a great introduction to the concept of approaching the role of facilitator as someone who welcomes both rational and emotional input. The staff of the Center for Conflict Resolution put their experience in working with groups into A Manual for Group Facilitators. This is an informal outline detailing useful and effective techniques to help groups work well. More than a simple 'how to,' the manual contains a discussion of the values, dynamics, and common sense behind group process that have been verified by our own experience.

Resource Link: http://store.ic.org

A New Weave of Power, People & Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation

Lisa VeneKlasen with Valerie Miller. Just Associates, 2002.

A New Weave of Power, People & Politics provides a well-tested approach for building people?’s participation and collective power that goes beyond influencing policy and politics to transforming public decision-making altogether. Based on 25 years of participatory research, community development, neighborhood organizing, legal rights education, and large-scale campaign advocacy experiences worldwide, A New Weave combines concrete and practical action ?“steps?” with a sound theoretical foundation to help users understand the process of people-centered politics from planning to action.

Resource Link: http://www.justassociates.org/ActionGuide.htm

A Practical Guide to Consensus

Chris Carlson and Jim Arthur. Policy Consensus Institute.

This 75-page step-by-step handbook walks readers through the stages of sponsoring, organizing, and participating in a public policy consensus process. Designed primarily for government agencies or departments, the guide also is useful for any other sponsor of - or participant in - a consensus building process.

Resource Link: http://www.policyconsensus.org

A Youth Leader's Guide to Building Cultural Competence

Susan A. Messina.

Meet the challenges of providing HIV/STD and sexuality education to culturally diverse groups. Using a four-step model, this resource helps build the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary to reach all groups of young people. Focuses on African American, Latino and lesbian, gay and bisexual teens. This publication was funded through a cooperative agreement (U63/CCU302752) with the Division of Adolescent and School Health, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Resource Link: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/guide/

Adventures in Peacemaking: A Conflict Resolution Guide for School-Age Programs

William J. Kreidler and Lisa Furlong. Educators for Social Responsibility, 1996.

Designed to meet the unique needs of afterschool programs, camps, and recreation centers, this guide contains hundreds of hands-on, engaging activities that teach basic conflict resolution skills through cooperative challenges, drama, crafts, music and even cooking. Also included are easy-to-implement strategies and tips for providers to both reduce conflict in their programs and to intervene effectively when conflict does occur. Adventures in Peacemaking blends ESR's innovative conflict resolution curricula with Project Adventure's activity-based programming.

Resource Link: http://esrnational.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

Allegheny County Department of Economic Development Citizen Participation Plan

Allegheny County Department of Economic Development, 2003.

The Citizen Participation Plan is a handbook for the public to understand the procedures followed by the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development as it allocates CDBG, HOME, HOPWA, ESG and Section 108 Loan Guarantee funds. Because citizen participation is an important part of investment in the communities, opportunity for participation is available at every stage of the planning process. The process includes meetings, comment, and review of documents by the public. Numerous steps, outlined in this paper, will be taken to ensure citizen participation in planning.

Americans for Informed Democracy's Organizers Toolkit - Asian Relations

Nuclear weapons in North Korea. Trade with China. Economic development in India. The United States' relations with countries in Asia promise to be some of the most dynamic in the twenty-first century. Indeed, U.S.-Asian relations are the "the next big thing" in America's role in the world. But despite the importance of this relationship, public discourse fails to contextualize these issues in a constructive manner that focuses on the opportunities that exist for collaboration, rather than the dangers that are posed when powers collide. For this reason, Americans for Informed Democracy proposes its new initiative, The Next Big Thing: The Future of U.S.-Asian Relations.

Resource Link: http://www.aidemocracy.org/usasia.doc

Americans for Informed Democracy's Organizers Toolkit - Darfur and Beyond: The Role of the ICC

In March of 2005, the U.N. Security Council referred the crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. Notably, the U.S., a veto power on the Security Council, decided not to use its veto to block this historic action. Just months later though, in August of 2005, President Bush appointed John Bolton as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton has a clear record of ardently opposing the International Criminal Court and aggressively seeking to undermine its effectiveness and legitimacy.

Resource Link: http://www.aidemocracy.org/globalgovernanceicc.doc

Americans for Informed Democracy's Organizers Toolkit - Entrepreneurship in a Globalized World

Thomas Friedman's bestseller The World is Flat argues that advances in technology are leveling the global competitive playing field and reshaping the challenges and opportunities faced by the next generation of entrepreneurs. U.S. entrepreneurs now compete more directly with businesses around the world, while working more cooperatively with foreign businesses and labor to manufacture and deliver their products. What does the changing global landscape mean for socially responsible global entrepreneurship? What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? Americans for Informed Democracy is bringing town hall style discussion of these questions to universities across the U.S. through its Entrepreneurship in a Globalized World initiative.

Resource Link: http://www.aidemocracy.org/entrepreneur.doc

Americans for Informed Democracy's Organizers Toolkit - Global HIV/AIDS

Nearly 40 million people around the world live with HIV or AIDS. More than half of the infected reside in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. This global pandemic is affecting not only the health and well-being, but also the economy and security of countries around the world. Realizing the crucial role that young people can play in combating the global pandemic, Americans for Informed Democracy is focusing this February on global HIV/AIDS and the role that young people can play in combating it.

Resource Link: http://www.aidemocracy.org/globalaids.doc

Americans for Informed Democracy's Organizers Toolkit - Reforming the U.N. for a Safer World

On March 21, 2005, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presented a new report for sweeping reform in the United Nations, In Larger Freedom. In his report, Annan calls for a collective security system to fight terrorism, an enlarged Security Council, a revamped UN human rights system and new guidelines for military action. While the reforms are critical to the U.N.'s continued effectiveness in a changing world, questions remain as to whether the U.S. will support these reforms, which many advocates believe are necessary to address the pressing security and development imperatives of the twenty-first century, from the genocide in Darfur to the Millennium Development Goals.

Resource Link: http://www.aidemocracy.org/globalgovernance.doc

Americans for Informed Democracy's Organizers Toolkit - Securing the Future

Now more than ever, Americans are asking serious questions about how the changing global environment is impacting all of our lives. Research shows us that climate instability and oil dependence are not just environmental concerns, but problems that will affect the national security, economy and health of our country. Americans for Informed Democracy is thus focusing its Securing the Future initiative about the changing global environment on specifically climate and energy issues.

Resource Link: http://www.aidemocracy.org/securethefuture.doc

Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children

Louise Derman-Sparks and the A.B.C. Task Force. Educators for Social Responsibility.

This resource shows early childhood educators how to examine biases, learn how they influence children, and explore ways to reduce, handle, or even eliminate them. The guide moves beyond multicultural education to creating an anti-bias environment that is developmentally appropriate. Includes a comprehensive bibliography as well as sections on learning about disabilities, gender identity, racial and cultural differences, and how to resist stereotyping.

Resource Link: http://esrnational.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

Awakening Participation: Building Capacity for Public Participation in Environmental Decisionmaking

The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, 1996.

This REC Public Participation Training Module / Participant Workbook reinforces the REC's ongoing commitment to increasing public participation in environmental decision making. The Training Project is an outgrowth of the expertise gained through several years of REC policy research and cooperation with environmental leaders throughout the region on public participation issues, and following the development of a series of REC public participation workshops and publications. This Training Project addresses the needs to overcome local obstacles to effectively involve the public in environmental decision making processes.

Resource Link: http://www.rec.org/REC/Publications/PPTraining/cover.html

Before Push Comes to Shove: Building Conflict Resolution Skills with Children

Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane E. Levin. Educators for Social Responsibility, 1998.

For Calvin and Angela, trash day is the best day of the week to find great playtime items. But when they end up in a conflict that results in anger and put-downs, they find themselves searching for a way to communicate and arrive at a solution that makes both of them happy. By using Best Day of the Week as a starting point, Before Push Comes to Shove shows teachers how they can begin to build conflict resolution skills in young children in ways that are meaningful and embedded in every day school experiences.

Resource Link: http://esrnational.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

Beginning With the End in Mind

Julie Pratt. West Virginia Center for Civic Life, with support from the Kettering Foundation.

Issue framing is rooted in the belief that democracy depends upon people making choices together about how to deal with problems in their communities. Framing an issue for public deliberation requires us to examine a problem from many angles. It encourages us to be curious about - and even compassionate toward - ideas that differ from our own, so that our deliberations may help us discover common ground for action. A well-framed issue will be inclusive of differing perspectives and will be framed in public terms that citizens can relate to. This great 22-page workbook takes you through the various components or steps of framing an issue for public deliberation.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Pratt-IssueFramingWorkbook.doc

Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development

Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart, and Margo Okazawa-Rey, Eds.. Washington, DC: Network of Educators on the Americas, 2002.

Beyond Heroes and Holidays is a 432-page interdisciplinary guide for teachers, administrators, students and parents. It offers lessons and readings developed by teachers that show how to analyze the roots of racism; investigate the impact of racism on our lives, our families and our communities; examine the relationship between racism and other forms of oppression; and learn to work to dismantle racism in our schools, communities, and society.

Resource Link: http://www.teachingforchange.org/Beyond_Heroes/beyond_heroes.html