Other leadership efforts in the greater D&D Community

[Sandy]

Here's where we'll post any and all displays of leadership and vision of related organizations and groups, so we don't need to create a new topic for each individual thing that's done. Keeping track of what folks in the D&D and related fields are doing can serve to inspire and inform us, as well as help ensure that we join in and enhance--rather than duplicate--existing efforts.

Feel free to post anything you know about!
_________________
Sandy Heierbacher
Convenor, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD)

[Sandy]

ACR Statement on Hurricane Katrina
Posted on the ACR website on Sept. 13

The following statement was adopted by the Board of Directors of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) on September 12, 2005.

The Board and staff of ACR wish to express their sincere sympathy to ACR members and their friends and family who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and the conflicts surrounding it offer significant challenges and innumerable opportunities to contribute for conflict intervenors. The tremendous loss of life and property and the conflicts over the emergency response time, the mediaâ?€?™s and publicâ?€?™s framing of the disaster and its survivors, and the dimensions of race and class that permeate all of these conflicts ask much of our field.

Natural disasters of these proportions require coordination, inter-organizational collaboration and effective communication, and the best use of governance structures and personnel to rise to the two fold task of accountability and ensuring the best response for public good. In all instances these require the foundational skills and approaches exemplified in conflict resolution, negotiation, and collaborative community building.

At times of great calamity an important guideline of public good is the assurance of safety, security, and protection of every member of our communities. Conflict transformation espouses a core set of values and guiding ethics that can serve to provide a platform to design expedient processes that keep this foremost in mind.

ACR members and other conflict resolvers can serve in multiple capacities and we encourage people to post on this forum their suggestions for organizations to donate time and money to, strategies for applying conflict resolution skills during this crisis, and other relevant material.

In addition, there will opportunities for discussion, strategizing, and networking on this important issue at the upcoming annual ACR conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. September 28-October 1, 2005. There will be:

- A networking and information table in the exhibition hall. Please bring information to share!
- A discussion forum
- Two workshops addressing, in part, concerns and options for action for conflict intervenors regarding Katrina
_________________
Sandy Heierbacher
Convenor, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD)

[Sandy]

What the Public Conversations Project is Doing

From PCPâ?€?™s website, at http://www.publicconversations.org/pcp/index.asp?page_id=266&catid=68

Like so many of you, at the Public Conversations Project (PCP), in the past few weeks, we have focused on reaching out to those in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast to offer whatever assistance we can now and as rebuilding begins. If we have not been able to reach you yet, we invite you to check in with us, as you are able. We have a toll free telephone number that can be used for this purpose: 1-888-PCP-TEAM ext. 13. We now turn our attention to communicating with our broader PCP network.

As a starting point, we are offering several full scholarships for PCPâ?€?™s Power of Dialogue training, which will be held in Dallas, Texas on November 4 - 6, 2005. (Our next workshop, being held in the Boston area, already is full, and is less convenient to the vast majority of those impacted by hurricane Katrina.)

The scholarships will be available to direct service providers working with evacuees, particularly in Texas and the Gulf Coast region, and to people from affected areas, local leaders who will use what they learn to help support and strengthen their communities. Unfortunately, as a small non-profit organization with limited funds, we are not able to underwrite travel or housing costs. However, we are accepting donations for that purpose through our Visiting Practitioner Program. To learn more or to contribute call Talya Bosch at 888-PCP-TEAM ext 16. To apply for a scholarship, contact Manda Adams at 888-PCP-TEAM ext. 13 or . Please forward this announcement to anyone who might be interested.

We are looking for ways to support individuals and organizations that are well positioned to contribute to the rebuilding process and/or to ease tensions in areas where there are large groups of people who have lost their homes. For example, we are in close communication with a large consulting firm that specializes in engaging broad, diverse segments of the public in community redevelopment efforts. They will be involved in rebuilding large parts of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and PCPâ?€?™s services would compliment their efforts. Development plans can divide communities, or inspire thoughtful reflection, inclusion of a wide range of perspectives, and joint action toward a shared vision.

We are learning that in many communities across the country, there are concerns about the long-term impact the sudden influx of displaced people may have on local communities. Together with our colleagues in the field, we expect to play a role in building positive relationships and fostering constructive responses to emerging issues. If you have thoughts about how we might be of assistance, please call Mahvash Hassan at 888-PCP-TEAM ext. 13. We will continue to keep you posted on our efforts.

We also understand that this tragedy has touched thousands of people who were not directly affected by the storm, but who have been moved by the stormâ?€?™s impact. To support widespread reflection and discussion, we also have developed a new set of questions that can be used in conjunction with our dialogue guide. We hope these questions might prove helpful for people who want to facilitate dialogues in their communities and organizations as one response to the hurricane and its aftermath.

--

PCPâ?€?™s step-by-step guide to organizing and facilitating dialogues is available at no cost online at http://conversations.forms.soceco.org/48/. Their suggested Katrina questions, online at http://www.publicconversations.org/pcp/index.asp?page_id=266&catid=68, can be inserted into page 21 of the guide.
_________________
Sandy Heierbacher
Convenor, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD)

[Leah Lamb]

The Gulf Dialogues
Repairing Lives and Rebuilding a Region

The Opportunity
The aftermath of hurricane Katrina devastated vibrant, historic communities in the heart of the Gulf region. Everyone from the region whose life has been transformed by Katrina must have a voice in shaping the vision and priorities for the regionâ?€?™s future.
AmericaSpeaks, the national not-for-profit that engaged thousands of New Yorkers in the redevelopment of Ground Zero, proposes a dialogue process that will produce a truly shared vision for the future of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Through our work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Florida after the worst hurricane season on record in 2004, we know first hand how excellent public input is essential to an effective response.

Goals for the Gulf Dialogues
If done well, a regional citizen engagement strategy will ensure that conflict in the region is reduced, everyone shares a stake in the redevelopment process, and the region will prosper in ways that were unthinkable before Katrina. The goals of the Gulf Dialogues are to:
â?€¢ Clarify Values: Ground redevelopment in shared understanding of the principles that should (for example shared prosperity and universal access to quality education) drive redevelopment.
â?€¢ Establish Priorities: Shape the development agenda and timetables that ensure a balance among social, economic, environmental, and cultural needs.
â?€¢ Point the Region Forward: Provide a public space to raise the issues most important to the public, with a focus on achieving the greatest common good.

Core Principles
A regional planning conversation as diverse and potentially divisive as the redevelopment of the Gulf states will raise questions of race, poverty, and justice. To ensure legitimacy, the process must embody three fundamental principles of democracy:
â?€¢ Transparency: Information about the process and key stages of the decision-making process must be reported to citizens in timely and accessible ways.
â?€¢ Participation. Every voice and all perspectives must be heard.
â?€¢ Accountability: The outcomes of the dialogue must impact decision-making.

Key Features
Every individual who fled the region, regardless of where they find themselves today, has the right to express their needs and aspirations for the region. The Gulf Dialogues will feature five essential components that ensure meaningful engagement:
â?€¢ A neutral discussion guide, developed in partnership with local groups, will capture driving issues that the dialogues must address.
â?€¢ Leadership workshops will develop the capacity of local and regional leaders to work in partnership with the public.
â?€¢ A series of public forums that include community forums that get local issues on the table, online dialogues that draw participation across the US, and a large-scale 21st Century Town Meeting that engages upward of 4,000 citizens in discussions that yield shared priorities.
â?€¢ At the end of each meeting, a preliminary report capturing essential recommendations will be made available to all participants and the media, followed by a more in-depth final report.
â?€¢ By getting early buy-in to the process from local and regional leaders, and ensuring that there is a monitoring and reporting process in place, decision-makers can be held answerable to the ways the results of the public discussions have shaped redevelopment proposals.

For more information about the Gulf Dialogues, please contact Evan Paul at 202-775-3939 ext. 1007[/b]

[Leah Lamb]

HARD CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE BIG EASY
By Paul Rogat Loeb

As the New Orleans disaster recedes from the headlines, citizen activists
face a choice. We can focus exclusively on other newer issues. Or we can work to make the disaster one of those key turning points with the potential to transform American politics. For this to happen, we need to consciously create new dialogue, reaching well beyond the core converted....
....We can help our fellow citizens wrestle with the legacy of

the disaster while it remains strong in common memory-to give it its due as one of those iconic moments with the power to transform political life and individual hearts and souls. For now America is still wrestling with what happened and why, with what it will mean for those now exiled, with how the disaster affects our common future. ...

...Some of this is already being created, as we weave lessons from the disaster into arguments we're already making on issues from global warming to the war in Iraq, to the dangers of selling America's every institution to the highest bidder. But the tragedy also calls for specific responses. Suppose progressive citizen activists worked to convene conversations in every community about Katrina's lessons and legacy. These conversations could include MoveOn and The Sierra Club and local social justice groups, but also mainline and conservative churches, synagogues and mosques, civic groups like Rotary and Kiwanis, maybe even Chambers of Commerce-as many institutions of civil society as would be willing to participate. Suppose every college or high school made New Orleans a focus over the coming year,working, from the perspective of every possible discipline, to explore the interconnected roots and lessons of the disaster.

...We could also use the wake up call of the disaster to take a similar
approach with one of the most difficult challenges it raises-the impact of
global warming. Focusing just on that one overarching issue, we could hold high-profile local forums about the increase in extreme climate events like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts and forest fires; about impacts on public health through the migration of disease-carrying insects like the mosquitos that carry West Nile virus; about the impact on agriculture of changing weather patterns. These could feature scientists, journalists, religious leaders, business people like alternative energy experts or representatives of insurance companies increasingly hit by climate-related property casualty losses. The goal would be to use the window of concern opened by Katrina to foster serious discussion in communities that aren't normally exposed to it....

...Major labor, environmental and social justice groups could similarly meet and talk out issues like where to generate the funding for reconstruction, how to balance protection against future floods with
rebuilding the devastated communities, how give displaced residents the
maximum possible voice. The more we can clarify our own priorities, the more effectively we can articulate them to others.

Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of fall 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association, and winner of the Nautilus Award for best social change book of the year, and of Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. See

www.paulloeb.org


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