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VT Leadership turns out for “Cultural Competence and Effective Leadership” luncheon

As Burlington, VT, becomes an increasingly diverse place, efforts are underway to help make the city’s leadership reflect this new diversity. On June 23, 2009, the Social Equity Investment Project (SEIP), a program of the City of Burlington Vermont’s Legacy Project,hosted a luncheon titled "Cultural Competence and Effective Leadership." The luncheon provided city leaders the time and space to brainstorm ideas such as: 

• regionalizing on an ongoing basis;
• analyzing the cultural competency of institutions within the city of Burlington, University of Vermont, and Champlain College as well as the financial and housing sectors; and
• creating mentoring opportunities for young leaders of color.

Daniello Balón,Ph.D, director of the Burlington School District Diversity & Equity Office, served as the luncheon’s keynote speaker. During his keynote speech, he addressed the topic of cultural competence and Vermont leadership, offering words of encouragement: “Leaders like you can level the playing field, being conscious of the dynamics of power and acting towards equity and empowerment.”

In her closing remarks, Wanda Hines,SEIP director, said, “We are within a cultural crossroad which beckons us not to sit idly on the sideline. This is why the VLI/SESF is so symbolic of ownership and direction about how real social change must be acknowledged and embraced.”

Click here to download Wanda Hines' closing remarks

Check out these other DemocracySpace posts to learn more about the Social Equity Investment Project’s work:

Vermont gathers leaders for important dialogues
'Doing nothing' isn't an option
Our youth: a NOBLE cause
Friday digest-open thread 6/27/08

No Better Time Conference

For those of you who couldn’t make it, we missed you! Last week, more than 250 civic leaders, policy makers, researchers, teachers, and students came together at the University of New Hampshire to talk about changes in the landscape of American democracy and what those changes mean for the practice and teaching of democracy. No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners was hosted by the Democracy Imperative and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, two organizations that work to promote research and teaching to strengthen democracy. We had timing (other than the economy, travel freezes, and the Swine flu) on our side – an historic election, an administration that’s experimenting with e-democracy as a way to include diverse citizen perspectives in policy making, increasing use of  dialogue and deliberation to foster social change, record youth political engagement, and a growing interest on campuses (without clear ownership in any one academic department or administrative office) in teaching democratic principles and practices. It did seem like no better time to pause and consider what they mean for deliberative democracy advocates.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be analyzing survey results and sessions summaries, so stay tuned. Here’s a sample: In the session, Embedding Deliberative Practices in Local Democracy, a top action priority was, “train community members and public officials in deliberative practices.” And in the session, “Using Democratic Strategies in the Classroom,” the group created a long list of teaching tools and techniques that could be used across courses and programs. Combined, what needs to happen is aligned (1) professional development for public officials and everyday citizens and (2) faculty development so that colleges and universities graduate students who are already in the habit of doing dialogue and deliberation. And let's explore ways that campuses and communities can do this Better Together (another session).

Keep checking back here, and we’ll update you. In the meantime, to get a sense of the scope of this conference, check out the learning exchanges(with some advance readings) that conference participants designed.

Reflections on racial equity work

On April 3, Everyday Democracy, along with 322 other organizations and a total of 29,000 people in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut participated in the YWCA's "Stand Against Racism" event. Following the event, Jon Abercrombie, one of our senior associates, shared his thoughts and reflections on his racial equity work. We're sharing his reflections with you here on DemocracySpace.

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"Below I will summarize some of the thoughts and feelings I have collected about my own work and about our work together on racial equity and white privilege.  These thoughts have been with me for some time, actually, since our last conversations on race.

"First there are gifts that come to mind.

• The strengths of our relationships and our staff.  My life has been touched by all of our staff, and particularly touched and changed by colleagues with whom I have had a chance to work more closely around the country.  I walk away from our work opportunities grateful for unusually gifted people even when they plant bats in my suitcase, almost get me arrested in North Dakota, and try in other devious ways to shorten my aging life.
• The strength of the team members who have worked so hard and so well in developing the racial equity guide and navigating our relationships with funders.  Carolyn and Sue, for example, have produced a guide that will grow with us well over time.
• An organization that gives leadership across the country in deliberation that takes seriously the malicious influence of racial prejudice and racism in a variety of public issues. Martha’s stature in this field of work and her commitment over the years is why this issue has remained central to what we do.

"Secondly, the wishes and the things I hope for. 

• That we will maintain our commitment to the principles that we have learned and effectively employed in this work.  Our power comes from creating safe places for conversations about racial equity, white privilege, improved schools and a range of important civic decisions.  We will have the political right criticize us for advocating too much and we will have the political left criticize us for advocating too little.
• That we will continue to allow communities to go as far as they can given their resources and the particular conditions in their community.  I have worked with several powerful foundations and have watched them move from helping communities set their own goals, to deciding which goals are acceptable.  In time the foundations, with good intentions, decreased local choices and increased their own control.  Oddly an interesting thing happened: as foundations have dictated the acceptable outcomes, creativity decreased and real change decreased.  It is a path that is subtle.  It is driven by foundation goals and foundation deadlines that are often incompatible with community needs and community change.
• That we will continue to push for racial equity while holding onto the overarching goal of human equity.  In our own work I have observed the pressure from some activists to take harder positions.  In Austin, TX, a leader from one community group said, with understandable anger that she did not plan to talk to white people who did not apologize first.  'They need to feel the pain first.'  It is easy to comprehend the feelings that drive this, but in public deliberation we know this is a dead-end street.  Another person wanted us to start the conversation on racial equity by opening with "naming the sins."  Blame and fear increase the possibility that our efforts will not succeed.
• That our own conversations about racial equity and white privilege in Everyday Democracy will build on the principles that have been effective.  Our stories are all different and powerful.  If we each feel that our own stories are important, we will have deeper relationships to each other. We will also have greater commitment to each other and to the work we do.  Then we can better model how these types of conversations will work in the communities we serve.  I wish together we could spend more time using our own race guide.
• That we can find enough time for our own productive conversations.  I look forward to our work in early June.  I know that we are having gifted leaders to help us in the process.  I also know that it is easy to fill our time with important instruction when we need adequate time to bring our conversations to more effective stopping points (the conversation never ends).
• That I can learn how to bring my whole story, without defensiveness or self-blame to the table.  It is not others who keep me from bringing my whole story to the table.  It is my own inner monitor, well educated by many encounters and painful training opportunities. 

"In the end I know what I want for myself.  I want to learn better how to use any advantages I have to change the ways that racial privilege, racial prejudice, racial fear and blame undermine our world, our country and our local communities.  When I lead dialogues on transportation in Atlanta and in Georgia, decisions are made that are based on race.  When I sit with school boards to help them open up their work to the voices of the entire community, their responses are shaped by race and the barriers that have been created for many decades.  I want us to explore the ways that we engage theses issues when communities use our race guide, and I want to find ways to engage these issues even when there are other pressing needs in the community.  

"Finally, I want us to be clear with each other about what we know and feel.  It is the greatest power we have. 

"Thank you for your patience. Life and the powers that be are still trying to improve me."

Abie

Communities Creating Racial Equity roll up their sleeves to take action

Everyday Democracy's 2009 "Communities Creating Racial Equity" Learning Exchange brought together eight communities from around the country to share and learn together on what it takes to build racial equity. Each of the communities face unique challenges, but all of them share the goal of using dialogue to create institutional change on racism. The Everyday Democracy two-day event was chock-full of hands-on workshops. Participants walked away with...

• a deeper understanding of racial equity and its impact on communities;
• tools to tell the story of their dialogue-to-change effort;
• resources and advice to effectively evaluate progress on creating institutional change;
• a network of people who can help them work through challenges

Watch the communities in action!

Learning Exchange focuses on creating racial equity

This week, Everyday Democracy hosted a learning exchange for the "Communities Creating Racial Equity" initiative. The two-day event gave participating communities the opportunity to...

-explore more what it means to take on structural racism and racial equity;
-learn more about building evaluation and storytelling into their programs;
-and work through the challenges they face in moving dialogue to action and change.

Check back here next week for photos, videos, stories and more! 

Stand Against Racism this Friday!

If you live in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, consider joining the YWCA’s “Stand Against Racism” event this Friday, April 3. Stand Against Racism is a movement that aims to eliminate racism by raising awareness through this annual event. Everyday Democracy is hosting a private event for staff and associates to deepen our understanding of racism and its impact on deliberative democracy. Come back to DemocracySpace.org after April 3 to read about our experience.

Learn more about the event at http://www.standagainstracism.org/index2.html

To sign up as a participating organization or individual, go to http://fs18.formsite.com/ywca/form792769482/index.html

Taking seriously the needs of youth

What better way to share your news of your dialogue-to-change effort than on YouTube! This week, a YouTube video created by Woodbine, Iowa, came to our attention. The community came together in dialogues to find ways to address area poverty through Horizons--an anti-poverty leadership program of the Northwest Area Foundation--and came out with a new youth mentoring program. 

After taking part in dialogues to find solutions and sharing ideas in an action forum, residents  realized that they needed to do more for their young people to succeed and thrive in and out of school. They identified the TeamMates™ as a program that could empower the youth. Watch how the program came to be and what it's accomplished in the community so far.

 

Is anybody listening?

I came across this story a few days ago, and I thought it would be something you all would enjoy/appreciate/be inspired by/be touched by.

I was sitting on my couch last Friday night, with my roommates' dogs, Dakota and April, eating my quesadilla for dinner, watching the Newshour with Jim Leherer, and this story about an English class at the Village Academy High School in Pomona, California, came on. The students, after reading “The Great Gatsby” and contemplating the American dream, began to tell stories about how they felt the economic situation was thwarting their hopes to realize that dream. Their teacher offered to help them create a video through which they could tell their stories and then send it to the presidential nominees. They called it, “Is Anybody Listening?” (See video below.) President Obama mentions the students and their video in his speech on education, which you can see in the Newshour clip.

The students bared their souls -- their hopes, their fears, their worries. I sat on my couch, quesadilla in hand, sobbing. But, the students' action represents the story of democracy. As a result of this video, they realized they have the ability to help others and were empowered to create what they call the Village Project. Through this project they help students connect with services, or just give generously from what they have. It’s a sobering story, and a sobering video, but shows democracy at work in the lives of young people.

I hope you are as inspired by their stories as I was.

Honoring a dedicated dialogue-to-change coordinator

Last Thursday, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents named Roseann Mason, director of Community Dialogues in the Center for Community Partnerships at UW-Parkside, as one of their first-ever winners of its Regents Diversity Awards in Madison. The new awards program recognizes and supports individuals and programs in the UW System that foster access and success in university life for historically underrepresented populations.

Roseann developed Diversity Circles to recognize and counter racism in its many forms. The circles, which launched in 1999, have been integrated into local high schools since 2003. Read this story about the program’s “Diversity in Action Conference” for high school students.

Each of the Board’s winners will receive up to $5,000 to support their professional development or to continue the program being honored.

Congratulations, Roseann!

Community blogging from Julie Fanselow

Julie Fanselow, who managed and wrote content for DemocracySpace until last September, recently wrote an article for the National Civic Review titled "Community Blogging: The Next Wave of Citizen Journalism. While Julie was writing on this blog, she viewed her job as helping individuals create online communities that would benefit their physical communities.

While some view blogs as self-promoting and narcissistic, Julie writes of the potential they have to foster democracy in local communities. In one community, Northfield, Minn., the blogger behind the blog Locally Grown brought to light activities of the local government that community members didn't know about. The blog also serves as a source of on-line organizing that leads to action.

As part of the anti-poverty program Horizons, rural communities scattered throughout the Northwest maintain blogs to keep the community updated on their efforts to address poverty through leadership training, dialogue-to-change efforts and visioning projects.

One of the recommendations from several community bloggers is to keep the blog fun, and to use lots of photos. (Notice the lack of photos in this post!) Through all of the activities within your community, there are bound to be loads of photos floating around! Photos certainly add visual interest to a blog.

All in all, blogging is fun, but it can also serve an important purpose in fostering democracy and helping communities work toward their goals.