DemocracySpace.org

Happy Independence Day!

For the Spring 2008 edition of Everyday Democracy's Focus newsletter, we asked four people from our network what the phrase “everyday democracy” means to them. Here’s what they said:

Everyday democracy means opening the avenues of participation and decision making in community life to everyone, every day. It means providing ownership for our collective problems, then finding creative solutions. This is full citizenry in action: the bedrock upon which our nation is based.


- Carolyne M. Abdullah, Program Director, Everyday Democracy

When the arts of democracy are practiced every day - in neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and government - we will understand that democracy means more than merely voting, and we can achieve the beloved community that Dr. King envisioned.

- Bruce L. Mallory, Provost and Executive Vice President, University of New Hampshire; member of the Paul J. Aicher Foundation Board

Everyday democracy is about the consistent and tireless efforts of common people being witness to the collective circumstances that make their community less than prosperous. It’s about getting involved on various levels to work towards a common goal.

- Carla Marratt, Horizons steering committee, Coeur d'Alene Reservation, Idaho

Everyday democracy, the foundation of local government, engages citizens as
partners in finding solutions to community problems. The greater diversity of involved citizens results in a stronger, healthier community for
 everyone.
      

- James R. Miron, Mayor of Stratford, Connecticut

A Friday Fourth of July means three days off of work for many of us. It means a chance to get together with family and friends to eat barbecue and watermelon, drink lemonade (or beer!), and watch fireworks. It may mean a parade, a picnic, or some well-earned lazy time in the hammock. No matter what this holiday weekend holds for you, also take time to reflect a little on what everyday democracy means in your life and in your community, and how you  - yes, you personally - might help make our democracy work better for everyone between now and July 4, 2009.

Have a great weekend!

Blog puts town on the map

Eveleth, a community in northeastern Minnesota, is known as the home of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and the site of Sen. Paul Wellstone's 2002 plane crash. The mining town has seen tough times lately as its population has dropped from just over 4,000 in 1990 to about 3,600 today. Steady population and economic declines are among the reasons that Eveleth decided to become involved in Horizons, the Northwest Area Foundation's rigorous program - in partnership with Everyday Democracy and the Pew Partnership for Civic Change - aimed at reducing poverty in small rural and reservation communities across the Upper Midwest, Great Plains, and Northwest.

In June 2007, several participants in Eveleth's Horizons program launched a blog as a way to share the information, ideas, and action projects that were bubbling up out of the process. The first post, on June 14, was a reprint of a local newspaper story on the wrap-up of study circles held in Eveleth. Before long, however, the Eveleth Horizons blog was itself turning into a chronicle of happenings in Eveleth - a way to record progress, bring the community together, and provide a valuable service in a town where the traditional weekly newspaper is not available online.

One year later, Eveleth bloggers Stefanie Jarvis, Heather Lindula, and Beth Peterson are going stronger than ever, with nine posts made so far in June. (There were six total in June and July 2007.) The three women are examples of the growing ranks of community bloggers who combine grassroots reporting and leadership skills to be sure the most important local stories are recorded for history. As an example, Eveleth held its community visioning event last November 1. The Eveleth Horizons blog not only promoted the event with several advance posts, but boasted coverage of the actual event the very night it happened.

Also like a good local newspaper, the Eveleth Horizons blog is like a combination scrapbook and bulletin board. Recent posts have featured a bike rodeo (photo at left), a call for election judges, a town clean-up, and a warning against economic stimulus check scams. The blog's left-hand "sidebar" lists "Community Successes," links to local organizations and Horizons partners, "Positive Action Ideas," and shout-outs to local businesses and sponsors that have helped make Horizons and related activities happen. The blog is also packed with photos and it features a colorful calendar (made for free at localendar.com) highlighting local events. In short, in a global 24/7 media culture ruled by breaking news, scandal, and celebrity gossip, the Eveleth Horizons blog is serving as a major source of the news that matters most to the people in Eveleth.

Is it hard to do? Blogger Stefanie Jarvis (who also works, goes to school, and raises two young children) says she has sometimes spent three to four hours a week on the project, but that it's been a good creative outlet. She likes to find new ways to jazz up the blog, such as scrolling text and an "email us" button using code she copied from a MySpace page. It's also cheap: There's no charge for Google's Blogger weblogging tool nor for most of the widgets that are abundantly available on the Internet.

Is it worth it? "Oh absolutely," Stefanie says. "It's one of the best decisions we made early on." Although the blog draws few comments, it has attracted nearly 7,000 visits since the hit counter went up late last summer, and Stefanie says the bloggers frequently get requests that they put a story on the blog. At the town clean-up this spring, about five participants said they read about it on the blog, and people of all ages seem to use it, too.

Is your community interested in creating a blog or using other online tools to document your dialogue-to-change stories? We have a guide to online tools on our wiki, as well as links to the Eveleth blog and several other good community blogs. Let us know when we can add yours! We also can provide coaching to communities in our network that are interested in starting a blog. For help, contact Everyday Democracy online organizer Julie Fanselow.

Share your news and questions

In the comments from the "What did you take home?" post, Bliss Bruen of Durango, Colorado, asked: ""If we want to write up longer pieces to share and/or ask questions that we think not everyone will want to wade through, should we send them directly to you?" Here are my answers, repeated from that thread:

We LOVE to publish pieces from communities here at DemSpace. So if you have news to share, please email me and I'll make arrangements to help you post your news (and/or photos and/or video clips) here on the blog. If it's news about how you are making your community work better for everyone, it definitely has a home here.

If you have a question about community dialogue-to-action programs, you can send it to me via email and we can make it the basis of a webstorming session - that is, a brainstorming session right here on the blog. I will be sure that our staff and associates see your question and can jump in with their answers.

I know from our time together last week that you all have great news to share, and burning questions, too. So don't be shy: Send 'em on to DemocracySpace and let everyone in on how your community is working to make every voice matter.

Denver tool kit

This post will be to list websites and other resources suggested by people here at the Making Every Voice Matter national meeting. Feel free to add others in the comments!

Padres Unidos, an organization right here in Denver that holds multiracial conversations about citizenship

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. See especially its Bridge curriculum.

Everyday Democracy's recently revised Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation discussion guide.

www.antiracism.com - tools and dialogue to move us through the barriers of racism, toward a thriving and socially just world. "Be open. Be humble. Belong." From CoAction Connection.

More to come ... also, see the list of "Empowering Democracy" and "Democracy at Work" links at left for organizations and communities that are working to make every voice matter.

Friday digest-open thread 6/6/08

Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Robert Kennedy, which seems to be passing more quietly than the April anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. Nick Bryant, author of The Bystander: John F Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality, penned this remembrance of the president's younger brother for BBC News. He starts with Kennedy's own reaction to Dr. King's death, and how he stood on a flatbed truck and appealed for calm, saying, "What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black." Two months later, Kennedy was assassinated, too. The video above recounts both Kennedy's speech and his killing.

Last month, more than 400 people in Jacksonville, Florida, took part in a Dinner With a Difference and got a taste of dialogue-to-action study circles on race and racism. Jacksonville's Project Breakthrough received more publicity recently when six dialogue participants sat down to tell of their individual experiences in the full round of study circles that recently concluded in Jacksonville. Here are their stories.

The Girl Scouts of America are stepping up efforts to welcome more Hispanic girls into their activities. Ari B. Bloomekatz of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a story this week:

Reflecting an increased effort by the Girl Scouts to attract young Latinas and their mothers, the Spanish Trails Council in Montclair is offering a bilingual camp for the first time this summer. The one-day "Las Divas de Hoy" will be held twice over the summer. Many of the planned activities are the same as other Girl Scouts camps -- painting nails, crafts and fashion shows -- but there will also be salsa dancing and flower arranging. Most important, said Idalia Silva, the council's community partnership manager, is that Spanish will be the predominant language.

Read more here, and see the Girl Scouts' Spanish-language website here.

The Associated Press reported today that young Americans view Barack Obama's race as an asset and a non-issue. Martha Irvine writes: "For young voters, Rosa Parks' refusal to sit at the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 is schoolbook history. Even the racially charged 1992 riots in Los Angeles are a distant memory. The United States is far from a blueprint for racial harmony, but for today's young adults — all born after segregation was outlawed in the mid-1960s — race is not the issue it once was."  Read more here.

In other election-year news, Michael Waldman (author of the new book Return to Common Sense: Seven Bold Ways to Revitalize Democracy) writes in this Newsweek essay that the United States can build on the enthusiasm of this year's record-breaking primary voter turnouts by enacting public financing of congressional campaigns; eventually abolishing the Electoral College; and ending voter registration "as we know it," granting the right automatically to every citizen. After all, he notes: "Former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter chaired a commission that concluded, 'The registration laws in force throughout the United States are among the world's most demanding … [and are] one reason why voter turnout in the United States is near the bottom of the developed world.' Today, some 50 million eligible American citizens are not on the rolls."

What news stories piqued your interest this week? Please offer your comments below. The Friday digest will be back two weeks from today, after Everyday Democracy's Making Every Voice Matter national meeting next week in Denver.

Lynchburg moves toward action

This video captures footage and interviews from participants at the Lynchburg Community Dialogue on Race & Racism Action Forum and Youth Dialogue. The three-day Action Forum was open to all and held in a vacant department store where participants could come and go as they were available. 

The attendees had an opportunity to view and vote on the top two ideas from the recently completed 58 Study Circles. Activities included mini-study circle experiences, video taping of personal stories, viewing of all of the ideas from the Study Circles, and an opportunity to make a personal commitment to individual and/or group action related to reducing racism within our community. The votes from the action forum were then tallied and reported out to the community with the next steps.

The Youth Dialogue was a one-and-a-half day event where teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 had an opportunity to participate in honest and open dialogue around the issues of Race & Racism. The top ideas from the Youth Dialogue were also on display during the Action Forum for participants to vote and view.

The Action Forum was an energetic, community-wide event that brought together study circle participants, program volunteers, and the community-at-large to celebrate and support the work of the study circles.  The Action Forum represented a significant step on our journey from recognition of a problem to dialogue to action to change.

Leslie King is assistant coordinator of the Lynchburg Community Dialogue on Race & Racism. Click here to visit the program's website and learn more about what's happening in Lynchburg.

Youth mobilize for November

The primary election season will wrap up tomorrow in Montana and South Dakota, and all eyes will turn toward November's general elections. As we reported last fall, the youth vote may be the decisive factor in this year's elections, as the Millennial Generation becomes active in ever-greater numbers - not just by voting, but by encouraging civic participation. Here are two more signposts that this is happening:

Mobilize.org has launched a Mobilize the Polls effort aimed at recruiting at least 500 young poll workers to help out at voting locations this November 4. As it says on the effort's Facebook page, "The shortage of poll workers on Election Day has been a problem for many years now. A 2005 study published by the United States Election Assistance Committee (EAC) found that during the 2004 Presidential Election, 5.8 percent of polling places and 4 percent of precincts did not have the minimum number of required poll workers."

On top of that, new technology is making it tougher for some older poll workers and voters - but members of the Millennial Generation know technology backward and forward, and their skills can make it easier for others in the community to understand the changes. If you are a young adult who is registered to vote and you can spend Election Day helping others and your country, contact Kaelan Kennedy at Mobilize.org.

Meanwhile, The National Council on Black Civic Participation is reminding everyone about its Black Youth Vote outreach program, which is a national grassroots coalition of organizations and individuals committed to increasing political and civic involvement among black men and women aged 18-35. "Because black youth under 35 represent nearly 50 percent of the black American electorate, coalition members agree that youth empowerment is the key to impacting the many serious problems confronting the black community," the group's website says. This year, Black Youth Vote will focus its energies on registration drives in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, and Texas. Learn more here. (Hat tip: African American Political Pundit.)

 

Program provides skills boost

If you're reading DemocracySpace, you know that "business as usual" no longer applies when it comes to doing the public's business. You may also be the sort of person who'd be interested in Fielding Graduate University's graduate-level certificate program in Dialogue, Deliberation, and Public Engagement. The 19-week program will run mid-August 2008 through mid-January 2009, and an informational teleconference on the curriculum will happen at 5 p.m. Eastern next Wednesday, June 4. (To register for that teleconference, contact Nathan Lewin.)

The program - now in its fifth year - is designed and delivered in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, the Kettering Foundation, and the Public Dialogue Consortium. By focusing on recent innovations and by working with faculty and guest speakers who are pioneers in the field, the program helps professionals achieve mastery in the practice of dialogue and deliberation. Online and telephone coursework will be complemented by two face-to-face workshops, set for October 5-8 in Austin, Texas, and January 10-13 in Santa Barbara, California.

Tuition is $3,490 for students who register by July 15. National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation members get a discounted rate of $3,140 before that date. After July 15, tuition rises to $3,740 (or $3,390 for NCDD members). Click here to read testimonials from past students, and here to register.

Introducing "webstorming"

You've heard of brainstorming, of course. Here at DemocracySpace, we'd like to start a wave of webstorming - and we need your help.

Do you have a vexing question about organizing large-scale, action-oriented dialogues in your community, or taking them to the next level? Would you like to ask others who've "been there, done that" how to recruit and train facilitators, attract more (and more varied) participants, publicize your programs to a wider range of people, involve elected and appointed officials, or implement action ideas from the beginning? We invite you to post your question here at DemocracySpace, where we can put the collective energy, knowledge, and insights of Everyday Democracy's staff, associates, and colleagues to work on it.

The webstorming sessions will be a variation on the water coolers we've held most months, which - although useful and full of information - require that you be online at a certain time and that you continually refresh your browser to keep up with the discussions. Webstorming sessions will be more relaxed: We'll feature a question in a post here at DemSpace, then ask people to add their ideas and input in the comments for a week or so. That way, people can check in at their convenience and yet still contribute information in a timely and focused way.

So send your burning questions to blog manager Julie Fanselow. Please include your contact information in your email. We look forward to webstorming with you in the very near future!

The Friday digest will return next week. Enjoy your holiday weekend ...

Denver deadline extended

May 31 is the new early bird registration deadline for Everyday Democracy's National Meeting - "Making Every Voice Matter" - set for June 12-14 in Denver, Colorado. You can still save $30 (the regular registration rate is $230; $130 for youth up to age 25) by registering before the end of this month. Single-day registration is available, too, and May 31 also is the deadline to reserve rooms at the conference hotel (the Denver Renaissance) at the special rate of $110.

This is your chance to network with other community organizers, activists, and public officials from across North America and learn what it takes to create and sustain real change. We'll have sessions on building racial equity, reducing poverty in small-town America, handling conflict, using the Internet, incorporating action into your work from the start, and lots more, plus a Friday-evening Civic Fair featuring diverse entertainment, exhibits, and fine ethnic food and drink.

We hope to see you in Denver next month! Click here for more registration info, or to download a copy of the complete conference program.