DemocracySpace.org

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.

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 ...

Jax dinner serves hope

The Dinner with a Difference held last week in Jacksonville, Florida, was a great success. We had approximately 430 attendees, many who were totally new to the study circle process of action-oriented dialogues that bring together a wide variety of people. The event brimmed with energy and allowed everyone to get a taste of a study circle session.

After the catered meal, we began by looking at a video which depicted the disparities between races in everyday life. Then we had more than 40 facilitators, each speaking with groups of 10 to 12 people each at separate tables. Everyone openly and honestly discussed the video along with their perceptions of race in Jacksonville.

At the end of the evening we had closing thoughts and a strong next-steps statement which motivated people to continue to learn about the study circle process and get more involved. Our director, Charlene Taylor Hill, summed up the event’s vision and sent everyone home with a sense of purpose. Many business, civic, and political leaders who normally would not be at this type of event were there. The biggest comments were that people now had a feeling of "hope" and that "the city has never had an event like this before.”

We are now moving forward and looking to capitalize on the success by launching more study circles, identifying potential facilitators, and establishing relationships with new coalition partners. Internally, we are moving forward in setting up our action Forums, planning a facilitator gathering to introduce Anthony Butler, the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission’s manager of education and community outreach, and establish a new focus. We are also looking to refine our coalition partner list and focus on a more specific aspect of the racial equity issue as it pertains to a particular social ill in our city. All in all we are excited about where we are and eager to move to the next step: focused action.

Lisa Stafslien works for the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission, one of nine programs taking part in Everyday Democracy’s Communities Creating Racial Equity initiative. Contact her here.

If your community would like to post a report of its organizing work here at DemocracySpace, please contact blog manager Julie Fanselow. 

Welcome to the Learning Exchange

About 50 people have gathered in East Hartford, Connecticut, this week from around the country to join in the first of two Learning Exchanges for Communities Creating Racial Equity. Everyday Democracy executive director Martha McCoy (below) greeted us by saying that the program is "a step in a dream we've had for a long time."

Formerly known as the Study Circles Resource Center, Everyday Democracy began focusing on racism during the 1992 civil disturbances in Los Angeles after the Rodney King beating. But in the 16 years since then, America has changed the way we talk about racism, McCoy said.

Early discussions were driven by King's plaintive question, "Can't we all just get along?" At first, it was enough for tens of thousands of people to come together in communities nationwide to talk about racial differences. Eventually, however, communities - and SCRC - understood that real change had to come on the institutional and policy level. Today, Everyday Democracy helps lead the effort to turn community organizing and dialogue into substantive change.  "We're working on two of the leading edges in the country," McCoy said: racial equity and making democracy work better.

CCRE participating communities include South Sacramento County, California; New Haven and Stratford, Connecticut; Jacksonville, Florida; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland; Syracuse, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and Lynchburg, Virginia. Today at the conference, communities will tell their stories, discuss structural racism, and learn tools for evaluation and communication. Tomorrow, participants will look forward to the next six to 12 months of work, using markers of progress we'll identify this week (and backed by action grants that Everyday Democracy will award via generous funding from the Kellogg and Mott Foundations).

And along the way - via DemocracySpace, our website, and other tools - we'll share much of the communities' progress with you so that cities and towns beyond the initiative can take what we're learning and make it your own.

Welcome to the water cooler (4/08)

Update ... click here for the easier-to-read, threaded version of this discussion.

Welcome to the water cooler, DemocracySpace’s series of virtual roundtables with interesting people who are doing citizen engagement work. I’m Julie Fanselow, online organizer for Everyday Democracy (formerly the Study Circles Resource Center) and your moderator for today’s session. Our topic today is how local activists are working to create greater racial equity in communities across the nation.

Here's how today's live blog will work: We have a series of questions (posted yesterday) that I'll ask starting at 1 p.m. Eastern to guide our discussion. To see them, click on the word "comments" below this post.

To answer the question or make a comment, look for the phrase "POST A COMMENT." Below it, insert your name (real names, please); email address (it will not be visible online); and, if you like, the URL of your organization or program’s website. Write your question or comment in the box, then click “post.” In addition to my questions, feel free to ask a question of your own, or share other information on how your community is working to dismantle racism.

Please note: You will need to refresh your browser periodically to see the latest questions and comments that have been posted and answered. If traffic gets heavy, you may be asked to verify your comment with a "captcha check," or typing in a string of letters.

We'll post a rethreaded, easier-to-read version of this live blog at our wiki within 24 hours. (You can read past water cooler discussions there, too.)

We'll blog live here until 2 p.m. Eastern. Thank you for your good work and for taking part in this discussion! And please visit DemocracySpace regularly for more news that will help you engage growing numbers of diverse people to create positive community change. (You can have each day's post - usually just one each weekday - emailed to you via the "subscribe" box in the upper right-hand corner of the blog.)

Welcome to the water cooler (11/07)

Update: An easier-to-read archived version of this session is now available on our DemocracySpace wiki. Click here.

Welcome to the water cooler, DemocracySpace’s monthly series of virtual roundtables with interesting people who are doing citizen engagement work. I’m Julie Fanselow, online organizer for the Study Circles Resource Center and your moderator for today’s session.

Our topic today is youth civic engagement both within schools and in the community. Here’s how this will work: I have a series of questions that I'll ask one at a time starting at 3 p.m. Eastern to guide our discussion.

To answer the question or make a comment, click on the word “comments” below this post. A window will open where you can insert your name (real names, please); email address (it will not be visible online); and, if you like, the URL of your organization or program’s website. Write your question or comment, then click “post.”

In addition to my questions, feel free to ask a question of your own. Maybe you have a very specific issue that someone here can help you address by sharing stories about how they tacked a similar matter. Please note: You will need to refresh your browser periodically to see the latest questions and comments that have been posted and answered.

We'll blog live here until 4 p.m. Eastern. Thank you for stopping by for the DemocracySpace water cooler and for taking part in this discussion!

Not just more 'yada, yada'

One week from today, youth and adults in Lewiston, Maine, will launch an exploration into how to make Lewiston and nearby Auburn places where youth feel valued and comfortable living their lives. The first meeting of Youth+Adults+Dialogue=Action - or YADA - is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. for four Thursdays starting October 25. Organizers hope that about 100 people - youth ages 14 to 24 and adults - will take part. Lewiston Mayor Laurent F. Gilbert will lead next week's kickoff in the Lewiston City Council Chambers.

The word is getting out about YADA, and how youth have key roles in making the project happen. Local graffiti artist Brian Serfes was recruited to help promote the program (see a story and slide show of Seres at work here) and Joe Bosse, one of 27  facilitators trained for the program, has put up a MySpace page (shown above). With the song "Breathe In, Breathe Out" by Mat Kearney playing in the background, the page explains:

"In April 2006, several local agencies serving/working with teens and young adults convened a group of community members to help answer the question of how to make Lewiston/Auburn a more youth-friendly and youth-empowered place.  While some positive actions were initiated by the group, we realized that there were no youth sitting at the table.  After careful consideration, much research, and interaction with local youth, we decided to initiate a “study circles project.”

Study circles are large-scale dialogues that bring together diverse people in groups of about eight to ten people to talk and create positive change in their communities. It's important to bring everyone into the process, facilitator Deacon Lasagna - a local high schoool senior - told the local newspaper, the Sun Journal. "The kids who volunteer to do school program stuff, they don't tend to be the kinds that need the kind of programs we're thinking about," he said. Instead, the program is aimed at youth like Seres who don't always fit the mold of what society expects.

Larry Marcoux, director of community impact for the United Way and chairman of the YADA steering committee (and a former high school history teacher), says no one knows what actions the participants may wind up adopting at the action forum set December 6. "We don't want to front-load anything," he told the newspaper. "We want the 100 people involved in this to design everything that happens."

Q&A: Finding diverse participants

Here's a question from the September 5 Study Circles orientation webinar:

"Can you give an example or two of how study circles coalitions are effective in getting as diverse a group as possible to the table?"