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Friday digest-open thread 3/7/08

Good news ... the deadline has been extended, and you now have until April 16 to submit a video for Everyday Democracy's Making Every Voice Matter video contest. Win $1,000 and show the world how your community is organizing for change. You can get all the info here. And for inspiration, check out some of the cool social-change videos at QuantumShift.tv.

From WSLS.com via our website comes the news that the new Lynchburg, Virginia, Community Dialogue on Race and Racism has set a new record for participants in a single round of inclusive, action-oriented talks (sometimes called study circles). WSLS reports, "The citywide talks, aimed at improving race relations, have drawn a little more than 500 participants and more than 100 volunteer facilitators. That’s the most ever seen by Everyday Democracy, a Connecticut-based group that’s worked on similar efforts with hundreds of communities across the country." Read more here. Lynchburg is one of the eight participants  selected to engage in Everyday Democracy's Communities Creating Racial Equity project getting under way this spring.

Fon du Lac, Wisconsin, plans to celebrate its cultural diversity tomorrow - Saturday, March 8 - with a new Celebrate CommUNITY event. The full day of fun will take place at the Fon du Lac Recreation Center. "People have come out of the woodwork, out of their Fond du Lac homes to share their food, culture and stories," co-chair Michael Ketterhagen told the local paper. "Diversity is no longer defined by the words 'color' and 'white.'" Read more here.

Complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rose 9 percent to their highest level since 1992 last year, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Analysts say the faltering economy may be one reason for the increase. Meanwhile, the EEOC has launched an ad campaign featuring jazz great Wynton Marsalis speaking out against discrimination in the workplace.

See you next week - and don't forget to Spring Forward on Saturday night.

Making headway on health care

The economy is on everyone's minds these days. The faltering housing market has the spotlight, but the soaring cost of health care is another burden that American families and small businesses can barely shoulder. Members of the Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church on Bainbridge Island (near Seattle) met earlier this month to launch a round of study circles on “The Moral Imperative of Health Care."

Organizer Barbara Clarke, who formerly worked in managed care, told the Bainbridge Island Review that the debate has started moving beyond whether health care is a right or a privilege. “When you see that women with breast cancer and no insurance have a 40 percent less chance of surviving, that’s moral," she said. "When you see a mother who can’t take her children to the doctor, that’s moral.”

Meanwhile, syndicated columnist David Sirota writes about how the state legislatures in Washington and Wisconsin are considering legislation to extend health care to every citizen in those states. "The plan is simple," he says. "Employers and employees pay a modest payroll tax in exchange for full medical benefits, with no premiums. Patients never lose coverage and pick the doctors they prefer. And for the spendthrifts, here's the best part: According to an analysis of the Wisconsin proposal by the nonpartisan Lewin Group, the plan would save middle-class families an annual average of $750 on their existing health care bills. In all, the state would save almost $14 billion over the next decade." Read the whole column here.

Friday digest-open thread 1/4/08

The presidential campaign of 2008 has already been under way for a year, but voters are finally having their say. (Or at least some of them: The New York Times had a good article earlier this week on how the Iowa Caucus - often praised as the ultimate in direct democracy - actually excludes many Iowans since there's no provision for absentee voting.) Now it's on to high-profile contests in New Hampshire next Tuesday, South Carolina on January 15, Nevada on January 19, and "Super Tsunami Tuesday," when 21 states vote on February 5. By that point at the latest, we will likely know who is going to be locked in the longest and most expensive general election campaign in U.S. history.

Is this any way to pick a president? The National Association of Secretaries of State is promoting a major reform to the presidential primary system starting in 2012. Under the NASS plan, Iowa and New Hampshire would retain their early status, but every other state would primary or caucus under a system of rotating regional primaries held the first Tuesday of March, April, May, and June. That way, the general election season would be pushed back to its traditional start at the quadrennial party conventions, and a system now drowning in big money and media might return to some semblance of sanity.

Reform aside, the big headline out of the Iowa Caucus was how a record turnout of Democrats - bolstered by Independents and a few Republicans - chose an African-American man, Barack Obama, as their favorite. Many reporters are noting that it's interesting and hopeful to see such a result in a state that is 95 percent white; other commentators - including Christopher Caldwell in The Financial Times and Andrew Sullivan in The Atlantic Monthly - suggest that race is less a factor in Obama's chances than a generational shift. At his blog, Peter Levine writes how the Iowa results may signal a landmark year for youth civic engagement as well as a rise in a civil, deliberative style of campaigning.

In other news, check out the Study Circles Resource Center website for new stories of sustainable government in New Hampshire and sustainable employment in Wisconsin.

Sticky dots, RIP?

Could sticky dots soon be a thing of the past?

In Milwaukee on Monday, about 100 people took part in a summit organized by Manpower Inc., which recently moved its global headquarters to the Brewers Hill-Harambee neighborhood just north of downtown.  More than half spent the afternoon in dialogues to talk about finding "A Place for Everyone in the World of Work." At the end of the three-hour session, participants were asked to rate their favorite action items not with sticky dots but via hand-held response units which automatically register the users' preferences. (A more comprehensive record of the dialogues was captured by traditional facilitators and, in another wrinkle, by a graphic facilitator.) Six top action items emerged in the voting:

• Break down policies that are barriers to employment.

• Build partnerships that leverage the strengths of the community.

• Keep job seekers at the discussion table.

• Encourage employers to commit to potential employees.

• Let people know that it's OK to pursue careers that don't require a four-year degree.

• Invest more in education.

Monday's summit featured high-level support from Mayor Tom Barrett and Manpower CEO Jeff Joerres, both of whom addressed the group, and from about a dozen members of the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board, many of whom went through the dialogues. But quite a few everyday Milwaukee residents were on hand, too, including people who are currently unemployed and actively seeking work.

Joerres spoke of how Manpower puts 400,000 people to work each day and is working globally in locations including China, India, Mexico, and France to solve knotty employment issues. "But "here within 15 to 20 blocks of this building, we have massive unemployment," he said. Skills training classes will help some of the unemployed and underemployed  in Milwaukee find rewarding work, he noted, but systemic and sustainable change is needed to truly solve the problem. Monday was a first step on that journey, as dozens of diverse people sat down to start talking about when work works - and when it doesn't.

Friday digest-open thread 12/14/07

This will be the final Friday digest of the year here at DemocracySpace. For the final two Fridays of 2007, we'll have year-in-review roundups featuring some of the coolest news about small-d democratic organizing that we've seen this year. (Have a suggestion for those? Leave it in the comments below.) But let's not get ahead of ourselves ...

How is your holiday shopping coming along? If you need some ideas, check out the Case Foundation's Guide to Good Giving, which is packed with ways to fill stockings and build hope, all at the same time. Under Gifts That Give, you'll find ways to fight breast cancer, support animal shelters, aid still-struggling New Orleans musicians, and much more. Under Staff Picks, there are ways to give your money or your time to create positive change. (Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page to see a mention of the Study Circles Resource Center!) The Out of the Box section describes how "new and innovative ways to give are changing how we define philanthropy – and making doing good a daily occurrence."  The Skoll Foundation's Social Edge website has a gift guide, too, and don't forget our recent book roundups.

Monday (December 17) is the early registration deadline for a January 17-18 diversity conference in Clarksville, Indiana. Up to 300 people from Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky are expected at the event, which will feature a keynote speech by SCRC executive director Martha McCoy on "Bringing Diversity to Life: What works (and doesn’t) in real communities.” Read more here and download registration materials here.

Earlier this week, WBUR Boston's On Point radio show had a comprehensive look at the nation's subprime mortgage crisis, including how it is disproportionately affecting working-class neighborhoods and communities of color. You can access the show here. Guests included Douglas Palmer, mayor of Trenton, New Jersey, and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which recently released its report on the crisis.

In other $$$ news, Facing Up to the Nation's Finances has posted the round-up of entries into its blog carnival on the $9 trillion national debt. More than a dozen blogs took part, including this one.

Click here to read why one young South Dakota family committed to small-town life became involved in the Horizons program. Chad and Erin Odens live in Scotland, South Dakota - one of 32 communities in the state involved in the program. According to Randy Dockendorf's article in the Yankton Press & Dakotan, Scotland residents have identified six action items: a welcoming program for new residents, a youth center, a city beautification committee, a stronger business sector, a "Good Stuff Exchange" for unwanted household items, and a Scotland Community Foundation to fund local efforts and matching grants.

Wisconsin high school students who usually meet on the football field or the basketball court convened recently not to compete, but to cooperate in a brainstorming session on how to create positive changes in their schools. "Students from Burlington, Kenosha, Muskego, Oak Creek, Racine and South Milwaukee packed the Roma Lodge, where they spent the day in groups talking with their peers about issues like diversity, cliques, communication and respect," Paul Sloth wrote in the Journal Times. Click here to read more about this Leadership Cafe summit.

Speaking of Wisconsin, DemocracySpace will go on the road for the first time next week to post a report from Milwaukee, where an innovative partnership is looking to build sustainability in community economic development and the ways people work today.

Friday digest-open thread 11/09/07

This week, we learned of a new report showing that college students are tired of partisan bickering and divisive rhetoric. Many adults beyond college age are tired of it, too; in Michigan, some have decided that compromise isn't a four-letter word and are working to build a bipartisan, citizen-based agenda for their state's future. From the Lansing State Journal:

The Center for Michigan has begun convening "community conversations" around the state as part of its Michigan's Defining Moment campaign. The message: If leaders won't lead, then citizens must....

... (Former Lansing Mayor David Hollister said), "What I see happening here is the elders of the state trying to step forward in a bipartisan and nonpartisan way to say, 'Time out. Let's have a more thoughtful, deliberative, open and civil discussion.' " (Read more here.)

Also in the Midwest, two women who volunteer with Diversity Circles in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area were honored last week for their leadership. Anna Steinfest, who came to the U.S. from Bulgaria a decade ago, and Jeanne Agneesens of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce were recognized at the Women for Diversity luncheon hosted by the Girl Scouts of Lac Baie Council.

Here's another addition to the growing ranks of government officials who blog. Although his posts are infrequent, Dennis Vasquez, superintendent of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas, is blogging at the facility's official National Park Service website, in what is apparently a first among NPS superintendents. Vasquez recently called attention to the "Civics and Civility Summit: Voices of the Kansas People” event held last Friday at Kansas State University.

Can community organizing influence elections? In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a group that formed to support the community's consensus on preserving the local middle school chose to endorse candidates in this week's balloting - and every one of them won. "Friends of the Parrott Avenue Middle School was formed shortly following the Portsmouth Study Circles," organizers wrote to the local newspaper. "Our objective is to promote the renovation of the Parrott Avenue school and the preservation of the Sagamore Creek Conservation Land. Continuing our mission of renovation and preservation, we have endorsed the following candidates in the upcoming election. City Council: M. Christine Dwyer, Thomas G. Ferrini, Esther E. Kennedy, Edward Raynolds, Kenneth E. Smith and Eric Spear. School Board: Rebecca Emerson-Brown."

Speaking of Portsmouth, the impact of dialogue on its civic landscape was the topic of our October 11 water cooler session here at DemocracySpace. Join us again next Thursday, November 15, when youth-focused study circles will be this month's water cooler topic. Youth taking part in civic engagement within and outside school settings are especially invited to take part. The one-hour session starts at 3 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Central/1 p.m. Mountain/noon Pacific right here at DemocracySpace. Email organizer Julie Fanselow if you have any questions about how to take part in the live blogging session.

'Facing Racism' in Wisconsin

Citizens in Janesville, Wisconsin, are launching at least three study circle groups this fall to read, reflect, and take action on "Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation." Study circles are large-scale, inclusive community dialogues linked to measurable, sustained change.

One group began meeting Monday evening; another starts Friday morning, September 14; and a third will get under way on the afternoon of Friday, October 5. To register or get more information, call the University of Wisconsin-Rock County campus Office of Continuing Education at (608) 758-6541.

Facilitator Neil Deupree told WCLO Radio that previous rounds of study circles have proven thought-provoking. "The great majority of people walk away from it saying, 'This was really helpful,' and some people walk away from it saying, 'This is fantastic. I learned some things that I never had a clue about.'"