Posts By Sandy Heierbacher

7 Lessons in Addressing Racism from Everyday Democracy

Our organizational partners are Everyday Democracy have been working for 25 years to make racial equity a central piece of their work in dialogue and deliberation, and they recently condensed some of the key insights that work has taught them. We learned a lot from ED’s lessons and share their belief addressing racism in ourRead… Read more »

Insights on Public Problems, Deliberation from Martín Carcasson

Earlier this week, our organizational partners with the Kettering Foundation published an insightful interview with NCDD organizational member and public deliberation guru Dr. Martín Carcasson. Martín’s insights on public deliberation and civic infrastructure are rich, and we encourage you to read them below or find the original interview by clicking here. When Martín Carcasson firstRead… Read more »

The New Civics Grant Initiative

We recently came across a grant opportunity from the Spencer Foundation that we think would be an excellent match for some of the folks in the NCDD network. The New Civics grant initiative offers two levels of grant funding to apply to projects in civic education and action, as well as a third category forRead… Read more »

Innovative Journalism Can Take Public Conversation to Scale

We have barely begun to use major media and journalism – both old and new forms – to scale up the impact of powerful public conversations about public issues beyond the rooms and online forums where those conversations take place. Our societies urgently need innovations and development in the area of public conversation journalism inRead… Read more »

Managing Extreme Opinions During Deliberation

We are happy to share the reflective piece below from one of our newest NCDD supporting members, Donald Ellis of University of Hartford’s School of Communication. Donald’s post came via our Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for theRead… Read more »

Featured D&D Story: Strategic Planning for Sustainability in Dauphin Island

Today we’d like to feature a great example of dialogue and deliberation in action, Strategic Planning for Sustainability in Dauphin Island. This mini case study was submitted by Dr. R. Warren Flint of Five E’s Unlimited via NCDD’s Dialogue Storytelling Tool (add YOUR dialogue story today!). Title of Project: Strategic Planning for Sustainability in DauphinRead… Read more »

Update from Participatory Budgeting Campaign in CA

We are always happy to hear good news from our partners with the Participatory Budgeting Project, an NCDD organizational member, and we wanted to share an update on their campaign in California from the PBP blog. We encourage you to read about how PB is growing below, or find the original post by clicking here.Read… Read more »

Group Decision Tip: High ground

In principle, groups often get bogged down in details (who should do what by when and how) and fail to stay on the high ground (strategic direction and guiding policies). The group as a whole has the unique perspective of seeing all that the group is doing, all the opportunities, all the threats. It isRead… Read more »

Interview on GovLoop Innovation Report

We recently read a great interview over at EngagingCities on an interesting report detailing 20 significant innovations made in government last year, and we thought it would interest our NCDD members. We encourage you to read the interview below or find the original post here. In late December, GovLoop released a new report, “The GovLoopRead… Read more »