The Charles F. Kettering Foundation and Gallup have released the second annual Democracy for All Project report, titled Frustration Rises, Commitment Endures, based on a survey of more than 23,000 Americans conducted between April and June 2026. The report finds that Americans' underlying commitment to democracy remains strong, with two-thirds agreeing it is the best form of government, even as assessments of how well democracy is actually performing in the U.S. have worsened, with 56 percent now rating national democratic performance poorly. Notably, Americans consistently rate democracy as functioning better at the local level than at the national level, and those who trust their neighbors and local leaders tend to view democracy more favorably overall. The report also finds that Americans most want to see new people in office, expanded voting access, and greater public input into governance as ways to strengthen the system. For NCDD's network, the findings offer a data-driven case for local, relationship-based civic engagement as a lever for rebuilding broader democratic trust, directly reinforcing dialogue and deliberation work happening at the community level. The full report includes detailed findings on accountability, rule of law, and what motivates Americans to get involved in public affairs.

The Charles F. Kettering Foundation, working with research firm Gallup, has published the second year of its Democracy for All Project, an annual study examining how Americans experience democracy. Surveying more than 23,000 U.S. adults between April and June 2026, the report finds a persistent tension at the heart of American public opinion: most Americans still believe democracy is the best form of government, yet a growing majority, 56 percent, now say U.S. democracy is performing poorly, up from 51 percent the previous year. Sixty percent of Americans believe democracy was stronger 50 years ago than it is today, and more expect it to weaken rather than strengthen over the next half century. This gap between principle and performance is central to NCDD's ongoing interest in understanding what conditions actually sustain healthy democratic participation.

Among the report's most significant findings for NCDD's network is a clear divide between how Americans view local versus national democracy. While only 19 percent rate national democratic performance positively, 34 percent rate their own city or town's democracy as doing well, with local officials seen as far more responsive to residents' needs than national leaders. The report finds this local-national gap is closely tied to social trust and community experience: Americans who trust their neighbors, trust local information sources, and are satisfied with local services rate their community's democracy far more positively, and those same respondents also tend to hold more positive views of national democracy overall. This finding offers empirical support for a principle central to NCDD's mission: that trust-building dialogue and collaborative engagement at the community level can meaningfully shape broader democratic confidence, not just local outcomes.
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The report also examines what motivates Americans to get involved in civic life, finding that a sense of threatened rights or freedoms (27 percent) and the belief that involvement can make a real difference (26 percent) are the strongest drivers of participation, ahead of factors like being personally encouraged to get involved. When asked in an open-ended format how to improve U.S. democracy, Americans most commonly called for new leadership, electoral reforms expanding both voting access and election security, and greater opportunities for public input into governance. For practitioners and organizations working in dialogue and deliberation, these findings offer a valuable evidence base for framing local civic engagement work as directly connected to restoring broader trust in democratic institutions. The full report, including detailed findings on accountability, rule of law, and executive power, is available at https://kettering.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/KF-Gallup-Democracy-for-All-Project-pages-9-2026.pdf

The Charles F. Kettering Foundation has partnered with the This Day podcast for a four-week special series titled Democracy, Under Construction, examining pivotal historical moments that reshaped American democracy over the past 250 years. Hosted by Jody Avirgan, Nicole Hemmer, and Kellie Carter Jackson, the series pairs historical analysis with contemporary insight, featuring expert guests exploring how past turning points continue to shape the ongoing struggle for a more inclusive democracy. Episodes released throughout September cover the Constitutional ratification debates and the Bill of Rights, the 1848 Seneca Falls women's rights convention, and the mid-twentieth-century Southern political realignment that transformed the American electoral map. The series offers NCDD's network a historically grounded lens for understanding today's political divisions, reinforcing the idea that democratic expansion has always been contested and incremental rather than settled. A live event in Washington, DC, in October will extend the series beyond the podcast format, giving audiences a chance to engage with the material in person. For practitioners in dialogue, deliberation, and democracy work, the series offers accessible, well-researched context for conversations about how democratic institutions evolve.

The Charles F. Kettering Foundation, a research organization focused on strengthening democracy, has teamed up with the This Day podcast to produce Democracy, Under Construction, a four-week series exploring how American democracy has expanded and realigned across its history. The series responds to a widely shared question in civic life today: whether understanding the past can help make sense of a divided present. Rather than treating American democracy as a fixed achievement, the series frames it as an ongoing, unfinished project shaped by conflict, exclusion, and hard-won expansion.

Each week centers on a distinct historical turning point, paired with expert commentary connecting that history to present-day democratic challenges. The series began the week of September 8 with a look at the ratification debates over the Constitution and the drafting of the Bill of Rights, featuring Slate senior editor and Amicus podcast host Dahlia Lithwick, who discussed how the earliest organized political factions in American history shaped foundational democratic protections. The week of September 15 turned to the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, the first national women's rights gathering, with Kettering Research Fellow and Brown University political science professor Deva Woodly examining how that meeting set the stage for a suffrage movement that would take another seven decades to fully realize. The week of September 22 features Eric Ward, executive vice president of Race Forward, discussing the Southern Strategy developed by the Republican Party in the 1960s and 1970s and its lasting effect on American electoral politics. Together, these conversations reflect the kind of historically informed civic reflection that NCDD's network values, offering context for present-day dialogue about inclusion, representation, and political realignment.
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Listeners can access new episodes throughout September on both the This Day and The Context podcasts, available wherever podcasts are streamed. Those in the Washington, DC area can also attend a related live event on October 19, extending the series' themes into an in-person format. For NCDD's network, the series offers a valuable resource for grounding conversations about democratic engagement in historical context, useful for facilitators, educators, and practitioners seeking material that connects past civic struggles to current work. https://kettering.org/this-day-the-context/

​Meet Arjun Singh, an advocate for stronger, more connected local communities. As Executive Director of the Kamloops Local News Society, Arjun works to strengthen local journalism through the Kamloops Chronicle, while also leading Better Citizen Solutions and co-hosting Day to Day Democracy, a podcast exploring local government across British Columbia. With formal training in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement, along with experience in municipal and community organizations, Arjun brings a practical understanding of what it takes to make civic institutions more transparent, accessible, and responsive. As an NCDD board member, he offers a grounded perspective shaped by years of working at the intersection of community engagement, local government, and democracy.

Arjun Singh's professional identity is defined less by a single job title than by a consistent throughline: making local institutions more transparent, accountable, and responsive to the people they serve. He currently leads the Kamloops Local News Society as executive director, where he has spent more than two years rebuilding local community journalism through the Kamloops Chronicle. That work reflects a conviction that runs through much of his public commentary: that an informed public is a precondition for meaningful civic participation, and that the decline of local news coverage leaves residents disconnected from decisions that shape their daily lives.

Alongside that role, Singh runs his own community-building practice, Better Citizen Solutions, and co-hosts the podcast Day to Day Democracy, which examines the workings and challenges of local government across British Columbia. Episodes have tackled subjects ranging from how municipalities are adapting to increasingly frequent climate emergencies, including wildfires and floods, to the tension between long-term climate planning and the immediate demands of protecting residents and infrastructure. Singh has also used his public platform to press for closer public attention to the less visible mechanics of local governance, including municipal zoning, land use decisions, and budget increases, arguing that these routine-seeming processes shape a community's affordability and character far more than the issues that typically draw public attention.

Singh's interest in structured public engagement is not incidental to his career; it is foundational to it. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Dialogue, Deliberation, and Public Engagement from Fielding Graduate University, formal training in the same practices and frameworks that anchor NCDD's broader mission. He also holds a Master of Arts in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University, where his graduate thesis examined how to design messages that encourage young adults to vote, an early indication of his focus on civic participation and engagement that has carried through the rest of his career.

That academic grounding has translated into sustained institutional involvement over the years. Singh has previously served on the Board of Directors for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and as a member of the BC Climate Solutions Council. These roles placed him at the intersection of local governance and larger policy questions facing Canadian communities. He has also been active in Rotary International, currently serving as Assistant Governor for Area 2, District 5060, reflecting a broader pattern of sustained civic and community service beyond his professional work.

What distinguishes Singh's contribution to NCDD's board is the vantage point his career provides: a practitioner who has spent years working directly inside the friction points of local democracy, from newsroom sustainability to municipal budget fights to the everyday dysfunction that can slow down city councils. His public reflections on local governance, including candid commentary on the challenges facing his own city council, reflect an unwillingness to romanticize local government or treat civic dysfunction as an abstraction. That grounded, sometimes unvarnished perspective offers NCDD's broader network a valuable complement to more theoretical or academic approaches to dialogue and deliberation, rooted instead in the daily realities of trying to build functional, engaged communities from the ground up.

​A new piece from Democracy Notes Perspectives, authored by Caitlin Shrigley of the Trust for Civic Life, highlights the often-overlooked role community colleges play as civic infrastructure in rural communities. Using Old Fort, North Carolina, a small town rebuilding its economy around outdoor recreation after the decline of the textile and timber industries, the piece shows how McDowell Technical Community College has become a trusted convener, technical partner, and gathering space for local civic life. The article argues that philanthropy frequently underinvests in community colleges despite their outsized role in sustaining trust and collaboration within rural communities. For NCDD's network, the piece offers a valuable case study in how educational institutions can serve as civic anchors, supporting the cross-sector partnerships and community-driven problem-solving central to collaborative governance. The piece is part of a broader series on higher education and democracy, underwritten by Lumina Foundation.

A recent piece published through Democracy Notes Perspectives examines a civic partner often left out of philanthropic and democracy-building conversations: the community college. Author Caitlin Shrigley, who leads learning and evaluation for the Trust for Civic Life, a national collaborative of funders supporting rural civic efforts, uses the town of Old Fort, North Carolina, as a case study in what that overlooked partnership can accomplish. Once dependent on textile and timber industries, Old Fort has spent recent years reinventing itself as a hub for hiking, mountain biking, and outdoor recreation, with a coalition of local organizations, including a community development group, a longstanding church camp, a regional biking association, and the U.S. Forest Service, driving that transformation.

McDowell Technical Community College sits at the center of this effort, illustrating a pattern the article identifies across rural America: postsecondary institutions frequently serve a dual mission, building workforce skills while simultaneously strengthening local civic life. Community colleges often function as trusted conveners whose involvement lends credibility to local projects, and their campuses provide accessible gathering spaces, sometimes called third spaces, where community members can meet and collaborate. In Old Fort, the college's Trail School trains students in trail construction, stone masonry, and heavy equipment operation, directly supporting the town's growing mountain-biking economy while also positioning the region within a broader emerging field of professionalized trail building that now draws students from as far as California and Colorado. This kind of institutional partnership speaks directly to NCDD's interest in collaborative action, showing how civic infrastructure and workforce development can reinforce one another in practice.
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The piece pushes back against a common national narrative that frames higher education as disconnected from local community needs, arguing that in rural America, community colleges are often viewed as indispensable partners in solving shared problems and building a shared future. For NCDD's network and other funders and practitioners working in rural civic spaces, the article offers a reminder that strengthening democracy sometimes requires looking beyond traditional civic organizations to institutions already embedded in community life. https://democracynotesperspectives.substack.com/p/philanthropy-overlooks-a-key-rural

The University Network for Collaborative Governance, co-hosted with NCDD and the Association for Conflict Resolution, is holding its 2026 national virtual conference, Anchoring Our Future: How Can Collaborative Governance Meet the Moment? The two-day gathering brings together scholars, practitioners, and public leaders to explore how collaborative governance approaches can respond to a rapidly changing political and civic landscape. Hosted by the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, the conference offers a blend of research presentations, practice-based sessions, dialogue, and networking opportunities for those working across mediation, stakeholder collaboration, and public dispute resolution. For NCDD's network, the event represents a direct extension of the organization's own commitment to collaborative civic action, bringing academic research and applied practice into conversation around shared governance challenges. Sessions will take place on October 30 and November 6, with each day running from 11:30 am to 5:00 pm Eastern. The conference offers dialogue and deliberation practitioners a chance to connect with adjacent fields in conflict resolution and public policy, strengthening cross-sector relationships central to NCDD's mission.

The Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law is hosting the 2026 University Network for Collaborative Governance conference, co-sponsored by NCDD and the Association for Conflict Resolution. Titled Anchoring Our Future: How Can Collaborative Governance Meet the Moment?, the conference brings together researchers, practitioners, and public leaders to examine how collaborative governance can respond effectively to a period of significant political and institutional change. As a national virtual gathering, the conference is designed to be accessible to participants across the country, offering a mix of scholarly research, hands-on practice discussions, and structured dialogue.

The conference's focus on collaborative governance speaks directly to core priorities shared across NCDD's network, including stakeholder collaboration, dispute resolution, and public decision-making processes that bring diverse voices to the table. Sessions will explore how mediation, facilitated dialogue, and structured public engagement can help institutions and communities navigate complex, high-stakes challenges at a moment when trust in traditional governance structures is under real strain. By convening academic researchers alongside practitioners and public leaders, the gathering creates space for evidence-based insights to inform real-world collaborative governance practice, and for practitioners' field experience to shape emerging research questions.
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The conference spans two sessions, held October 30 and November 6, 2026, with each day running from 8:30am to 2:00pm Pacific, 9:30am to 3:00pm Mountain, 10:30am to 4:00pm Central, and 11:30am to 5:00pm Eastern. Registration requires completing both a registration form and a separate payment step, and University Network for Collaborative Governance members should confirm their dues status before registering. A full program brochure is available for those wanting more detail on sessions and speakers. Readers can register and learn more at https://law.utexas.edu/cppdr/2026uncg-conference/