Leading organizations in the dialogue and deliberation community have really come out to support the 2012 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation. NCDD sends its heartfelt thanks to the organizations on this page for their generous support of NCDD Seattle. We couldn’t do it without you!
Our All-Star Sponsors (donated $4000+) for the 2012 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation are the Community Forums Network and Healthy Democracy.
Our Co-Sponsors (donated $2000) include: Public Conversations Project, Interactivity Foundation, AmericaSpeaks, Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership, E-Democracy.org, Intellitics, Inc., CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution, Kansas State University’s Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy, the Orton Family Foundation, Democrasoft, the Inclusive and Engaged Leadership Certificate Program of the University of Wisconsin-Extension, Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration, Civic Evolution and Phil Neisser and Jacob Hess, authors of “You’re not as Crazy as I Thought (But You’re Still Wrong).”
And our Partners (donated $1000) are: Active Voice, Everyday Democracy, The Institute for Local Government’s Public Engagement Program, PMLINK 360, The League of Extraordinary Trainers, Public Agenda, GMT Transformations LLC, SIT Graduate Institute, MindMixer and the William D. Ruckelshaus Center.
Our All-Star Sponsors (donated $4000+) for the 2012 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation are the Community Forums Network and Healthy Democracy.
Our Co-Sponsors (donated $2000) include: Public Conversations Project, Interactivity Foundation, AmericaSpeaks, Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership, E-Democracy.org, Intellitics, Inc., CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution, Kansas State University’s Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy, the Orton Family Foundation, Democrasoft, the Inclusive and Engaged Leadership Certificate Program of the University of Wisconsin-Extension, Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration, Civic Evolution and Phil Neisser and Jacob Hess, authors of “You’re not as Crazy as I Thought (But You’re Still Wrong).”
And our Partners (donated $1000) are: Active Voice, Everyday Democracy, The Institute for Local Government’s Public Engagement Program, PMLINK 360, The League of Extraordinary Trainers, Public Agenda, GMT Transformations LLC, SIT Graduate Institute, MindMixer and the William D. Ruckelshaus Center.
|
Community Forums Network (CFN) is part of the Dick Spady Legacy Project and is a new public engagement platform and model based on the conceptual and social tools chronicled in “The Leadership of Civilization Building: Administrative and Civilization Theory, Symbolic Dialogue, and Citizen Skills for the 21st Century.” The CFN mission is to strengthen the link between individual citizens and organizations to the policy making process in three strategic ways: First by lowering barriers to the public engagement process; second, by creating a nonpartisan resource for information and quantifiable citizen feedback; and third, to discover consensus on issues by utilizing the consensus/polarization rating analysis methodology and sharing those insights with Washington State policy makers. CFN recently presented their first findings on young adult unemployment to a joint committee hearing of the Washington State Legislature.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Email |
|
|
Healthy Democracy is an Oregon-based nonprofit organization advancing innovative, effective ways for the public to engage in the democratic process. We don’t work for one side or another on the ‘issues of the day’. Instead, we seek to improve our political discourse and decision making by building meaningful new ways for the public to weigh-in on the important issues facing us all. We develop, test and implement deliberative projects that are fair, in-depth, and powerful enough to make compelling, substantive changes to our politics and our democracy—the kind of change that everyone can support, no matter what your personal politics may be. We work to produce positive change in our home state of Oregon and, as we do, continue to lead by example for advocates of a healthier democracy throughout the nation.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Email |
|
|
AmericaSpeaks is a Washington, D.C.-based non-partisan, non-profit organization whose mission is to “engage citizens in the public decisions that impact their lives.” AmericaSpeaks’ work is focused on trying to create opportunities for citizens to impact decisions and to encourage public officials to make informed, lasting decisions. AmericaSpeaks has developed and facilitated deliberative methods such as the 21st Century Town Hall Meeting, which enables facilitated discussion for 500 to 5,000 participants. Its partners have included regional planning groups, local, state, and national government bodies, national and international organizations. Issues have ranged from Social Security reform, the redevelopment of ground zero in New York and rebuilding New Orleans.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Email |
|
|
The Interactivity Foundation (or IF) works to engage citizens in the exploration and development of possibilities for public policy through small group discussions. We group these discussions and our work generally into 3 main focal areas: Project Discussions (longer-term projects with selected panelists that develop our Discussion Reports with different possibilities for future public policy), Public Discussions (shorter-term discussion series that use our Discussion Reports as a starting point for further discussion and exploration) and Classroom Discussions (we also work with educators to support student-centered discussions in a variety of educational settings).
Website • Facebook • Email |
|
|
The Inclusive and Engaged Leadership Certificate Program of the University of Wisconsin-Extension provides an initial Core course that introduces practitioners to fundamentals of inclusive and engaged leadership, including the history of inclusion and civic engagement in higher education. Participants can elect to continue building on the Core course through participation in Foundational courses in level two (e.g., conflict resolution, inclusive decision making, intercultural communication). Led by experts in their fields, level two courses provide further exploration into content fundamental to understanding, incorporating, and applying concepts of inclusive and engaged leadership.
Website • Email |
|
|
Jacob Z. Hess is a Mormon, a community psychologist, and a devoted conservative, while Phil Neisser is an atheist, a leftist, and a college professor at SUNY Potsdam. Yet in 2009, after meeting at an NCDD conference, they embarked on a two-year conversation about the issues that divide them. The result is the 2012 book “You’re Not as Crazy as I Thought (But You’re Still Wrong),” an entertaining dialogue about power, government, media, religion, morality, gender roles, sexual orientation, race, and more. Drawing on the latest debates in social and political theory, Hess and Neisser engage each other with expertise and passion, and disagree right to the end. Yet they also laugh together, learn from each other, and grasp each other’s basic decency. The net effect is a book that’s a good read and a shining counter-example to the angry and polarizing discourse that plays such a prominent role in national politics.
Website • Facebook |
|
|
Since their founding as a multi-partisan and non-profit organization in 2005, The Davenport Institute (formerly Common Sense California) has worked to engage the citizens of this state in the policy decisions that affect our everyday lives. It is their firm belief that, in today’s world of easy access to information, and easy connectivity to others, California’s municipal and education leaders are seeking ways to involve the residents of their communities in the important issues they confront. Done legitimately, this new kind of leadership produces better, more creative policy solutions and better, more engaged citizens committed to the hard work of self-governance.
Website • Email |
|
|
Since 1989, the Public Conversation Project has worked in the U.S. and around the world facilitating dialogues on a wide range of contentious issues including abortion, forest management, homosexuality and faith, biodiversity, the use of animals in research, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and many others. In a world bristling with tension, controversy, polarization, and war, PCP aims to reduce rancor in public squares and promote effective communication within organizations and communities. It also provides workshops and customized trainings that teach people how to use its dialogue methods.
Website • Email |
|
|
The Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) is a statutory state institute of the University of Massachusetts Boston. The office’s public mandate is to assist state and local government with the design, development, and operation of dispute resolution programs and to provide effective forums for collaborative problem-solving and community involvement on contentious public issues. MOPC works with public agencies, courts, businesses, non-profits and citizen groups to address complex issues related to economic development, land use, environment, natural resources, housing, transportation, education, public health and other important community objectives. The office’s core functions include: assessment, process design, facilitation and evaluation for consensus-building and public engagement processes; program design, administration, evaluation and fundraising to establish sustainable public mediation programming; policy development, systems design and research to strengthen evidence-based best practices and collaborative capacity within public agencies; training for public officials as sponsors and conveners of collaborative processes; and qualification and procurement of experienced collaborative practitioners for service on public contracts.
Website • Email |
|
|
E-Democracy.org is a pioneer in the field of online community engagement. Part global practitioner connector and part local in the field innovator, our mission is to harness the power of online tools to support participation in public life, strengthen communities, and build democracy. Starting with the world’s first election information website in 1994, today we host over 50 local community/neighborhood Forums in 17 communities across three countries – U.S., the UK, and New Zealand. Our major BeNeighbors.org inclusive online community engagement effort seeks to build the nation’s most diverse online neighborhood participation network starting with 10,000 daily participants in St. Paul, Minnesota. The project includes wide lesson sharing and related online communities of practice.
Website • Email |
|
|
The Orton Family Foundation, founded in 1995, helps small cities and towns harness the inherent ability of citizens to imagine and achieve a culturally and economically vibrant future for their community. The Foundation’s Heart & Soul approach supports citizens in steering their town’s future by discovering the characteristics and attributes valued most in their communities and, then, by placing those shared values at the center of local decision making. The Foundation also inspired and leads the CommunityMatters network and national partnership, seeking to build strong communities through the improvement of local civic infrastructure.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Email |
|
|
Democrasoft is a leading provider of innovation in social collaboration and voting platforms for building successful online communities. With a focus on implementing solutions to build better relationships, identify obstacles, and create actionable, quantifiable outcomes that get results, Democrasoft provides everything you need to leverage the power of a well-engaged group. Democrasoft offers hosted, web-based solutions that “reach-in” to internal groups to promote collaboration and streamline decision-making, and “reach-out” to external audiences to enhance customer relationships, identify market opportunities and provide valuable customer insight and feedback.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn |
|
|
The CMM Institute for Personal and Social Innovation is a connector and cultivator of all things-CMM. The Institute itself represents a diverse community of individuals and groups who engage with and learn from one another through a variety of online and in-person forums. Individual scholars and practitioners, educators and thought leaders, and institutional advocates comprise the core of the Institute’s supporters, however, the Institute’s programs and events are open to everyone. As the institutional home and on-going keeper of CMM’s living history, the Institute identifies people and projects that represent significant, relevant, and applicable ways to institutionalize better patterns of communication.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn |
|
|
The Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy (ICDD) was formed as an interdisciplinary, non-partisan organization at Kansas State University in 2004 in response to the ever-increasing negative political discourse permeating our society. Our mission is to build community capacity for informed, engaged, civil deliberation. ICDD engages in research, education, and facilitation of civic communication processes that promote an informed citizenry and community-based decision making that ultimately enhance our democracy. Our latest initiative is to host the graduate level certification program Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement at K-State. Today’s social and political problems are increasingly complex, requiring decision making skills from multiple perspectives. ICDD’s campus and community associates bring a diversity of technical experience, theoretical perspective, and process skills that promote civic engagement and deliberative democracy, improve the quantity and quality of discourse, and increase our understanding of the relationship of discourse to democracy.
Website • Twitter • Facebook |
|
|
Intellitics™ is a digital engagement company based in San José, CA (USA). We help communities in the public, private and non-profit sector apply technology to achieve better dialogue, problem solving and decision making. As consultants, we identify new engagement opportunities and design and implement high-quality online dialogues that enhance and extend their in-person counterparts. As developers of web-based dialogue software Zilino™, we enable practitioners to host well-structured community conversations online and deliver good process in a digital environment.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Google+ • LinkedIn • Slideshare • Email |
|
|
The mission of CivicEvolution is to help people think together in hopes that a consensus can emerge upon which they can build a working agreement to act together. We are developing new ways to use web and mobile technology to leverage and facilitate face-to-face engagement. We bring people together in their communities to talk about a specific issue of interest to them, harvest their conclusions and feed these forward to future conversations in the hopes of nurturing an emergent consensus that is based on identifying and satisfying the community’s interests. We work with leaders and organizations to create invited spaces for constituents to collaborate with them in a productive and safe environment. We also work with citizens and community groups that demand collaborative spaces for addressing community problems. Our goal is to outsource democracy back to the citizens. CivicEvolution is a hosted service provided by Practical Evolution, LLC, San Francisco, CA.
Website • Email |
|
|
Active Voice uses stories to spark change. We believe that tackling social problems requires people to connect, and that film has a unique power to bring people together to find solutions. Every day Active Voice helps filmmakers, funders and communities work together to start the conversations and relationships that lead to lasting, measurable change. Since our inception in 2001, Active Voice has built a diverse portfolio of story-based campaigns focusing on issues including immigration, criminal justice, healthcare and sustainability.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Email |
|
|
PMLINK 360 is a web development company building web solutions for any industry that can benefit from Public Outreach and Stakeholder Management Software. We developed our software, EngagEnterprise to help companies manage public outreach and stakeholder interactions, increase efficiencies and streamline communications, enabling projects to be delivered on-time, on-budget and in-compliance with industry regulations.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Email |
|
|
Public Agenda is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to strengthening democracy and improving people’s lives. Through research and public engagement, we help leaders, citizens and stakeholders build common ground on solutions to tough public problems like education reform, the environment and healthcare. Our goal is to contribute to a democracy in which problem solving triumphs over gridlock and inertia, and where public policy reflects the deliberations and values of the citizenry. Public Agenda was founded in 1975 by the social scientist and public opinion expert Dan Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, and is based in New York City.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Email |
|
|
A national leader in the field of civic participation and community change, Everyday Democracy helps people of different backgrounds and views talk and work together to solve problems and create communities that work for everyone. Using innovative, participatory approaches, Everyday Democracy works with neighborhoods, cities and towns, regions, and states. We place particular emphasis on the connection between complex public issues and structural racism. Issues addressed include: poverty and economic development; education reform; racial equity; early childhood development; police-community relations; youth and neighborhood concerns. Everyday Democracy was created as the Study Circles Resource Center in 1989 by The Paul J. Aicher Foundation, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. Since 1989, we have worked with more than 600 communities across the United States on many different public issues.
Website • Email |
|
|
The Institute for Local Government is the nonprofit research and education affiliate of the California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities. The Institute’s Public Engagement Program promotes and supports effective and inclusive public engagement in California’s cities and counties and helps local officials make good decisions about involving the public in local decision making. The program offerings include: how-to guides and tip sheets (available for downloading), local stories from throughout the state, best practices, video presentations and more.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Email |
|
|
The League of Extraordinary Trainers are eight highly seasoned practitioners who have designed and presented some of the most powerful and recognized training in public participation, collaboration, consensus, high stakes communication, and facilitation in the world today. The League (known initially as the US Trainers’ Consortium, which was the official sponsor for the regional events) are practice leaders, developers and founders of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) and its spectrum, principles and ethics.
Website • Email |
|
|
SIT Graduate Institute offers MA degree programs in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation, Intercultural Service, Leadership & Management, International Education, andTESOL. Our MA degree programs equip mid career professional students with theoretical knowledge, field experience, and professional skills. Programs are based on an experiential learning model and a commitment to social justice and intercultural communication. SIT Graduate Institute prepares students to be interculturally effective leaders, professionals, and global citizens.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Email |
|
|
The William D. Ruckelshaus Center acts as a neutral resource for collaborative problem solving in the State of Washington and Pacific Northwest. The Center provides expertise to improve the quality and availability of voluntary collaborative approaches for policy development and multi-party dispute resolution. It is a joint effort of Washington’s two research universities and was developed in response to requests from community leaders and hosted at the University of Washington by the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and at Washington State University by WSU Extension. Building on the unique strengths of the two institutions, the Center is dedicated to assisting public, private, tribal, non-profit and other community leaders in their efforts to build consensus and resolve conflicts around difficult public policy issues. The Center also advances the teaching and research missions of the two universities by bringing real-world policy issues to the academic setting.
Website • Email |
|
|
GTM Transformations LLC, and owner Greg Mowat, bring three decades of public and private policy/issue facilitation experience to the service of our clients. They work collaboratively with their clients, with sensitivity to achieve transformative results based on environmental opportunities, client strengths and aspirations, holistic engagement, and progressive values, applying all to conflict and negotiation coaching, organizational assessment, strategic planning, public engagement, labor/management relations, and public policy support.
LinkedIn • Email |
|
|
MindMixer was founded on the belief that civic engagement should and can be facilitated in a more effective manner. MindMixer has changed the culture of engagement in communities across the country, helping citizens become active contributors to community-driven conversations and initiatives. Engagement has become a consumptive activity; “I want this…”, “Gimme that…”, “Do it faster…”. MindMixer turns engagement into a contributing activity; “My idea is…”, “Let me help with…”, “Idea Implemented”. MindMixer helps you build a connected and contributing community by providing an online platform for meaningful conversations, ultimately leading to offline action.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Email |
|
We’re also proud to list our local Community Partners for the conference…
- Seattle City Club
- Leadership Tomorrow
- The Seattle Foundation
- University of Washington Center for Communication & Civic Engagement
- Dispute Resolution Center of King County
- Antioch University Seattle’s Social Engagement Initiative and Center for Creative Change
- The Center for Ethical Leadership
- City of Tacoma
- Family Support Network
- William Factory Small Business Incubator