Campus Compact and New America’s Political Reform Program have launched a pilot initiative to bring civic assemblies to community colleges nationwide, adapting a deliberative democracy model typically used by governments to higher education settings. Using representative sampling, these assemblies convene students, faculty, staff, and community members to learn from experts, deliberate on shared challenges, and develop actionable, consensus-based recommendations. The program provides end-to-end support—from topic selection and process design to facilitation and implementation—offering colleges an inclusive alternative to traditional feedback mechanisms. By embedding these structured, equity-centered processes into campus governance, the initiative positions community colleges as vital civic infrastructure while helping leaders address policy, resource, and student needs through genuine co-creation and trust-building.

​Braver Angels’ Depolarizing Within workshop addresses political polarization by helping participants examine their “inner polarizer” and develop skills for engaging in constructive political conversations. The three-hour online program teaches participants to distinguish between thoughtful critique and condemnation, providing strategies for intervening when conversations become disrespectful and for maintaining critical perspectives while preserving civic relationships. By focusing on self-awareness and everyday conversation skills, the workshop creates opportunities for cultural shift within political communities and equips participants to contribute to healthier democratic norms. It's accessible, free, and emphasis on personal responsibility supports NCDD’s mission of strengthening civic engagement, fostering dialogue across difference, and building the foundation for collaborative democratic action.

​The Nevins Fellows program at Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy addresses civic disengagement by offering students eight-week paid internships at organizations that bring people together to solve community problems, beginning with a Democratic Leadership course that reframes democracy as collaborative practice rather than electoral politics. The program intentionally recruits students from diverse fields, including engineering, sciences, and business, demonstrating that democratic renewal requires all citizens' skills while teaching facilitation techniques and connecting participants to hyper-local problem-solving work that restores individual agency and proves meaningful change is achievable. With a vision to create a collaborative national network of similar campus programs, the initiative counters isolation and cynicism by showing that small local actions contribute to broader democratic renewal, supported by funding that removes financial barriers to participation. By shifting focus from abstract despair to concrete action and affirming the necessity of engagement itself, this work directly supports NCDD's mission of strengthening democracy through inclusive dialogue, developing civic leadership capacity, and fostering collaborative community problem-solving across diverse populations.

​When the Map Is Useless, a multi-year initiative led by Simon Fraser University's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, strengthens public sense-making and civic discourse by cultivating capacities to navigate social, political, and ecological uncertainty. Through Conversations for a World in Transition—an interdisciplinary dialogue series exploring what is unfolding, how to understand it, and how to sustain ourselves through change—and Bridging the Political Divide—facilitated conversations among public leaders modeling rigorous yet respectful disagreement—the program creates reflective spaces for engaging complexity without resorting to simplification or despair. The initiative equips communities and leaders with practices for sustaining democratic relationships and collective decision-making amid polarization, demonstrating how dialogue can foster critical optimism and broader participation in public life. By bringing together diverse voices to make sense of profound transition, this work directly advances NCDD's commitment to strengthening democracy through meaningful conversation and collaborative engagement across difference.

​Everyday Democracy convened youth organizing leaders Hannah Botts of Campus Compact and Zoë Jenkins of Civics Unplugged to explore Gen Z's relationship with democracy, revealing that only 16% believe democracy is working well for them—a disconnect rooted not in apathy but in earned distrust of institutions that have failed to deliver on promises. The conversation illuminated how young people are practicing discernment rather than disengagement, shifting civic energy from national politics to local communities where 77% trust neighbors and 65% trust nonprofits, while rejecting transactional engagement that only surfaces during elections. Panelists identified critical barriers including the search for belonging that conservative movements have successfully addressed by building community before politics, the chilling effect of constant digital surveillance on civic courage, and the need to create entirely new participatory structures rather than adding youth to existing adult tables. By listening to, trusting, and co-creating with a generation demanding institutions earn their participation, this work directly supports NCDD's mission of strengthening democracy through inclusive dialogue, fostering genuine civic engagement, and building collaborative pathways that center diverse voices in democratic renewal.

​Scenario Six Collective’s Reimagining Engagement Workshop is a three-and-a-half-hour, facilitator-led experience designed for experienced civic engagement practitioners who feel stuck with plateauing participation and stale strategies. Rather than offering generic best practices, the workshop helps participants step back from day-to-day pressures to unpack a real engagement challenge they’re facing and develop context-specific, actionable strategies grounded in their community’s lived experience. Using structured, collaborative processes familiar to dialogue and deliberation work, the workshop moves participants from stagnation to strategic clarity, equipping them with practical tools they can continue using independently. Especially valuable for practitioners navigating the “messy middle” of sustaining and deepening engagement, the offering fills a gap in professional development while modeling the responsive, community-informed principles it seeks to strengthen.

​This piece explores how international collaboration can strengthen youth participation in democracy, drawing lessons from a partnership between Albania’s National Youth Congress (KRK) and U.S. civic engagement leaders, including NCDD member Close Up Foundation. By exchanging models of youth empowerment—from Albania’s structured pathways for youth input in local governance to Close Up’s long-standing experiential civic education—the collaboration highlights the value of sustained engagement, capacity building, and meaningful decision-making roles for young people. The article argues that American communities can adapt these cross-border insights by creating formal youth advisory structures, prioritizing equity and inclusion, and fostering intergenerational dialogue, demonstrating that democracy is strongest when young people are equipped to actively shape the policies that affect their lives.

The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) released December 2025 research demonstrating that classrooms function as civic institutions where positive classroom climate supports civic development as much as curriculum content, with findings showing that when teachers connected content to students' lived experiences, significantly more students participated in discussions compared to solely historical questions. CIRCLE's evaluation of Massachusetts' Investigating History curriculum found that positive climate empowers deeper peer engagement, socio-emotional learning strengthens civic learning when paired with civics instruction, and inquiry-based instruction with culturally sustaining practices helps students see themselves in history and make real-world connections. For dialogue and deliberation practitioners, this research demonstrates that positive classroom climate, culturally responsive instruction, and adequate teacher support all contribute to civic development, requiring intentional classroom design modeling democratic principles.

​In a recent article for the Nonprofit Quarterly, Chicago-based civic educator and arts activist Tom Tresser made a compelling case for why arts and culture organizations should follow a proven model for civic engagement—one that the far right has successfully employed for over 50 years. Drawing on his experience as a former actor, theater manager, and arts activist, Tresser outlined practical strategies for using creative spaces to build community power and deepen democratic participation.

​Colorado State University's newly launched Colorado Democracy Prize awards $5,000 annually to student groups whose work brings community members together across lines of difference, facilitated by CSU's Center for Public Deliberation as part of President Amy Parsons' commitment to strengthening democracy through summits, First Amendment education, and dialogue across viewpoints. The prize provides a scaffolded approach where student teams attend grant-writing workshops, three to five finalists receive $1,000 seed grants with ongoing guidance to implement their ideas between March 2026 and January 2027, and winners are selected based on creativity in addressing barriers to dialogue while deepening democratic engagement. Associate Director Katie Knobloch articulates a vision resonating with NCDD's values: democracy is not something that happens outside of us or only at the national level, but something we practice daily as community members, offering practitioners an inspiring model of institutional investment that trusts students to design and lead meaningful civic engagement work.