What's Next, America?, a nationwide initiative of the National Issues Forums Institute, invites communities across the country to engage in structured deliberative conversations centered on three questions: where are we now, where do we want to go, and how will we get there — framed around the nation's 250th anniversary as an opportunity for democratic renewal at the local level. The program provides a free Forum Discussion Guide with a three-part deliberative discussion framework that moves participants from community assessment through priority deliberation to action planning, and NIFI supports conveners with webinars, coaching, and a growing national community of practice. With resources designed for any setting — from neighborhoods to campuses to faith communities — the initiative makes deliberation accessible to participants at any level of experience. This work directly embodies NCDD's mission by equipping everyday Americans to use deliberation as a tool for civic engagement, community problem-solving, and democratic participation.

The Interactivity Foundation, a national civic organization dedicated to strengthening everyday democracy through structured community discussion, has launched a nationwide Discussion Club initiative and is accepting host applications through July 12, 2026. The program connects six to twelve consistent community members in monthly in-person conversations on topics ranging from mental health and loneliness to immigration and civic life, with hosts receiving facilitation training, community resources, and a $1,000 stipend to support participation. By combining accessible structure, practical facilitation tools, and a national host network, the initiative offers a replicable model for building social trust and dialogue capacity at the grassroots level. This work aligns directly with NCDD's mission to deepen civic engagement and expand the reach of dialogue and deliberation practice across American communities.

The National Civic League's 2026 All-America City Award Event, taking place June 26–28 at the Grand Hyatt Denver, brings together twenty finalist communities to present their civic health and trust-building efforts under the theme "America at 250: Strengthening Civic Health and Building Trust." The event features jury presentations by finalist communities, keynote addresses from philanthropy, government, and nonprofit leaders, peer learning workshops, and a new It's Your America Workshop designed to deepen civic practice. Individual registration is open at $150 per person, providing full access to all programming, receptions, and the awards ceremony. This event offers NCDD members and civic practitioners a timely opportunity to witness and connect with community-level democratic engagement at a pivotal moment in American civic life.

The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation offers a foundational introduction to the two core practices at the heart of its network's work: dialogue and deliberation. The post explains dialogue as a process for building genuine understanding across differences — not winning arguments, but hearing experiences — and deliberation as the structured examination of options and trade-offs that allows communities to make better decisions together. Drawing on the insight that moving from talk to decision requires trust as a foundation, the piece makes the case that these processes are most powerful in sequence and most necessary now, when polarization and distrust are eroding the civic spaces where communities once worked through hard things together. This explainer serves NCDD's mission by equipping new and returning visitors with a clear, accessible entry point into the dialogue and deliberation field and the network that supports it.

​The Minnesota Council on Foundations has launched the Minnesota Civic Resilience Fund, a one-time pooled grantmaking initiative distributing $300,000 in $25,000 grants to approximately twelve Minnesota-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits conducting nonpartisan voter engagement, civic education, and community organizing work ahead of the 2026 election. The fund prioritizes strategies that build civic capacity, expand voter participation, counter disinformation, and actively defend voting rights — with particular emphasis on historically underrepresented communities and broad geographic reach across the state. Applications are open through June 22, 2026, with funding decisions expected in early July. For NCDD members and partners working in Minnesota's civic ecosystem, this fund offers both immediate resources and a model of coordinated philanthropic investment in the relational and structural foundations that make democratic participation possible.

Kevin T. Kirkpatrick, head of strategic communications at Metropolitan Group, synthesizes findings from two major national research efforts — the Kettering Foundation and Gallup's Democracy for All Project and Metropolitan Group's Pro-Democracy Playbook — to offer practitioners a data-grounded portrait of how Americans understand and experience democracy as the country approaches its 250th anniversary. The research reveals that while attachment to democratic ideals remains strong, more than half of Americans believe democracy is performing poorly, with dissatisfaction closely tied to economic stress, felt exclusion from institutions, and uncertainty about how to participate beyond voting. Crucially, the studies identify specific narrative frames — centering freedom, fairness, accountability, and connection to everyday life — that consistently increase public engagement and resonance across political differences. These findings offer the NCDD network both a diagnostic and a practical resource for designing civic engagement efforts that meet people where they are and rebuild the connection between democratic ideals and lived democratic experience.

The "Rally to the Tally for New Floridians," an eleven-year-old civic education initiative run by Broward County Public Schools in partnership with the Close Up Foundation, annually brings hundreds of middle and high school students from immigrant and English language learner communities on a multi-day immersive experience in Florida's state government. The program moves students from observation into active participation, culminating in direct meetings with state legislators and the presentation of a student-developed Youth Legislative Agenda — an experience that positions young people as civic actors rather than passive observers. By pairing government access with higher education exposure, the initiative connects civic participation to broader opportunity and belonging for communities that are often underrepresented in democratic spaces. This program exemplifies the equity-centered, youth-focused civic engagement that NCDD's network works to foster and expand across the country.

The Spring 2026 issue of the National Civic Review, published by the National Civic League, brings together nine contributors from across the civic field to examine the structural, relational, and institutional conditions that make democratic life possible. The issue advances a compelling argument that democracy's current challenges — misinformation, polarization, institutional erosion, and exclusion — are best understood as failures of civic infrastructure requiring systemic, community-grounded responses. Contributors offer practical frameworks for rebuilding that infrastructure, from embedding community engagement in city governance to designing welcoming systems that restore civic trust among immigrant and marginalized communities. This issue is a vital resource for NCDD members and practitioners committed to strengthening dialogue, deliberation, and the conditions for genuine democratic participation.

​SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue convened nearly 40 civic leaders and organizations in March 2026 to prioritize recommendations from BC's Special Committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform, which had received input from nearly 1,000 individuals and organizations. Participants identified seven high-impact, implementable priorities — including establishing a non-partisan democratic engagement centre, strengthening civic education, countering election misinformation, and considering a people's assembly on electoral reform. The Centre for Dialogue, which presented to the Special Committee directly, frames the current moment as a rare policy window where public concern and institutional momentum are aligned. For NCDD's network, the initiative demonstrates how deliberative convening can translate broad institutional reform agendas into focused, collectively owned priorities — a model with clear relevance beyond British Columbia.

​The Kettering Foundation has named 15 Dayton-area community members as its 2026 Dayton Democracy Fellows, recognizing leaders from nonprofit, government, faith, arts, and advocacy sectors who are advancing inclusive democratic practice. The cohort reflects a wide range of civic approaches, from cooperative economics and tenant organizing to Indigenous advocacy and community media. The fellowship supports Kettering's Democracy and Community focus area, which holds that democratic renewal depends on the everyday work of people rooted in their communities. For NCDD's network, the Dayton Democracy Fellowship offers a concrete example of how structured community leadership programs can cultivate the civic relationships and capacities that dialogue and deliberation efforts depend on.