NCDD Member, Lori Britt, was featured on Brand Story a podcast celebrating the stories of real people who are making an impact on brands, business, and the world around them. Each episode features guests from a variety of backgrounds who bring their own unique perspectives to the conversation.

Brand Story is created and produced by Gravity Group and is hosted by Gravity Group President, Steve Gilman.

Lori Britt is the President of the Board of Directors of NCDD along with a Professor of Communication and Co-Director of  at James Madison University. As a long-time communication instructor, Lori has taught various courses on group and organizational communication with a focus on community dialogue and deliberation. She is also Co-Director of JMU’s Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue (ICAD). This episode discusses the importance of intentional conversations with the host, Steve Gilman. Britt's episode is titled Dialogue & Deliberation. ​

From the episode description: 
There’s a difference between communicating with someone and having an intentional conversation. Understanding the way you talk and how that impacts the way you think is important in helping to break down barriers and engage in civic conversations with others. It’s the heart of what Lori teaches and models for others — figuring out the why.

It’s become even more important now to be able to engage with others of differing opinions without breaking down. Dialogue and deliberation are processes that can help us all understand our own way of thinking and identify the constraints we may not know exist. As Lori would say, it’s simple but complex work.

In this episode, Lori challenges us to identify our personal schema and how our thinking has been conditioned. She identifies common challenges that are apparent in conversations and walks us through ways to expand our way of thinking. Whether you’re speaking to an individual or working as a group, her insights will prove valuable in helping shape your next conversation.

NCDD Member Organization, The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), leverages science to advance community priorities. These projects are contributing to a growing movement toward engaged, community-driven science. They recently shared an interview from The Wildlife Center of Virginia where Community Science Fellow Devin Jefferson was interviewed for "Untamed: Life is Wild". Devin showcased his work with the Science Museum of Virginia and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond to study urban heat islands and air quality. His interview is in the May 5: Episode 403: Citizen Science (starting at 16:53). 

Untamed: Life is Wild is an award-winning television series co-produced by the Wildlife Center of Virginia and VPM, Virginia's home for public media. The series focuses on a variety of wildlife issues drawn directly from the stories of the thousands of wild animals in need of care that arrive at the Wildlife Center’s doorstep every year. The stories of these animals illustrate the wider problems wildlife face — litter, pesticides, free-roaming domestic animals, habitat loss, and diseases – and challenge viewers to take action to protect wildlife.

The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) is a professional membership organization with a vision of increased understanding of—and engagement with—science and technology among all people and a mission to champion and support science and technology centers and museums. Founded in 1973, ASTC champions and supports more than 500 science and technology centers and museums, natural history museums, children’s museums, and other STEM-rich, place-based institutions. ASTC currently runs a Dialogue & Deliberation Fellows Initiative - learn more here!

The National Civic League, an NCDD member organization, released the National Civic Review (NCR) Summer 2021 edition and  NCDD members receive a digital copy of NCR for free! (Find the access code below.). This esteemed quarterly journal offers insights and examples of civic engagement and deliberative governance from around the country. Thanks to Rebecca Trout, NCL’s Program Director for All-America City Award & Communications, for sharing this announcement with the NCDD network!
Friendly reminder that the League is always seeking articles for NCR on community-based examples of civic engagement, public deliberation, co-production, and democratic innovation – more info here.

By Lydia Hooper

How many conversations have you had this week about something you saw, on TV or happening in front if you? Vision is the primary way we sense and experience our world, and we are social beings who process information with others. We can easily leverage these tendencies if we want to inspire specific conversations in specific moments.

​The conventional way of doing so is using presentation slides or videos to introduce or explain important topics. These visual forms, however, emphasize what is important from the perspective of the presenter. They do not necessarily offer opportunities to capture what a larger group of people thinks or feels.

Earlier this week, NCDD hosted a special post-election Confab Call during which over fifty of our members and affiliates had a rich, inspiring, and for some, therapeutic conversation about what kind of work people in the dialogue and deliberation field are doing to address this post-election moment.
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The call was part of our ongoing #BridgingOurDivides campaign, during which we’ve been encouraging our members to share about the work happening in our field that’s aimed at fostering bridge building, and to share resources that can build capacity to move forward together despite differences. The Confab Call was its own kind of resource, and if you missed the call, you can hear about all the great projects, insights, and resources that were discussed during it by reading over the discussion and links from the call’s chat transcription here. NCDD members who missed this event can watch the recording by clicking here. But there are many more resources we want to share with you all today.