Civic Dialogue

Civic dialogue seeks insights and empathy in divided places through actively understanding difference and fostering dialogue between the most affected and the most connected on matters of consequence to their lives. My clients are civic organizations, community foundations and governments who seek help in healing from a conflict, or to make changes that will avoid further divides, or to prepare how to live differently for the future. 

Civic Dialogue Examples

  • Try on their Boots: making allies in Western Maine

    Try on the Boots project  exists to build relationships and understanding through a deeper, more substantive engagement of citizens around their differences in a community grappling with potent changes that arise from a transition from forest products to tourism industry and the influx of residents from other places who often have larger incomes and different life experiences.  

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  • Creating One River: Russian River Descent and Confluence

    2016

    California

    How do you avoid what happened in the past to vastly improve the health of a river, the deeply loved and over-worked Russian River, the lifeline of the North Bay, the heart and the arteries of Sonoma and Mendocino counties?  How do you change public perceptions and help thousands of people create a new story for the river?  How to do you engage two dozen bureaucracies to act holistically?  How do you coax a shared vision from a wide range of people from ranchers to homeowners to paddlers to Tribes to homeless people to align around One River?

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Other Types of Facilitation I Offer