What do a Chicago Public Schools teacher, a physician who directs a hospital's palliative care service, members of the Interfaith Youth Core and of AmeriCorps, the leader of an advocacy group for immigrant rights, the director of a college service-learning program, and staff members of the Guam Humanities Council have in common?

All participated in the Project on Civic Reflection's facilitation training workshop at The Feltre School in downtown Chicago on January 29-30. These training workshops, begun in January 2006, have always featured participants from various fields. But director Elizabeth Lynn, who co-led the workshop with Adam Davis, describes this group as "extraordinarily diverse" in their knowledge, skills and experience. The Guam Humanities Council members are interested in using civic reflection in a "We the People" initiative to open conversation on military expansion in Guam.

Members of the group co-facilitated civic reflection discussions of Rumi's poem Say Yes Quickly, Jane Addams' essay Earliest Impressions, Julia Kasdorf's poem What I Learned from My Mother, and Toni Cade Bambara's story The Lesson. They also participated in plenary sessions on leading and planning conversations and selecting readings. The workshop concluded with a debriefing session, followed by participants sharing their plans for using civic reflection in their work.

The training workshop was preceded by a pre-workshop Train-the-Trainer meeting, attended by experienced facilitators who "shadowed" the lead trainers during the workshop. We are pleased to have more and more trainers available to help us spread the practice of civic reflection.