In November 2010 the Project on Civic Reflection held back-to-back open call trainings in Northern California. We are grateful to our partners and site hosts, Cal Corps Public Service Center (Berkeley) and California Campus Compact (Daly City), for making these successful workshops possible.

Our new trainers, Cathy Avila-Linn of Santa Clara and Kathleen Rice of Oakland, have been leading a series of regional civic reflection dialogues with community engagement leaders in the California State University network. According to Avila-Linn, the initial dialogue was "both extremely rich and highly participatory," with participants continuing to share positive feedback after the session closed. A second dialogue drew more participants and was equally successful. The dialogues will be followed by an online evaluation to assess their impact. Says Cathy Avila-Linn, "The workshops sponsored by the CSU Chancellor's Center for Community Engagement offered participants the opportunity to reflect on their values, experiences, and opportunities for inspiring and leading change on many levels, including individual, organizational, institutional, and societal. The dialogue encouraged participants to think, share, and listen carefully, in an effort to enhance their understanding of how and why they do what they do—and thereby improve how they do it."

Recently we spoke with a participant in the Daly City training, Andrea Wise, about her advocacy of civic reflection at the University of San Francisco. As the coordinator of community-based learning for the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at USF. Wise works with ACEs (Advocates for Community Engagement), USF student leaders who coordinate service-learning projects at local nonprofits. One of the things ACEs do is lead reflective discussions to help the students connect their academic courses with their service and better understand the social justice issues impacting the organizations where they serve.

As part of their professional development, ACEs attend a retreat during Winter Break, where this year they were introduced to civic reflection. Wise and two co-facilitators, Star Moore and Angela Mucci, led the students through a civic reflection discussion of "The Lovers of the Poor" and then had them lead their own discussions of readings by Kafka, Henri Barbusse and Alden Nowlan. The retreat went so well that Wise plans to hold a civic reflection workshop annually or bi-annually from now on. She says, "The students loved the civic reflection model… It really helped them with general facilitation skills, and they liked using the readings as a way to discuss issues. Several of the students we trained plan to implement the civic reflection model during the upcoming semester."

But let the students speak for themselves:

From Brandon Oldham, a sophomore Environment Science major and ACE at Quesada Gardens Initiative:

• I liked that civic reflection motivates people to work through the realization process on their own. At the same time, it motivates people to openly talk.

From Zannah Herridge-Meyer, a senior International Studies major, Pre-Med student and ACE at Project Open Hand:

• I plan to use the civic reflection for my work regarding the discussion of disease, health, and service. I enjoyed how the articles used were timeless and could be used as a basis for discussion and also a way to redirect conversation, if needed. It is different from other types of reflections because there is no set direction the conversation needs to go in. It is helpful to set the atmosphere, have guiding ground rules and questions, and then watch the conversation unfold.

From Caroline Fruth, a senior Sociology major and ACE at Opportunity Impact:

• I would like to use civic reflection to have real, honest, and engaging conversations with the students I work with.

From Noah Jennings, a senior International Studies major and ACE at De Marillac Academy:

• Civic reflection is a great tactic to get people to engage in a conversation. The common reading gives people the ability to relate to one another and draw upon past experiences. The carefully constructed environment encourages interaction, sharing, and controversy with civility. I plan to use civic reflection with the service-learning students with whom I work as a means to discuss wider, important social issues.

From Carly Smith, a sophomore Communication Studies major and ACE at the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship:

• I found the retreat on civic reflection extremely beneficial. I am looking forward to leading future service-learning students in a civic reflection.

All of us at PCR are thrilled that the November facilitation workshops jump-started such rich and varied civic reflection activity in the Golden State. We hope facilitators will continue to share their experiences and let us know how we can support their important work.

• View a photo of the students at the USF ACE retreat.
• Check out photos of the California trainings on our Facebook page.