Civic Reflection News Update — November 2008

News & Notes

Mark Your Calendar!

The Project on Civic Reflection's next facilitation training workshop will be held in downtown Chicago from Thursday, January 29th through Friday, January 30th, 2009. For more information and an application form, please contact us.

Civic Reflection Texts by African-American and African Authors

Are you looking for readings by African-American and African authors for a civic reflection program? Click here for a list of recommended readings with links to the overviews from our Resource Library. Most of the overviews include links to the full texts. As always, we welcome your suggestions for additional readings.

Civic Reflection and Volunteer Leadership Development

Project on Civic Reflection director Elizabeth Lynn participated in a "Design Summit on Volunteer Leadership Development" in Atlanta on October 6-7. Co-hosted by The LEAGUE and HandsOn Network, the summit convened leaders of state and national service organizations, including the Project on Civic Reflection, Be The Change, 4-H, Outward Bound, Teach for America, and the Corporation for National and Community Service, to create a comprehensive training system for leaders in community service. The LEAGUE and HandsOn are piloting the training system in cities nationwide.

Civic Reflection at National Humanities Conference

The Federation of State Humanities Councils is making civic reflection part of its regular programming for humanities council board members. The Federation included civic reflection on the agenda of its annual gathering, the National Humanities Conference, held November 7-9 in Crystal City, VA. A session on civic reflection for board members was co-facilitated by Elizabeth Lynn and Project-trained facilitator Eleanor Dunfey-Freiburger, University Professor of Ethics and Civic Engagement at Southern New Hampshire University. The session was a popular offering with conference participants, as registration quickly filled up and attendance overflowed the two rooms. Participants discussed Stephen Vincent Benet's The Devil and Daniel Webster and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. While at the conference, Elizabeth also led a roundtable on "Finding, Training and Sustaining Facilitators for Humanities-Based Discussion." The group identified different types of public humanities programs that use facilitators, from civic reflection to community conversation to film and theater. Among the questions addressed were What makes for a good facilitator? How important is content knowledge? Is co-facilitation a good idea? What are the key components of good training? Participants also discussed the pros and cons of using internal and external facilitators, successful strategies for facilitator recruitment, and the most effective ways to offer facilitators ongoing support.

Civic Reflection at Community Investment Network Conference

The Community Investment Network (CIN) had two civic reflection offerings on the agenda of its annual conference, held in Charlotte, North Carolina in early October. Susie Quern Pratt led a civic reflection as part of the pre-conference workshop "Giving Circles 101." The discussion, she said, raised several good questions about how we give, including the role of apology and guilt in giving and our ability to connect with those to whom we give. The next day Jamila Owens of the Georgia Humanities Council facilitated a second civic reflection session, titled "A Closer Look at Why We Give." CIN is a nonprofit organization that helps individuals and organizations use strategic giving as a catalyst for social change.

Service Commission Sponsors Training Workshop



In October the Kansas Volunteer Commission included a civic reflection training workshop as part of its AmeriCorps State Fall Conference in Wichita. The training was led by Project senior research associate Adam Davis and AmeriCorps alumna and management consultant Amy Thompson. Program directors practiced the art of facilitation and learned how civic reflection can support member satisfaction and retention. Readings included texts by Gwendolyn Brooks, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes and Toni Cade Bambara. Said a participant, "I loved this workshop and feel rejuvenated and inspired to continue to serve, to refocus on why I do what I do and to remember its importance." To learn more about civic reflection training for service commissions and AmeriCorps programs, contact us.

Civic Reflection Symposium and World Café

In October the Project on Civic Reflection and the University of Chicago's Civic Knowledge Project co-hosted a special two-day symposium in Chicago. "Naming the Goods: The Case for Reflective Discourse in a Democracy" convened 16 scholars and practitioners for an exploratory conversation about the nature and purposes of reflective (as distinct from deliberative) discourse. Among the participants were Marianne Constable, Professor of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley; Chicago artist and teacher Theaster Gates; and Sarah Hirschman, founder of Gente y Cuentos. The agenda included plenary sessions, workshop discussions of papers written by participants, a civic reflection focused on the myth of Echo and Narcissus, an art reflection, and a World Café discussion on the topic "What Kind of Talk Does Our Democracy Need?" The Project on Civic Reflection will be building on conversations started by the symposium in exciting ways, so stay tuned!

Dartmouth Faculty and Staff Discuss Religion and Civic Life

The William Jewett Tucker Foundation, whose mission is to educate Dartmouth College students in citizen responsibility and ethical leadership, has co-sponsored a civic reflection program being held at the college this fall. Susan Thomas, Lutheran Campus Minister at Dartmouth, and Episcopal Campus Minister Guy Collins are co-facilitating a 6-week lunchtime series with Dartmouth faculty and staff. The program is a spin-off of the New Hampshire Humanities Council's special two-year initiative, "Shifting Ground: Religion and Civic Life in America". Topics on the Dartmouth agenda include "God in the White House," "The Gift of Life, the Right to Die" and "Religion in Public Life: What is the Right Mix?" Among the readings being used to launch conversation are The Problem of Old Harjo by John Oskison, Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, and short media articles selected by participants. In addition to the Tucker Foundation, the program is sponsored by the New Hampshire Humanities Council and Dartmouth's Lutheran and Episcopal Campus Ministries and Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity.

Civic Reflection for Social Service Providers

Civic reflection can have special value as professional development for social service providers, who must juggle many competing needs while dealing with high levels of burnout and turnover. In October participants from a range of social service organizations across Chicago gathered for two civic reflection workshops at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration in Hyde Park. Adam Davis led a half-day professional development workshop, "Social Work, Reflective Practice: An Introduction to Civic Reflection". Two weeks later Adam led a full-day facilitation training workshop with the same participants, all of whom expressed strong interest in using civic reflection with their organizations. Among the organizations represented were a substance abuse clinic, a family services center, a Salvation Army, and a start-up non-profit providing a range of human services in Peru.

Civic Reflection with City Year Chicago Staff

For the past few years, City Year Senior Corps members in Chicago have participated in civic reflection discussions through the Illinois Humanities Council's The Meaning of Service (MoS). After a former Senior Corps member joined the staff and suggested that civic reflection be offered to staff members as well, City Year Chicago decided to build the practice into its staff meetings. In October Adam Davis facilitated the first conversation in a series designed to bring together administrative and program staff, strengthening their sense of connection to one another and to their work. The opening discussion of Gwendolyn Brooks' "The Lovers of the Poor" is being followed by four additional discussions, conducted monthly.

Spotlight

Civic Reflection in Taipei

Brian MacHarg, director of the service-learning program at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL, recently conducted a series of civic reflection discussions in Taipei, Taiwan. The program was funded by Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD), which promotes democracy and human rights throughout Asia. During his trip Brian held a series of sessions with TFD staff and also met with faculty, students and staff at Southern Taiwan University, Providence University, and Fu-Jen University. He is a trained facilitator who has integrated civic reflection into Eckerd's extensive "alternative spring breaks" program.

Among the diverse set of texts used to launch the conversations were Jean Jacques Rousseau's "Reveries of the Solitary Walker", Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, two essays by George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" and "Reflections on Gandhi", and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death." The readings were well received, and discussion was lively despite language barriers and cultural differences. Brian says that he found Taiwanese citizens to be "keenly interested in talking about democracy," although they do not have many opportunities to do so. A question that came up repeatedly in discussion was To what extent can and should we speak up? Participants also were interested in the work of nongovernmental organizations or NGOs, which they regarded as significant and influential in Taiwanese society.

"It has been very interesting to lead these sessions cross-culturally with the Taiwanese people and to see how citizens of a different democracy approach civic reflection," says Brian. He hopes to continue spreading civic reflection internationally, perhaps next time to citizens of a non-democratic nation.

New on Our Website

Check out our new Training page for the latest information about our facilitation training workshops!

… in the Resource Library

A More Perfect Union by Barack Obama. In this speech from a pivotal moment in the 2008 presidential primary campaign, Barack Obama reflects on race. His speech raises questions about how leaders can encourage change, unity, and reconciliation in times of conflict. We think it would work well with Abraham Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address".

Have you come across a good reading for civic reflection lately? Please tell us about it!

… in the Facilitators' Forum

In the September issue of Civic Reflection News Update, we highlighted a new reading, Close Encounter of the Human Kind by Abraham Verghese. The essay was suggested for inclusion in our library by Dimitra Tasiouras of the Illinois Humanities Council. Since then we've received discussion summaries from two facilitators who used Verghese's article. Click here for a summary of a discussion with AmeriCorps members, and here for a facilitator's reflections on a conversation with philanthropic leaders.

Have you led a civic reflection discussion recently? Please share your experiences with us!

Reminder

A great resource for service-learning, a new edition of Talking Service, has been published by the Great Books Foundation. Co-edited by Adam Davis and Elizabeth Lynn, Talking Service is a booklet of seven short, thought-provoking readings selected to spur reflection on the experience of service. In addition to readings by Pablo Neruda, Jane Addams, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, the 28-page booklet contains author biographies, reflection exercises, and questions for discussion.