Civic Reflection News Update — July 2007

New Website

Visit the New Project on Civic Reflection Website at civicreflection.org!

We are pleased to announce that with the help of our talented web design team at Portland Webworks, we have redeveloped our website with new content and graphics. The redesigned site is intended to make the concept of civic reflection and the work of the Project more accessible to new visitors. But never fear, we have retained the Resource Library, Facilitators' Forum, and other features popular with experienced users. We invite you to stop by and browse the new site at civicreflection.org, and to share your feedback with us!

Note: If the site does not display correctly, please click the Refresh button on your browser.

New in the Resource Library

The Resource Library is an extensive collection of questions and readings designed to spur reflection on civic activity. Following are recent additions to the library along with a few questions they raise.

"Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action" by the Evangelical Climate Initiative

• How should people of faith relate to poverty and the impoverished?
• What do we mean by stewardship?
• Can bad deeds be redeemed by good ones?

"Three Questions" by Leo Tolstoy

• How do we respond to strangers?
• What is the value of work, for oneself and for others?
• Why should I love my neighbor?

"Second Inaugural Address" by Abraham Lincoln

• What is compassion? What is its source and how does it influence our actions?
• How can a leader speak in a way that fosters unity?
• What makes forgiveness possible?

New in the Facilitators' Forum

The Facilitators' Forum provides an opportunity for leaders of civic reflection conversations to share their experiences and insights. Recent submissions include:

"Fellowship" by Franz Kafka. Kafka's parable helped a diverse group of social change activists to explore the nature and effect of class differences.

"Saving the Crippled Boy" by Jan Beatty. AmeriCorps members drew connections between Beatty's provocative poem and the challenges and complexities of their own service.

"Politics" by Aristotle. A group of senior citizens used an excerpt from Aristotle to exchange views on human nature and the nature of democracy.

New Seed Grants

In June the Project on Civic Reflection awarded eight new seed grants, described below. The new programs will take place in eight states, affirming the growing reach of the Project and growing interest in the practice.

New Hampshire Legislators to Reflect on Religion and Civic Life

The New Hampshire Humanities Council will convene members of both houses of the New Hampshire legislature for six weekly civic reflection conversations as part of the NHHC's two-year initiative, "Shifting Ground: Religion & Civic Life in America." Guided by co-facilitators who complement each other politically and religiously, legislators will discuss a diverse set of readings on the relationship between religion and civic life. Of special interest to program organizers is how the "willing suspension of disbelief" that people generally adopt in the reading of a piece of fiction or a poem translates into "real life" understanding of and decisions about public policy issues.

Ohio Social Service Groups Use Civic Reflection in New Partnership

A 60-year-old social service agency in Cincinnati, Bridges for a Just Community, will affiliate in September 2007 with Public Allies Cincinnati, a nine-year-old AmeriCorps program with over 200 alumni. During the organizations' first year of partnership, AmeriCorps alumni from Public Allies Cincinnati will join experienced community volunteers from Bridges for a Just Community in a pilot civic reflection program, "Considering Yourself and Your City." In a series of monthly dinner gatherings, participants will use short readings, some from The Civically Engaged Reader, to discuss the value and challenges of service and the role of leaders. The program will allow Public Allies Cincinnati to continue some of the conversations that they began during their year of service and act as a demonstration project for other Public Allies sites.

Civic Reflection to Enrich Spring Break Service-Learning in Florida

In Spring 2008, the Office of Service-Learning at Eckerd College will launch a series of civic reflection discussions with students participating in a spring break service-learning experience at one of 11 locations throughout the United States and abroad. While spring break service has been a growing program at the college, it has lacked intentional reflection and a standard set of readings. Student participants in the series, "Civic Reflection and Intensive Service-Learning Experiences," will meet before, during, and after the spring break week to share a meal and reflect on readings by Jane Addams, Franz Kafka, Gwendolyn Brooks and others, as they explore issues of community-building, values, and social responsibility.

Chicago Service Agency to Reflect on Cultural Heritage and Health

Erie Neighborhood House, a Chicago community service agency founded in 1870 in the settlement house tradition, works to empower low-income, primarily Latino families through a range of educational programs and social services. During the coming year, Erie House will use civic reflection as a staff development tool with sixteen employees charged with supporting individual and organizational initiatives for better health. Drawing upon essays, poetry and fiction by Octavio Paz, Luis Rodriguez, and Ana Castillo, participants will meet six times over three months to discuss the relationship between cultural heritage and health.

Health and Human Services College in Kentucky Explores Service

During the 2007-08 academic year, faculty, staff, students and administrators of the College of Health and Human Services at Western Kentucky University will be invited to participate in a series of "Community Conversations" about service. The conversations will allow members of the College to talk with one another about the fundamental values behind their civic activities and to develop a deeper understanding of their service, both to WKU and to the greater community. Among the questions they will explore are, What motivates us to serve? What challenges do we face in serving? What sustains us?

Newark, NJ High School Students Discuss Philanthropy and Leadership

The LEAGUE is a new organization dedicated to engaging youth in service to their communities by means of a sports-themed system. In the coming year, The LEAGUE will run a pilot civic reflection program in a Newark, NJ high school. Twenty student "captains," mentored by a teacher "coach," will participate in a civic reflection meeting prior to each service event during the school year. Organizers hope that deep thinking and dialogue around topics of civic efficacy and responsibility will add a vital component to the students' leadership development and help to foster a life-long commitment to civic engagement and service.



Civic Reflection and Service-Learning in Vermont

Participants in the Norwich University Service-Learning Program will meet every other week during the 2007-08 academic year to discuss readings on service from The Civically Engaged Reader. Throughout the year participants will keep reflection journals. A trained civic reflection facilitator and participant volunteers will lead the conversations, which are designed to bring together participants in the NUSL Program around its core vision: to be the common thread that connects academic, student, and community life.

AmeriCorps Members at Indiana United Way Discuss Service

The United Way of Porter County will hold a civic reflection series with AmeriCorps members and their site supervisors in Valparaiso, Indiana. Joined by volunteer coordinators for the Lake and LaPorte County United Ways, the AmeriCorps participants will discuss readings from The Civically Engaged Reader that raise questions about service and responsibility. Program organizers hope that the series will promote greater tolerance for diversity, deeper self-understanding, and a richer sense of what motivates people to serve and volunteer in their communities.

Next deadline for civic reflection seed grant applications: October 1, 2007

Program Spotlight

Chicago Nonprofit Board Reflects on Leadership

This year Family Matters, a 20-year-old community service organization in Chicago's North of Howard neighborhood, has been using civic reflection to build connections and community among its board of directors. Funded by a seed grant from the Project on Civic Reflection, their conversations have centered on Family Matters' "Principles of Leadership." Among these principles are resolving conflicts peacefully and respectfully, using positive thought and language, and taking responsibility for choices and consequences. The three facilitators participated in the Project on Civic Reflection's January facilitation training in Chicago.

Family Matters' board is unusually diverse in race, economic and social background, life experiences, and age. Dr. Cotton Fite, a director in his 60s, recently co-facilitated a lively discussion of Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B" with 15-year-old Anthony Patterson, one of four teens on the board. Fite says, "I was impressed with Anthony's poise and ability to ask questions, and the adults on the board reacted very positively to him." He observes that Anthony's leadership seems to have encouraged the other teens, who participate more actively in meetings than in the past.

Fite believes that the series has fostered a higher level of trust among board members and a recommitment to Family Matters' core values: "Civic reflection has helped us talk more openly and frame the issues in a way we hadn't been able to do before." The challenge, he notes, will be to maintain and deepen the changes that have begun taking shape. A follow-up conversation on some of the profound and difficult questions raised by Hughes' poem will be held at the end of the summer.

Project News & Notes

Project Director Elizabeth Lynn led a two-day summer seminar at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta on "The Humanities and Civic Engagement." The seminar brought together Oglethorpe faculty with staff from the University's new Center for Civic Engagement to explore civic reflection as a key role for the humanities in the current movement to foster civic engagement. "Fantastic!" commented one participant afterward. "The texts were so useful in framing the discussion. We also walked out, I believe, with a sense of purpose. This does not, of course, mean that we have an answer, but rather we are less anxious about asking questions." Wrote another, "I am thinking about where readings and discussions of civic engagement can fit into my curriculum and courses. I am more inspired to participate and encourage others in service."

In May, Project staff member Adam Davis gave a talk and led a seminar in Berlin. His lecture, part of the annual State of the World Week at the European College of Liberal Arts, was titled "Work and Talk."

The Project on Civic Reflection is partnering with Chicago Public Schools and the Great Books Foundation to pilot a civic reflection program for service learning in Chicago high schools. Five high schools will participate in the pilot in the coming year, using a new Great Books Foundation booklet, "Talking Service: Readings for Civic Reflection," edited by Elizabeth Lynn and Adam Davis. Project staff will train the teachers and provide web and other support for the pilot. For more information, click here.

State humanities councils are turning to the Project on Civic Reflection to train facilitators for conversation programs. Project staff led facilitation trainings for the New Hampshire and Maryland councils this spring. Both councils are sponsoring statewide community conversations around a particular theme, in New Hampshire "Religion and Civic Life" and in Maryland "Martin Luther King, Jr.: Remembrance and Reconciliation." Deborah Watrous, Executive Director of the New Hampshire council, wrote after the facilitation training there, "I am astonished by how much ground we covered, including the ground that ultimately shifted at the end! Your structure allowed almost everyone to facilitate a small group, and the debriefings were very helpful. What a wonderful team you are!"

For further information on these workshops, or if you are interested in bringing civic reflection to your own state or organization, please contact our staff at (219) 464-6767, or at civic.reflection@valpo.edu.

Staff News & Notes

The Project on Civic Reflection congratulates Adam Davis and his wife, Hana Layson, on a new addition to the family. Their son Jacob's baby sister, Sasha, was born on July 8. Our best wishes to Adam, Hana and Jacob!