Civic Reflection News Update — September 2006

Project News and Notes

The Civically Engaged Reader, edited by Elizabeth Lynn and Adam Davis, published by the Great Books Foundation, is now available!

Designed for service and volunteer groups, as well as for the classroom and the individual reader, The Civically Engaged Reader is a "ready-to-go" resource featuring:

• More than 40 provocative readings by a diverse group of authors ranging from Aristotle to Eggers, Maimonides to Morrison.
• Introductory essays on associating, serving, giving, and leading.
• Discussion questions and tips to help groups read the texts and reflect on their civic activity.

Civic Reflection Facilitation Workshop

The Project on Civic Reflection joined with the Maine Humanities Council in August to offer a special civic reflection workshop at the beautiful Stone House in Freeport, Maine. The workshop brought together 28 talented facilitators from Maine and seven other states to focus intensively on the art of leading text-based discussions with civic groups and organizations. Attendees participated in large group discussions, practiced planning and leading conversations in pairs with small groups of colleagues, and examined key challenges and benefits of civic reflection. "A superb, stimulating experience that will be one of the highlights of my summer," one participant noted afterward. "I learned many things that can be applied in many arenas, and am looking forward to the next meeting I chair and the next discussion I lead." A civic reflection facilitation workshop is scheduled for Chicago in early January 2007. Watch this space for updates.

New on Civicreflection.org

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.

"Salvation" by Langston Hughes

How should we care for others?

What do I expect from those to whom I give?

"For Women Only," by Margaret Craven

When do we become leaders?

How should leaders be held accountable?

"the greedy the people," by e. e. cummings

Why give? Why serve? Do our motives matter?

Is dutiful giving satisfying?

…in the Facilitators' Forum

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

Twelve Angry Men. A group of civic leaders explored questions of leadership raised in the 1957 film and in their own lives and community.

"A Work of Art," by Sylvia Townsend Warner. A group of grantmakers talked about the motivations of Mrs. Bernstein and Miss MacTavish, the main characters in Warner's short story about one small philanthropic enterprise, and explored their own values in the process.

"Song of the Shirt," by Dorothy Parker. Parker's story gave this group of VISTA volunteers an opportunity to explore questions about duty and sacrifice in the context of their volunteer service.

Spotlight on a Civic Reflection Program

Women's Theological Center

Boston, MA

In a series of five conversations held between November 2005 and March 2006, twenty staff members and partners of Women's Theological Center in Boston reflected on the meaning of "Beloved Community," the term popularized by Martin Luther King for a global vision of redemption and reconciliation through non-violence. Participants in the Women's Theological Center project, titled In Search of Beloved Community , worked toward a deeper understanding of their common mission—to create a world that honors differences and bridges divides. Among the readings that the group discussed were poems and essays by Coretta Scott King, Mab Segrest, Hazrat Inayat Khan, and Malidoma Somé. According to WTC co-directors Marian (Meck) Groot and Donna Bivens, the readings provided the foundation, or spark, for deep and rich conversations.

Meck Groot notes that the group was extremely diverse in race and ethnicity, age, socio-economic class, religion, sexual orientation, and life work. Members' varied perspectives and experiences represented both a challenge and an opportunity for the program. In the course of the conversations, says Groot, "there were many expressions of overt grief, anger, pain, joy—which were not always easy to sit with together. And yet, we did sit with it together. All of it." She attributes the program's success to the participants' willingness both to share their own perspectives on the readings and the often controversial issues that arose from them, and to be open to the differing views of others. "It has been a profound gift to us all," she adds, "that not only did we get to talk about beloved community, we got to have it." Participants have expressed enthusiasm for regularly including civic reflection in future programs, both of Women's Theological Center and its affinity groups. Says Groot, "We hope to be able to 'spread' the learning and incorporate the practice into everything we do."

Staff News and Notes

Elizabeth Lynn led a civic reflection session at a meeting of the board of the Federation of State Humanities Councils in July. The group discussed the short story "The Wife of His Youth" by Charles Wadell Chesnutt, now available in the anthology, The Civically Engaged Reader.

Mary Kennedy began her pre-doctoral internship in clinical psychology at Southlake Center for Mental Health in Merrillville, Indiana this month. We owe Mary a debt of gratitude, both for her collegiality and for her leadership in developing the civicreflection.org website, this newsletter, our early Guide to Civic Reflection, and so much more. We wish her well in her new vocation but are happy to report that she will continue to serve the Project as a Senior Associate, assisting us as we develop civic reflection resources for groups of social service providers.

Adam Davis spent four weeks in July at Indiana University's Bradford Woods campus leading the Camp of Dreams summer program. Adam is the executive director for Camp of Dreams, a year-round nonprofit organization that serves under-resourced youth in Chicago.

Doretta Kurzinski became a grandmother when her daughter Leslie and son-in-law Hank had a beautiful baby boy, Edward Allen, in June. Edward insists on being granted his full dignity and will not answer to Eddie.

Catherine Tufariello will begin a new position as Associate Director of Communications for the Project in mid-September. In addition to managing the Small Grants Program, she will work on the newsletter, Facilitators' Forum, Resource Library, and other public relations projects.

Cynthia Rutz began a new position as Director of the Teaching Resource Center at Valparaiso University in August. We are delighted that she will continue to lead the work of revising and updating the online Resource Library at civicreflection.org.