Civic Reflection News Update — July 2009

UPCOMING TRAINING

Hold the Dates!

The Project on Civic Reflection will hold its next facilitation training workshop in downtown Chicago from Thursday, September 24th–Friday, September 25th. Contact us for more information and a registration form.

Read on for a report on the May facilitation training, and learn why participants find our trainings both practical and inspiring.

NEWS & NOTES

PCR and State Humanities Councils

Recently our staff has trained facilitators for major new initiatives launched by the New Hampshire, Guam, and Montana Humanities Councils, and Elizabeth Lynn led a civic reflection discussion at a forum sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities. Learn more about how state councils are using civic reflection below.

New Hampshire Humanities Council Launches Three-Year Initiative on Immigration

The New Hampshire Humanities Council, awarded a $225,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a major three-year project on immigration in the Granite State, sponsored a PCR training of its facilitators on June 19-20. This was an extraordinarily diverse group of facilitators, including immigrants and refugees from Africa, India and the Middle East, and participants from a broad range of work backgrounds—including members of the clergy, state legislators, high school teachers, and law enforcement.

After the facilitation training, Kathy Smith, Project Director of "Fences and Neighbors," reflected on the benefits of civic reflection for participants in the initiative:

"Civic reflection discussions help us

• Develop a richer, more adequate vocabulary for communicating with one another
• Restore nuances in our lexicon that are not aired in our national discourse, which is more immediate and information-oriented than reflective and value-based
• 'Dwell' inside a story and begin to understand it and its relationship to self, other, and common life
• Name the tensions without feeling judged
• Come to the table as equals
• Practice unselfish listening—a gift we give individuals in the group
• Articulate meaningful questions that emerge from what we do
• Develop a deeper appreciation for literature's capacity to move us toward relationship."

PCR Executive Director Elizabeth Lynn, who co-led the training with NHHC associates, reported being "very impressed by this initiative and the people [they] have brought in to help facilitate it. I saw civic reflection working in a profound way with a diverse group around some very difficult issues… I am truly excited for the council and hope that we can continue to learn from each other."

The award for "Fences and Neighbors: New Hampshire's Immigration Stories" is the largest ever made by the NEH to the New Hampshire Humanities Council. According to NHHC Executive Director Deborah Watrous, "This $225,000 grant will allow us to create an initiative that will examine immigration in New Hampshire in great depth and breadth."

Guam Humanities Council Begins Initiative on Military Expansion

At the request of the Guam Humanities Council, PCR trainer Deva Woodly led a facilitation training workshop with 18 Guam Humanities Council staff and partners at the council's offices in Hagåtña on April 23-24. The Guam Humanities Council will be using civic reflection in a new initiative about the U.S. military buildup in Guam, titled "8,000, How Will It Change Our Lives?" Beginning in 2012, the U.S. military will relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam. The Guam Humanities initiative will allow citizens of Guam to examine the military expansion and its impact through community conversations and a larger conference.

Trainer Deva Woodly calls the initiative "a really exciting new application of the civic reflection model" in that it will involve taking the model out into different communities and contexts—including Mayor's Planning Councils, youth in various schools, cultural dance programs, women's programs, indigenous rights groups, and on-base with military spouses. Facilitators include professors from Guam University, members of community organizations, women involved in the provincial government, and primary school teachers. Each civic reflection series will meet weekly for six weeks.

The facilitation training workshop included discussions of texts by Franz Kafka, Constantine Cavafy, Imtiaz Dharker, Barry Lopez, and Pacific author na Brandy Nalani McDougall. Here's what participants had to say:

• I feel as if I have learned the skill of listening. I still need to work on it but am really thankful for this opportunity to reach out to my community and to grow as an individual.
• I feel armed with a valuable tool with which to build and create conversation about issues that concern community.
• I'm excited about putting what I've learned into action.
• I feel incredibly blessed to have spent time working with all the amazing people here and learning about a method that truly creates meaningful and thoughtful discussions. I am excited about conducting and bringing this method to our community.
• It was enjoyable as well as instructive. Si Yu'us ma'ase! (Means: Thank you!)

The Guam Humanities Council received a We the People grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for this initiative, which runs through February 2010.

Humanities Montana Trains Facilitators for Statewide "Reflect" Initiative

At the request of Humanities Montana, PCR led a training workshop in Missoula on April 17-18. The training prepared participants—who included representatives of Montana Conservation Corps, Montana Campus Compact, Rocky Mountain College, and other organizations—to lead discussions for a new statewide initiative, Reflect: Community Readings and Conversations. The initiative was launched in May, and communities statewide are encouraged to apply as Reflect program sponsors.

Civic Reflection with New York Council for the Humanities Board

PCR director Elizabeth Lynn traveled to Ithaca, NY in May to lead a civic reflection discussion for a "Council Forum" on the public humanities, convened by the New York Council for the Humanities. Participants in the Forum included public humanities innovators at Cornell University, Syracuse University and Ithaca College, in addition to New York Council board members. Elizabeth led this group in discussion of two poems about "walls'" in civic life—Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" and Yusef Komunyakaa's "Facing It". The two poems provoked a thoughtful conversation on the walls between academy and the public, and whether those walls divide or connect us.

May Facilitation Training in Chicago

The 26 participants in our May 28-29 facilitation training workshop included AmeriCorps program directors, representatives of Illinois Campus Compact, humanities professors, a Methodist pastor, and the co-founder and owner of Chicago's Heartland Café, among others. Here are some of their responses to the experience:

• I tend to run when someone mentions anything about "training." However, last week's Civic Reflection seminar was the exception. It was terrific. I learned quite a bit, and the staff members were great people. Plus, it was a model of making participants feel welcome and valued.
• I thought the CR discussions were great. They were not only interesting but also showed us various examples of how an effective facilitation session could be run.
• This was one of the best 2 days I've ever spent in professional activity. The integrity goes far.
• Terrific organization—instructions, food, assistance with travel—really made me feel welcome—you should do a workshop on that!
• I really learned a lot and got some excellent ideas—I'm very excited to go home and implement these ideas with my group. This is a topic I'm very passionate about and I'm really happy to have a new tool kit! I hope to keep in touch and continue to work with PCR.

Civic Reflection at Iowa AmeriCorps National Leadership Institute

The National Service Leadership Institute, an intensive two-day program for Iowa AmeriCorps members held in Indianola on May 2-3, included three civic reflection sessions. Sponsored by the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service, the National Service Leadership Institute drew 80 participants from a dozen AmeriCorps organizations throughout the state. PCR senior associate Adam Davis and trainer Tim Reed facilitated discussions of readings by Gwendolyn Brooks, Pablo Neruda, and Jane Addams, whose essay "Earliest Impressions" participants used to construct their own service autobiographies and timelines. Joseph Piearson, a second year Iowa AmeriCorps State of Promise member, wrote in a blog posting of the civic reflection sessions, "Some questions that emerged from our conversations were…How has your understanding of service changed over time? What are your earliest impressions of service? Does intention always matter when it comes to service? These discussions laid a steady foundation for our introspective look at service experiences for the rest of our time at the camp."

• Read Joseph Piearson's blog posting about the National Service Leadership Institute here.

SPOTLIGHT

Alabama Town Reflects on its Past and Future

A public forum held in Collinsville, Alabama on May 21 used documents of local history—including the World War II diary of a Collinsville resident, newspaper accounts of the fire that devastated Collinsville in 1900, and a collection of Cherokee myths—to help citizens explore the town's past and imagine its future. "Imagining Collinsville" drew together 26 citizens and community leaders, including members of the historical association, public library, and downtown redevelopment boards.

Mark Wilson, assistant director of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, explains that the Center has been engaged in a year-long partnership with the David Matthews Center for Civic Life in presenting a series of community forums designed to help Collinsville residents "develop the habit of deliberative decision making." The first three forums used the National Issues Forums model and discussion guides. For the fourth, the organizers decided to incorporate civic reflection discussions of local history. Wilson and other community leaders were introduced to civic reflection through an Auburn University webinar presented by Elizabeth Lynn in February 2009.

The documents used in "Imagining Collinsville" were chosen to reflect diverse aspects of the community's past. Among them was the diary of Charles Hall (1918-1977), the son of a prominent local family who did military service on submarines during World War II. Wilson came across the diary by chance, while exploring the state archives website. Collinsville residents learned that Hall was not only a writer but a gifted one. His diary contains both a good deal of humor and Hall's reflections on mortality and his experiences as a citizen soldier. Accounts of the 1900 fire, in whose wake only two buildings were left standing despite heroic efforts by citizen bucket brigades, "showed that a community can experience significant trauma and survive." The Cherokee myths were selected because Sequoia, who invented the Cherokee writing system, spent a good part of his life in Collinsville's county, Dekalb. Though none of Sequioia's own writings have survived, the myths acknowledged the contributions of his culture to Collinsville history.

Wilson describes the documents as providing to participants "the wonderful asset of our own story, and a window on the deeper realities and universal issues humans experience." A value of using humanities texts, he says, is that they "provide the necessary distance that people need to talk about profound and challenging issues in a non-threatening way." He believes that the practice of civic reflection tends to be "a truly democratic practice. . . leveling differences between participants and allowing for a free-flowing conversation that doesn't seem inhibited by race or class." Collinsville has experienced major demographic changes in the past decade due to the influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants to work in the textile mills, some of which have since closed. The organizers saw working together to organize an event for citizens to discover and discuss local history as a way to help create the public space necessary for the community to make decisions together.



"Imagining Collinsville" was co-sponsored by the Collinsville Public Library, the Collinsville Historical Association, the Caroline Marshall Draughton Center for the Arts & Humanities at Auburn University, and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life. While the formal collaboration that produced the program has ended, conversations are ongoing about holding a second year of public forums around an important issue requiring community action.

Start civic reflection discussions in your own community! Attend a PCR training or webinar. Contact us at civic.reflection@valpo.edu or (219) 464-6767.

RESOURCES

Civic Reflection with Congregations

Interested in doing civic reflection with your religious community? Catherine Deamant, who attended our January facilitation training, recently shared with us the curriculum she used in a civic reflection program with her covenant group at the Unitarian Church of Evanston. Read about the program here.

New in the Facilitators' Forum

• Nonprofit staff discuss Tolstoy's "Three Questions" as part of a team-building retreat designed to integrate new members.
• Neruda's "The Lamb and the Pinecone" leads a group of urban childcare providers to reflect on whether gifts are less valuable when they are given in the hope of a return.
• College students in a leadership development program use LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" to wrestle with whether the happiness of the many depends on the exploitation of a few.

New in the Resource Library

"Accountability" by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

• Are we accountable to anyone or anything? Who? What?
• What is accountability?
• What is the relationship between our principles and our actions?

"Sitting with the Dead" by William Trevor.

• Can we sacrifice too much in order to serve others?
• What are our motives for giving to or serving others? Does it matter what our motives are?
• How do we respond to those who do not want our help?

"The Buddha's Last Instruction" by Mary Oliver.

• Is humility important? How is it connected to service?
• What is good leadership?
• What should we leave behind for others when we die?

New Anthology on Faith and Service

Hearing the Call across Traditions: Readings on Faith and Service, an anthology of readings edited by PCR associate Adam Davis, with a foreword by Interfaith Youth Core founder Eboo Patel, is now available from Skylight Paths Publishing. The anthology, a co-production of the Project on Civic Reflection, the Illinois Humanities Council, and Interfaith Youth Core, explores the connections between faith, service, and social justice through the prose, verse, and sacred texts from the world's great faith traditions. Adam Davis previously co-edited The Civically Engaged Reader, published by the Great Books Foundation in 2006.

Hearing the Call across Traditions (352 pp, Hardcover, $29.99) is available from major booksellers, including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, or directly from Skylight Paths Publishing. To order by phone, call Skylight Paths at (800) 962-4544. To order by mail, download an informational flyer and order form here.

New Resource for Reflection on Philanthropy

If you are engaged in the complex work of philanthropy—as a staff member, trustee, or individual donor—there is a new resource on the web that you should know about. Wit and Wisdom: Unleashing the Philanthropic Imagination, by Mark D. Constantine, is available for free download from Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy. Wit and Wisdom is a set of interviews with nine philanthropic leaders who have worked to address issues of race, equity and poverty throughout their distinguished careers. The leaders interviewed include Ambassador James Joseph, Linetta Gilbert, Tom Wacaster, Gayle Williams, Sybil Jordan Hampton, Jack Murrah, Sherry Magill, Karl Stauber, and Lynn Huntley, with a closing essay by Emmett Carson.

In his note "To the Reader," author Mark Constantine encourages foundation staffs and boards to "read one or two of the interviews and talk together about the questions and issues that surface" and suggests just a few questions that the interviews can prompt:

• How do leaders work with complexity or "grayness" of matters as they cast and present challenges of race, equity, and/or poverty?
• How do philanthropic leaders maintain a sense of hope and optimism in the midst of such daunting, seemingly intractable, current data on these issues?
• Foundations have spent billions of dollars addressing issues of race, poverty, and equity, yet they persist. Should foundations continue to try? Why? Why not?
• What has given you your greatest sense of failure as a philanthropist?
• What has this work taught you about trusting others?

One of the interviews in Wit and Wisdom nicely captures the role of literature in "unleashing the philathropic imagination":

Literature's important if for no other reason than it give us the experience of empathy in a very profound and intimate way. It requires the reader to humble himself or herself, to learn the author's language and to listen carefully to the voice being shared. Good literature challenges people to extend their limited understanding of the world and to see the world from other perspectives. That capacity, the ability to put oneself in another person's shoe, is absolutely fundamental to becoming a moral human being… I really believe that the most authentic expression of philanthropy, love of humanity, is rooted in the capacity to acknowledge the authentic experience of the other and to respond in ways that are both respectful and thoughtful. Jack E. Murrah, The Lyndhurst Foundation

• Click here to download an interactive pdf of Wit and Wisdom.
• Click here to order a print copy.

Tell Us!

Have you found a good new resource for civic reflection? Please share it with us!