Civic Reflection News Update — August 2010

UPCOMING TRAININGS

Chicago Trainings

Our next public facilitation training workshop will be held at Columbia College Chicago from noon on Thursday, October 21 through 4:00 p.m. on Friday, October 22. Join us for two days of presentations, discussions, networking opportunities and hands-on practice in facilitating civic reflection discussions. The registration deadline is September 17th.

• Click here for more information and to register for one of our Chicago trainings.

Now Announcing: California Trainings

The Project on Civic Reflection is happy to announce that due to increasing demand, we are expanding our open-call public facilitation training workshops beyond Chicago. In early November we will hold two workshops in northern California. On November 2-3 we will offer a two-day training hosted by Cal Corps Public Service Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and on November 3-4 we'll lead another two-day training at the California Campus Compact offices in San Francisco.

Participants receive hands-on facilitation skills taught by expert trainers, a facilitation handbook with tips and answers to frequently asked questions, a copy of The Civically Engaged Reader, and program consultation and ongoing support.

• Click here for more information and to register for one of our California trainings.

SPOTLIGHT

No longer merely repositories of books and information, libraries are increasingly hubs of civic engagement and "community living rooms"—places where people come together to discuss issues affecting their communities and the world. In the Riverside County Library System (RCLS) in California, civic reflection has been playing a part in the evolution of the 21st-century library.

In the fall of 2009, the Project on Civic Reflection led a facilitation training for Riverside County librarians on behalf of the California Council for the Humanities. The training, led by PCR associate Ryan Lewis, prepared the librarians to participate in a new council initiative, Making a Difference (MAD), funded by the California State Library. MAD provides library staff with training in facilitating civic dialogues and with resources for offering theme-based programs. The MAD pilot launched in late 2009 and ran through June 2010. Branch librarians chose the material for discussion and developed their own public programs on civic engagement, focused on issues of community concern. For many, actually leading a program—as opposed to providing space and introducing featured speakers—was a challenging and rewarding new role. Noted one participant after the training, "My fear was a 10 (10 being sheer panic) at the beginning and now it's the opposite. I KNOW I can do this."

"From the beginning," said RCLS head administrator Mark Smith, "we recognized that this project had the potential to have a transformative effect on our staff. In particular, we hoped that our staff would develop the ability to see their libraries and themselves differently, that they would come to regard the library as a meeting place and a crossroads for the community." Evaluations of the pilot suggest that these hopes were realized. Participants identified several key outcomes, among them the expansion of existing partnerships and the development of new ones, bringing new patrons and audiences to the library, forging closer relationships with civic and political leaders, attracting new volunteers, and strengthening professional relationships with others in the Riverside County Library System. Some branch libraries offered intergenerational programming and forged new partnerships with schools. Among respondents, 100% said they had formed new partnerships, and 83% reported having deepened existing ones. In a closing debrief, pilot participants concluded that civic reflection had worked to attract and engage patrons, with the library resources and with one another.

Says California Council for the Humanities Director of Programs Vanessa Whang, "We are heartened by the results of this program and the librarians' embrace of becoming catalysts for civic dialogue. . . We plan to expand the program and are delighted to have the Project on Civic Reflection and the Riverside County Library System as partners." Added CCH's Senior Programs Manager, Felicia Kelley, "Civic reflection proved to be a wonderful addition to the professional 'tool box' of the Riverside librarians, and will be of great value as they continue to develop and practice their skills in dialogue facilitation during the next phase of the project."

• Read an article on the MAD program in the California Council for the Humanities newsletter.

NEWS & NOTES

Prince Charitable Trusts Funds Planning Grant for CR with Palliative Care Providers

The Project on Civic Reflection has received a generous grant from Prince Charitable Trusts to develop an implementation plan for reflective reading and discussion in Chicago hospice and palliative care programs, building on the successful Reflective Reading series now in place in the Palliative Care Program of John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Illinois.

Stroger Hospital, which is the central public hospital serving Chicago, launched its Reflective Reading series in 2007. The series provides a monthly opportunity for team members of the Palliative Care Program to engage in significant reflective conversation with one another about the meaning of their work, based on member-led discussions of short, thought-provoking pieces of literature. A recent evaluation of the series, conducted by the Project on Civic Reflection at the request of Stroger's Hektoen Institute of Medicine, found that Reflective Reading has had a positive impact on the job satisfaction of the Palliative Care Program staff, and that it has enhanced their ability to work effectively both with one another and with the patients they serve. In the words of one participant, "It [Reflective Reading] makes me think, and I become more creative in what I have to do. When I read [Whitman's Specimen Days] and went to go see a patient—what I took to it was being more present for a patient than if I hadn't read the story that day." Observes another, "You know, I'm at the stage of life when I'm preceptor for everyone. I don't have anyone playing that role for me. In Reflective Reading, I've found teachers in the group. My nurse practitioner is my teacher, and medical residents in the session, I learn from them too…Everyone is on an equal plane. That is very satisfying to me."

The planning grant will enable the Project on Civic Reflection, in collaboration with Stroger Hospital, to explore extending this satisfying and creative activity to other area hospice and palliative care programs, in order to support and sustain the dedicated care-givers who staff them.

Land Ethic Leaders Training at Aldo Leopold Foundation

On June 17-18, the Aldo Leopold Foundation conducted their first Land Ethic Leaders Training Workshop, adapting the practice of civic reflection for a training on promoting environmental awareness and protection. Participants included teachers, scholars, writers, staff from the Department of Natural Resources, and other individuals dedicated to protecting the land and upholding the values of Aldo Leopold. PCR's Kelli Covey attended the training as a participant and consultant to the project, and she had rave reviews for ALF's effort: "I was amazed at their ability to seamlessly integrate civic reflection discussions into the goals of environmental preservation, and to give their group some solid skills that will deepen their efforts and promote community outreach." ALF will hold another training for a new group in September, and they have set up a website to support Land Ethic Leaders and report their progress.

• Learn more about Land Ethic Leaders or request an application.

Ohio Community Service Council Sponsors Training for Justice Talking Leaders

For several years, the state of Ohio has demonstrated a strong commitment to civic reflection. Today, every AmeriCorps member in Ohio must participate in civic reflection discussions through the Justice Talking program. On August 5-6, the Ohio Community Service Council (OCSC) sponsored a facilitation training workshop, led by the Project on Civic Reflection and organized by the Ohio Humanities Council, to support the continued growth of Justice Talking with AmeriCorps members in Ohio. The training, many of whose participants were Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) directors, was co-led by Adam Davis and Tonya Matthews, Vice President for Museums at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Two new Ohio-based trainers were trained at the workshop to build capacity for further expansion. Justice Talking is required professional development for every AmeriCorps member in the state and previously has been rolled out to several OCSC constituents, including VISTA, Learn and Serve, and Senior Corps. At PCR, we are excited to see the practice of civic reflection continue thriving in Ohio and spreading to new programs.

National Meaning of Service Workshop

In partnership with the Illinois Humanities Council, Adam Davis and Ryan Lewis co-led the Meaning of Service (MoS) National Workshop at Columbia College Chicago on August 2-3. The workshop gave leaders of MoS, a nationwide civic reflection program for AmeriCorps members and other service volunteers, the opportunity to network, exchange ideas, review evaluation data from past programs, and plan their MoS programs for the coming year. Among the participants were representatives of state humanities councils and service commissions, AmeriCorps program and site directors, and university service-learning staff from four states—Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi and Montana. Said IHC Director of Programs & Partnerships Dimitra Tasiouras, "The workshop, which involved civic reflection time as well as focused planning time, really helped the participants get started on developing and implementing the Meaning of Service in their states. So many people made a point of telling us how inspiring and energizing they found our time together." When not at the workshop, participants enjoyed relaxed conversation at one of the nearby cafés and restaurants personally vetted by IHC staff.

The Illinois Humanities Council is the recipient of a three-year, $350,000 Special Project Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for nationwide development of its Meaning of Service program.

Civic Reflection at Urban Education Institute Conference

At the Urban Education Institute Practitioners' Conference, held at the University of Chicago in May, Kelli Covey introduced the practice and benefits of civic reflection in a session on "Using Civic Reflection to Sustain Healthy Morale." Participants discussed civic reflection as a means of deepening commitment and building morale among teachers, school social workers, and other educators who face enormous need for their skills, but an increasingly challenging educational environment. Alissa Catiis, a recently trained PCR facilitator and a school social worker, joined Kelli in leading a civic reflection discussion of Jan Beatty's poem "Saving the Crippled Boy". Participants explored questions having to do with making connections, making change, and helping others. Participants included staff from the Urban School Improvement Network, part of the Urban Education Institute's effort to support urban schools and provide learning, coaching and support for teachers.

Rhode Island Civic Education Summer Institute

The 2010 Rhode Island Civic Education Summer Institute, held June 29-30 in Warwick, RI, included an extended workshop on civic reflection. This year's theme was "Engaging Youth in the Civic Mission of Schools." The Institute, which provides professional development for high school teachers, was co-sponsored by the Rhode Island Commission on Civic Education, the Rhode Island Department of Education, and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. On June 30 Adam Davis led "Live Readings, Fresh Response!—an Introduction to Civic Reflection," a workshop on using civic reflection with students and among teachers. Participants read Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B" and explored ways of creating dialogue across differences.

New Partnership—Public Conversations Project

The Public Conversations Project (PCP) trains facilitators to lead structured dialogues on difficult issues. In May, Kelli Covey attended a three-day PCP training in Washington, DC on The Power of Dialogue: Constructive Conversations on Divisive Issues. The sample dialogue for this workshop, which was designed and led by participants, focused on inclusion—specifically, on a church that was struggling with whether to be a "welcoming congregation" to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered members. Kelli says the training gave her new insights into other dialogue methods that can be used to address specific social issues. She is looking forward to integrating what she learned into PCR's work and to future collaboration with the Public Conversations Project. PCP has a great library of free resources on planning and facilitating public dialogue, so check it out to learn more.

On Idealism and Realism in Service

In this article from the Project YES newsletter, AmeriCorps member Nathan Hopkins reflects on how his motives and goals evolved during his service year, from "grand social and political ideals" to an appreciation of more modest achievements. Hopkins quotes Brecht's poem "A Bed for the Night," a text that has launched many civic reflection discussions on the relationship between large-scale social change and small acts of charity. We were struck by his reading of the poem's implications for service: "Brecht knew that an idealism which fails to appreciate the actual—even in its most humble presentations—is only a thinly veiled nihilism. This kind of outlook is, I think, essential for an ethic of service: for, while it would be naive to neglect the political, refusing the daily nourishment of small successes can emaciate one's passion for service. A garden tended, a child taught, a bed for the night: this is not the work of revolution, but it is the heart of service."

Civic Reflection and Empathy

Study Shows Empathy Declining Among College Students

Recently the AmeriCorps group in Michigan that attended our training last year posted this article from the Detroit Free Press on their civic reflection blog. It reports a University of Michigan study that found compassion on the decline among college students, with much of the drop occurring since 2000. A junior at UM who took part in the study says, "It's a lot more difficult to connect with other people. We're using all these types of technology that we depend on so much, but we don't have the opportunity to have a 'real conversation.'" By providing time and space for just such "real conversations," might civic reflection help to reverse this trend? See below for another perspective on the development of empathy

Philosophy Prof Argues that Reading Literature Builds Empathy

In his accessible and engaging short book Thinking of Others: On the Talent for Metaphor, University of Chicago philosophy professor Ted Cohen argues that the ability to imagine oneself as others—including characters in fiction—is a special form of metaphor, one essential to the development of morality and empathy. Cohen claims that we imaginatively identify with literary characters much as we do with real people, and he explores various occasions in everyday life when we identify with others—from our favorite sports teams to our future selves. When such attempts at understanding fail, he says, we should cultivate the kind of nuanced appreciation of other people that we bring to art: "Perhaps the triumphal assumption that we can easily understand one another is as sinful as the refusal to attempt any human understanding at all, and that would mean that our obligation is to try grasping one another in the full realization that it cannot be done with complete success." This, it seems to us, is what civic reflection discussions do at their best: to foster a richer appreciation of the others in the room, in all their complexity—challenging us to move beyond both our resistance to understanding other ways of being and points of view, and our assumption that we already understand them.

• Read a sample chapter of Cohen's book in pdf format.

NEW RESOURCES

People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos

Quietly but brilliantly, a new book on the uses of literature-based discussion in community settings has arrived on the scene. In People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos, Sarah Hirschman tells the story of the program she began in 1972, leading discussion of Spanish-language short stories with Spanish-speaking residents in a low-income housing project in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the root of this activity, Hirschman writes, are two kinds of trust: "Trust in the power of literature to open up to different readings, and trust in the ability of persons to draw on their life experiences to enter the world of fiction." Hirschman's act of trust paid off handsomely: the program Gente y Cuentos/People and Stories/Gens et Récits is active today on three continents and in three languages—and with the publication of her little book, the program model is now available too, for anyone who wants to start their own discussions.

• Order Gente y Cuentos from Amazon.

New Spanish Translations of Robert Frost

We've been getting requests for civic reflection materials in Spanish, and recently a wonderful opportunity presented itself. Award-winning poet and translator Rhina P. Espaillat, two of whose poems are featured in our Resource Library, has been translating the poems of Robert Frost into Spanish. Born in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, Espaillat emigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was seven years old. A public school teacher in New York City for many years, she writes poems both in English and Spanish. About being a poet who belongs to two cultures, she says:

I've been granted the difficult pleasure of translating the works of Frost into Spanish, and translating into English the works of Saint John of the Cross and various other Spanish and Latin American poets. The ability to do so is one of the debts I owe to my parents, who loved books and were proud of their own culture. They insisted that I retain my first language, and that has permitted me to move easily from one part of my life and my being to the other, and also to offer each of my two "families" the literary fruits of the other.

• "Mending Wall" in Spanish, translated by Rhina P. Espaillat.
• "Death of the Hired Man" in Spanish, translated by Rhina P. Espaillat.
• Interview with Rhina P. Espaillat in Per Contra magazine.

By generous permission of the author, the Frost translations are available in pdf format on the Sample Materials page of our website. See "The Spanish List."

New in the Resource Library

"Gate A-4" by Naomi Shihab Nye

• How do we respond to strangers?
• How do we overcome prejudice and fear?
• What conditions must exist in order for us to feel safe with each other?

"Genus Narcissus" by Natasha Trethewey

• What are our motives for giving to or serving others? Does it matter what our motives are?
• What do I expect to feel when I give?
• What does parenting have to do with giving?

Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder (excerpt) by Kent Nerburn

• How do we lead in situations of threat, danger, and insecurity?
• What is good leadership?
• Who should lead, and why?

We're grateful to facilitator Chris Love for recommending Nerburn's book and Nye's poem, and to poet A.E. Stallings for drawing our attention to Trethewey's poem. If you've come across a new reading or visual text for civic reflection, please share your suggestion with us—we'd love to hear from you.

New in the Facilitators' Forum

• Youth service volunteers use Dorothy Parker's short story "Song of the Shirt, 1941" to talk about the challenges of doing service work they don't enjoy.
• Jan Beatty's poem "Saving the Crippled Boy" leads a group of primary and secondary school teachers to probe the sometimes painful gap between intentions or motivations and outcomes in service.
• A group of scholars use two poems, Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" and Yusef Komunyakaa's "Facing It," to discuss the role of walls—literal and metaphorical—in civic life.

Coming Soon! PCR Blog

We soon will be launching a civic reflection blog. Watch this space and our website for details! We look forward to sharing our thoughts and hearing yours.