Major Milestone Reached by Inclusive Dubuque Community Dialogue Program

By Adolf G. Gundersen, Research Director

This past April, IF’s collaboration with Inclusive Dubuque (ID) reached a major milestone when responsibility for train facilitators was handed over from IF Fellows to ID after a mere four months.  This is IF’s first experience of successfully employing a “train the trainer” model.  An unexpected but welcome development, the transition resulted from ID’s clear overall purpose, ongoing program refinement, dedicated and capable staff, and rapidly accumulating experience with community dialogues.

Prior to handing over facilitation training to ID, IF Fellows Adolf Gundersen and Pete Shively had trained 20 volunteer facilitators who by the end of April had conducted 18 community dialogues involving approximately 550 participants. Each month between now and this August another 10 dialogues are planned, and although demand for the dialogues is in general increasing, special efforts are in the works to reach groups that haven’t been included in the dialogues to date.

The actual content of the dialogues is being distilled for inclusion in ID’s Community Equity Profile alongside quantitative data and expert commentary.  The Profile will be the focal point for a second round of community dialogues in 2016, which will in turn suggest ways local groups, organizations, and businesses can address the issues and concerns identified in the Profile.

You can learn more about ID, their community dialogues, and the Community Equity Profile here: http://inclusivedbq.org/