Prior Projects in Partnership with Other Organizations

Beginning in January 2019, we have partnered with the DC Public Library, the District’s Department of Aging and Community Living, Iona Senior Services, and Around Town DC in conducting several series of community conversations at different DC Public Library locations.

Starting in the fall of 2018, we partnered with Enciv, Inc., Ballotpedia, the McCormick Foundation, and City Bureau to engage with over 100 Chicago residents in developing questions for a candidate survey for the 2019 Chicago Municipal election.

In the fall of 2019, in partnership with Howard University, we were awarded a HumanitiesDC VisionGrant, to facilitate a series of small-group conversations with D.C. residents about the city’s cultural history and explore how aggressive development and changes in emerging communication technologies impact racial divides among residents.

In the summer of 2019, we partnered with the High Rocks Academy in West Virginia to offer a pilot program in Collaborative Discussion. We worked with High Rocks instructors to create a new summer camp track focused on collaborative discussions skills.

In 2015-2016, we partnered with the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque to assist in training community volunteers to conduct approximately 60 community conversations with over 600 residents in Dubuque around race and inclusivity as part of a larger community-wide network and initiative that is ongoing.

In 2017-2018, we partnered with the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide advice and coaching to government and NGO staff on public engagement strategies developed by local teams.

• A pair of of discussions with K-12 educators on eviction and housing instability that were used to develop an online discussion guide for educators.
• A summer educational staff workshop training for using exploratory discussion techniques.
• A pair of community conversations for small group exploratory discussions on the eviction exhibition.

In partnership with the University of Wisconsin Extension in 2014-15, we developed and led a training module for participants in a statewide leadership training program on facilitating exploratory community discussions and provided individual, follow-up coaching and support to participants in organizing and facilitating discussions in their home communities.

In 2016-17, we worked the T.B. Scott Free Library in Merrill, WI and the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy & Service (WIPPS) to design and implement a pilot community discussion program that would be relevant to this rural community. We led and facilitated 2 pilot discussion sessions in the fall of 2016 and a separate session in 2017 to train community members to facilitate community conversations.