Growing Civity

July 2022

Growing Civity

Greetings, friends!

As always, it’s been a busy few months since we last reached out!

We are hitting our stride with the two new Civity initiatives we introduced in our last newsletter:

Supporting communities around the country addressing climate change and economic transition away from fossil fuel reliance; and

Supporting communities in California facing the urgent need for more – and more affordable – housing.

We have been connecting with local community leaders, offering Civity “Tastes,” and gearing up to begin Train-the-Leader workshops and coaching. It’s inspiring to discover and support people around the country who are already deep in this work.

When people in communities sit down together to tackle important problems, strengthening and building relationships is essential – particularly relationships with people who are often left out. See Palma’s article on “the conversation before the conversation,” which spotlights how a relational foundation makes progress on community challenges possible.

We are proud to announce that Civity is part of the Strengthening Democracy Challenge! Organized by a multidisciplinary team of social scientists from Stanford University, MIT, Northwestern University, and Columbia University, the Challenge seeks to identify short, scalable interventions to reduce support for partisan violence, anti-democratic attitudes, and partisan animosity among Americans. Civity’s intervention – a series of video interviews replicating one-on-one conversations – was one of 25 chosen by a panel of experts from a pool of more than 250. We are excited to be part of the next stage of the challenge: testing the 25 interventions with a pool of randomly-selected participants.

Civity is growing! We are very pleased to welcome new additions to our Civity family: Vanesa Acevedo, our new communications assistant, joins us from Chile. Tamera White, our new trainer/facilitator, is assisting us with the climate change and affordable housing projects. And Megan Foreman, our summer research intern, is helping expand our ability to support our current and future Civity Leaders. Learn more about them on our website.

Finally, we are sorry to say goodbye to Reba Hsu, who left us after several wonderful years for her next career – caring for hospice patients. Reba, we wish you the best and thank you so much for all you contributed to Civity!

-Malka and Palma

The 'Conversation Before the Conversation'

By Palma Strand

We live in a world of urgent and potentially existential challenges. There is a crisis-level lack of housing. Democracy is under siege. The effects of climate change are upon us.

At Civity we often describe the work we do as helping people have “the conversation before the conversation.”

The conversation before the conversation about how to make sure that people have places to live.

The conversation before the conversation about how we can work through our differences and live together.

The conversation before the conversation about building an economy that sustains the world we live in.

This “conversation before the conversation” is what brings us into relationship with one another, with other members of the communities we live in – people we do not know and we may see as different from us.

The truth is, we can only make progress if we can work together.

Organizations Doing Civity: Table Talks

By Gina Baleria

We at Civity like to spotlight the work of other organizations engaging in acts of civity, and encourage you to take part!

Starting July 19, The Stanford Center on Deliberative Democracy and the Table Talks Project begin a two-week pilot project to bring people together and make connections across policy differences surrounding climate and energy.

During a Table Talk, you can connect with others who may be different from you in one or more ways, often with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Once you share stories and see your partner, you can explore and discuss ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing renewable energy use.

“It’s so easy to feel paralyzed by the complexity of climate and energy policy issues,” says Zabrae Valentine, Table Talks Project Lead. “This is a way to learn the facts with and from others you’d never otherwise have a chance to meet, much less share a fantastic conversation with. It’s a great way to be empowered to propel meaningful change, on your own terms.”

By taking part in this pilot, which runs from July 19-31, you can help Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy test and refine this process to ensure that it is engaging, empowering, and accessible.

Civity Podcasts

The This Is Civity podcast features people who are building relationships to dismantle inequities and strengthen communities grounded in respect and empathy. In recent months, we've interviewed people working to build civity by bridging divides, grappling with issues in communities, and helping people see each other. Thank you for listening!

Transformative DEI Work is All About Relationships, with Dr. Jacqueline Font-Guzmán

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Jacqueline Font-Guzmán, vice president for diversity, equity, & inclusion at Eastern Mennonite University; and strategic vision director for the Center of Justice & Peace Building at EMU.

Civity has been privileged to support EMU on its Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) journey with workshops for the President and her Cabinet and the Board of Trustees.

Together, we explore how to make DEI work transformative, including the importance of making it relational, and building trust and partnership among groups in a community to forge strong connections.

Listen

Learning to Listen in Different Ways, with Graham Bodie

In this episode, we welcome Graham Bodie, professor of integrated marketing communication at the University of Mississippi, and chief listening officer with the Listen First Project.

As with Civity, the Listen First Project supports the creation of bridging relationships - focusing its efforts on elevating the impact, visibility, and voice of organizations doing bridging work.

We explore how Listen First brings bridging organizations together and works to bring more people to the experience of connecting across differences. We also discuss the act of listening itself, the importance of learning how to listen, and what listening looks like in different contexts.

Listen

Civity & the News: Transforming News Creation & Consumption

In a recent Washington Post article (links to paid content), writer Amanda Ripley highlighted the importance of stories of hope, agency, and dignity even as we face serious public challenges.

"There is a way to communicate news — including very bad news — that leaves us better off as a result," Ripley writes. "A way to spark anger and action. Empathy alongside dignity. Hope alongside fear."

The Civity story is a story of respect and empathy across difference, of a shift from un-belonging to belonging. And Civity's work is supporting people taking action in their everyday lives to embody and live out this story.

How You Can Support Civity's Work

Thank you for supporting and practicing civity! To support Civity’s work with a tax-exempt donation, CLICK HERE to donate online or get instructions for sending a check.

Your donation helps fund our communications and enables us to give free workshops to small nonprofits.

Our work is more important than ever, and we can’t do it without you. Help us reach more people and provide more support to leaders across the country seeking to build civity.

Let’s grow our Civity community by reaching out to “others” and bridging across divides. Together, we can create a culture where we ALL belong.

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