An initiative of Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, measuring social capital and the role of the arts.

The mission of the center is to promote informed, responsible participation in civic life by citizens committed to values and principles fundamental to American constitutional democracy. Today, the center administers a wide range of critically acclaimed curricular, teacher-training, and community-based programs.

The principal goals of the center's programs are to help students develop:

1. an increased understanding of the institutions of American constitutional democracy and the fundamental principles and values upon which they are founded;
2. the skills necessary to participate as effective and responsible citizens; and
3. the willingness to use democratic procedures for making decisions and managing conflict.

CIVITAS International, a worldwide non-governmental organization for civic education, aims to strengthen effective education for informed and responsible citizenship in new and established democracies around the world. Civic education involves the study of constitutions; the rule of law and the operations of public institutions; the study of electoral processes; instruction in the values and attitudes of good citizenship; the development of the skills of governance and politics; issues of human rights and intergroup relations; and conflict resolution. CIVITAS International is composed of individuals, non-governmental associations, and governmental institutions from many countries as well as international organizations.

CIVITAS works to maintain a worldwide network, using all available resources, including computer networking, international exchange and various other means, to bring the knowledge, skill and experience of education for democracy to bear on the momentous tasks that confront today's democracies.

A national leader in the field of civic participation and community change, Everyday Democracy helps people of different backgrounds and views talk and work together to solve problems and create communities that work for everyone.
Using innovative, participatory approaches, Everyday Democracy works with neighborhoods, cities and towns, regions, and states. We place particular emphasis on the connection between complex public issues and structural racism. Issues addressed include: poverty and economic development; education reform; racial equity; early childhood development; police-community relations; youth and neighborhood concerns. 
 

The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to moving American society forward by engaging citizens in public life and politics. At the core of our work is the belief that as a nation, as communities, and as individuals, we can and must do better. To make progress, we believe that fundamentally different concepts, language, assumptions and practices are called for.

We work with leaders, organizations, and communities nationwide, through a variety of research projects and on-the-ground initiatives. Our work is aimed at improving public life through: building in-depth knowledge of how communities work and change; understanding how to leverage public action; infusing new public sensibilities and practices; producing clarity on complex public concerns; generating new public stories; measuring results and accountability; and creating innovations in civic engagement.

Many organizations may focus on one or two of these areas, but it is the very interdependence between and among them that generates a rich understanding of public life, how it works, and what it takes to make progress. The Harwood Institute has a long history of working in these areas with a broad spectrum of groups and individuals.

The Kettering Foundation addresses the question: What does it take to make democracy work as it should? Through research and other activities, the Foundation seeks ways to make fundamental changes in how democratic politics are practiced.

Guiding its research are three hypotheses:

1. Democracy requires citizens who accept their responsibility and are able to make sound decisions about the public's interest.
2. Democracy requires healthy societies of citizens in communities.
3. Democracy requires legitimate institutions that encourage healthy civil societies.

Through one of its six program areas, Citizens and Public Choice, the Kettering Foundation explores the question: What increases the chances that the choices people make about public issues will be wise choices?

Kettering has advanced deliberative forums called National Issues Forums (NIF), an independent network of civic and educational groups. NIF uses issue books (that identify three or four options or approaches to an issue) as a basis for deliberative choice work in forums based on the town meeting tradition.

Presenting issues in this way invites citizens to confront the conflicts among different options and avoids the usual debates in which people lash out with simplistic arguments. Over the years, hundreds of citizens' organizations have been using these materials and have formed a National Issues Forum (NIF) network. These groups include neighborhood associations, organizations promoting literacy, and prisons with educational programs. None receive any financial support from Kettering for holding forums.

The Kettering Foundation produces publications and videotapes that report on research findings and are available to the public. For more information about NIF and Public Policy Institutes, visit www.nifi.org or visit the Kettering Foundation's web site publications page: Citizens and Public Choice.

Connecting and Informing Organizers, Researchers and Facilitators of Intergroup Dialogue
The Dialogue to Action Initiative keeps leaders in dialogue and civic engagement informed, involved and inspired. Their website offers ever-updated news, resources, ideas and events of interest to dialogue leaders, as well as a popular email discussion list, information about organizing dialogues, and strategies for moving from dialogue to community action.

The mission of the Dialogue to Action Initiative is to promote the dialogue process by providing a central location on the web for information and resources of interest to the dialogue community as a whole.

Their website provides:

1. Tools - and information about additional tools - needed to organize an effective dialogue program.
2. A venue for dialogue groups and organizations through which to share their strategies, publicize events and resources, and network with others in the field.
3. Opportunity to learn from the experience of other dialogue practitioners and organizations.

The National Community Building Network (NCBN) is an alliance of individuals and organizations that work to reduce poverty and create social and economic opportunity through comprehensive community building strategies. The mission of NCBN is to promote and advance community building principles, in practice and policy, to achieve social and economic equity for all children and families.

NCBN provides a forum for community practitioners, researchers, funders and others engaged in neighborhood transformation to share their common interests, insights into barriers they encounter, and field-tested strategies for rebuilding communities.

The Network is also committed to developing tools and building capacity within communities to influence comprehensive community building policies at the local, state, and federal levels. NCBN's web site includes links to many other organizations and resources engaged in community building efforts.

Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research and citizen education organization based in New York City. Public Agenda's twofold mission is to: help leaders better understand the public's point of view on major policy issues through in-depth analyses and opinion studies; and to help citizens better understand critical policy issues so they can make their own more informed decisions through educational materials that help explain policy issues in a balanced and easy-to-understand way.

Through its Public Engagement Programs, Public Agenda helps communities get people involved in community decisions through an approach that goes beyond traditional forums such as school board meetings, public hearings, or advertising campaigns.

Public Agenda's approach emphasizes: outreach to ensure inclusion of voices are not commonly heard; discussions geared to average citizens instead of just experts; and tolerance for people with different points of view.

Most of Public Agenda's engagement activities have consisted of carefully moderated discussions using customized materials in which community members and leaders work through a problem together. These efforts have sparked new organizations, changes in policy, and greater openness and respect between officials and citizens.

Public Agenda provides technical assistance in planning a first community conversation and building local capacity so people can conduct future forums on their own.

Committed to the belief that social constructionist ideas have powerful and positive implications for human life and well-being, a group of scholars and practitioners came together to found the Taos Institute in 1991. With special attention initially directed to organizational development, and to family therapy, the Institute held international conferences in Taos, as well as provided consultation grounded in social constructionist theory to individuals and organizations and access to social constructionist literature.

Since this early period Institute activities have expanded in many directions. In its activities, the Institute's focus is on how social groups create and sustain beliefs in the real, the rational, and the good. It bases its work in the theoretical belief that as people create meaning together, they sow the seeds of action.

"The journal of positive futures" often features community-arts stories.