Civic Reflection News Update — October 2009

UPCOMING TRAINING

Hold the Dates!

Enjoy the warmth of reflection and fellowship in the cold of winter. Join us for the next Project on Civic Reflection facilitation training workshop in downtown Chicago on Thursday, January 28th and Friday, January 29th, 2010. A registration form will be available soon. Meanwhile, feel free to contact us for more info.

NEWS & NOTES

New NEH Chairman Visits Chicago for September 11 Commemoration

Former Iowa congressman Jim Leach, who was sworn in as the new chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities in August, made his first visit to Illinois as NEH chair on September 11, 2009, to take part in the National Day of Service and Remembrance. Chairman Leach visited a Meaning of Service discussion at City Year Chicago, facilitated by Adam Davis. That evening he attended a reception at The Newberry Library, sharing his thoughts on service and the challenges of globalization with representatives of humanities organizations throughout Illinois. Needless to say, we're delighted to see Chairman Leach show an early interest in the Illinois Humanities Council's Meaning of Service program and in the practice of civic reflection. See this month's Spotlight for an update on the Meaning of Service program run by the Ohio Humanities Council.

• Read the Illinois Humanities Council news release on Chairman Leach's visit
• Read the text of his speech at the Newberry Library

Article on Civic Discourse

Check out this recent article on civic discourse by Pam Blevins Hinkle, director of the Spirit and Place Civic Festival. Hinkle presents civic reflection as an alternative both to "the spurious safety of silence" and "the degeneration of public discourse" in our time, and mentions the resources we provide. Our thanks to friend of the Project Myk Snider for drawing the article to our attention.

September 2009 Chicago Facilitation Workshop

Plenty of hot coffee and good conversation kept participants from staring out the windows at Navy Pier and Lake Michigan during this year's September Facilitation Training on September 24-25. The well-situated training at Columbia College Chicago offered a thoughtful retreat for people from New York, Florida, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maryland, and of course, Illinois.

A discussion of A Bed for the Night by Bertolt Brecht led readers to compare the effects of systemic change with direct change. In the poem, Brecht writes about a man in New York City who gives homeless people a place to sleep for one night. An excerpt from Earliest Impressions by Jane Addams prompted a talk about how people develop their beliefs and their desire to help others. In the work, Jane Addams explores which influences from her childhood motivated her to create Hull House.

Participants will bring civic reflection back to their humanities councils, schools, state service organizations, foundations, and personal lives. Sarah Brucato teaches at Polk State College in Winter Haven, FL. Brucato is designing a service learning curriculum that uses The Civically Engaged Reader as a central text. Emily Archer from Mont Vernon, NH will use civic reflection "deliberately and actively" in her facilitation of Literature & Medicine programs with healthcare communities in New England. John Ro will bring civic reflection to his congregation at Gospel Life Church in Chicago, where he serves as pastor.

In addition to teaching the methods of civic reflection, the Chicago Facilitation Trainings connect a community of alumni who are able to work together across the United States. A participant in the September training called it "the most valuable education I may have ever had."

Tufts University Initiates Summer Institute of Civic Studies

The inaugural Summer Institute of Civic Studies, a program of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship & Public Service at Tufts University, was held on the Tufts campus in Medford, Massachusetts in July.

The Institute included daily seminars on civic theory and practice and presentations by guest speakers. Among the invited speakers were Project on Civic Reflection director Elizabeth Lynn and faculty members from Brandeis, Tufts and Harvard. Participants explored fundamental questions about citizenship and civic life, including What kinds of citizens (if any) do good regimes need? What should such citizens know, believe and do? What institutional structures promote the right kinds of citizenship? How do individuals learn civic skills, habits, values, dispositions and knowledge? The Institute concluded with a public conference on the Obama Administration's civic agenda.

Community College Uses Civic Reflection in Professional Learning Program

College and university faculty are under mounting pressure to adapt to more and more diverse student needs with limited resources. The pressures are especially intense for faculty in two-year colleges, who teach heavy course loads and provide many other forms of service as well. Civic reflection discussions can be a highly rewarding form of professional development for faculty, allowing them to feel valued for the work they do, reconnect with their reasons for service to their students and communities, and forge meaningful relationships with colleagues, both in their own and other disciplines.

In mid-August Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas integrated civic reflection into its weeklong inservice program for faculty. Elizabeth Lynn brought in a team of five facilitators, whose backgrounds included service, education and law, to lead small group conversations about short readings on teaching, giving and difference. The program was attended by over 120 Hutchinson College faculty and staff.

Indiana Humanities Council Sponsors Training

PCR senior research and teaching associate Adam Davis and Illinois Humanities Council program officer Ryan Lewis led a facilitation training workshop in September at the request of the Indiana Humanities Council. Participants discussed selections from The Civically Engaged Reader and the newly released anthology Hearing the Call across Traditions: Readings on Faith and Service. In addition to Indiana Humanities Council staff members, participants included state and local representatives of the United Way, the Boys & Girls Clubs, Indiana University, Indiana Campus Compact, Public Allies, the Indiana Historical Society, and the Indiana Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

• Read a posting on the Indiana Humanities Council training in Good Works Indiana, the blog of retired Indianapolis firefighter and civic leader Ike Randolph.
• Read a synthesis of participant evaluations from the training.

Indiana Humanities Board Retreat

The Indiana Humanities Council began a recent board retreat in Columbus, Indiana with a civic reflection discussion. Trustees and staff reflected together on the words and actions of Clementine Miller Tangeman and J. Irwin Miller, a brother and sister who grew up in Columbus and became civic leaders locally, nationally, and globally. Two readings, a portrait of Tangeman and a 1996 speech by Miller, served as springboards for the council's exploration of how the humanities can foster needed civic leadership and civil dialogue in our own time. The session was co-facilitated by Elizabeth Lynn and board member Perry Hines, who participated in the PCR facilitation training for the Indiana council the previous week.

One Maryland One Book Enters Second Year

The Maryland Humanities Council's One Maryland One Book initiative, a program of the Maryland Center for the Book, has expanded to include community partners in every Maryland district. The Project on Civic Reflection trained librarians from communities throughout the state as facilitators for One Maryland One Book's inaugural year, which drew over 6,000 participants. This year's book selection is Song Yet Sung by James McBride, author of the bestselling memoir The Color of Water. Song Yet Sung is set on Maryland's Eastern shore during the pre-Civil War era when the Underground Railroad was in operation.

• See the 2009 calendar of events for One Maryland One Book.

National Conference on Volunteering and Service

The Project on Civic Reflection participated in the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the world's largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders, co-convened by Points of Light Institute and the Corporation for National and Community Service. Adam Davis and Kelli Covey held a book-signing for Hearing the Call across Traditions: Readings on Faith and Service and co-presented a workshop, "Elevating the Service/Volunteer Experience Through Civic Reflection," with Bill Hall, executive director of the Ohio Community Service Council. First Lady Michelle Obama gave the keynote for this year's conference, which was attended by 5,000 nonprofit, government and corporate leaders.

California AmeriCorps State Conference

At the request of CaliforniaVolunteers, California's state service commission, PCR presented a one-day workshop for AmeriCorps program directors at the 2009 AmeriCorps State Conference in San Francisco. In the workshop, "Service is Not Simple: Reflective Discussion to Deepen Civic Engagement," program directors and staff from a number of AmeriCorps and other service organizations around the state were introduced to reflective reading and discussion as a means of increasing member engagement and satisfaction. Attendees took part in civic reflection discussions, learned the basics of planning and leading a conversation, and were introduced to the resources we offer at PCR, including facilitation training, individual consultation, and our online Resource Library, Facilitators' Forum, How-To Guide, and sample materials for organizing and leading civic reflection discussions.

SPOTLIGHT

Ohio Humanities Council Expands Meaning of Service

In an era of dwindling budgets and downsizing, when many service programs struggle to stay afloat, it's heartening to hear that an Ohio Humanities Council program, "Justice Talking: The Meaning of Service," is thriving in its fourth year. Ohio's Justice Talking was initially funded by the Illinois Humanities Council's Meaning of Service program and was developed in partnership with the Ohio Community Service Council (OCSC). Recently the OCSC made the Justice Talking discussion series required professional development for AmeriCorps members in Ohio. In the 2008-2009 program year, Justice Talking reached 650 AmeriCorps members, through over 50 program managers and staff trained to facilitate discussions with their own member chapters. In the 2009-2010 program year, the Ohio Humanities Council will continue to provide facilitation training and one-on-one mentoring to program directors.

According to Pat Williamsen, director of development at the Ohio Humanities Council, this month the OHC will roll out Justice Talking to other OCSC constituents, including VISTA, Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve. The Ohio Humanities Council is also using reflective reading and discussion in other programs, including Literature and Medicine; Booked for the Day, a program for lawyers and young people planning legal careers; and a traveling museum exhibit, Children of Abraham, that looks at the common origins of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Recently we spoke with Pat Williamsen about the pleasure and satisfaction she has taken in watching Justice Talking: The Meaning of Service develop from a small group—about 75 members were reached the first year—into a large statewide program. She described the effect of the program on membership as profound, saying that it reduces stress and burnout and increases retention. "One program manager in Athens, Ohio shared that she had put off her retirement for two years so she could see the program roll out—she was that excited about it." Speaking for herself, Williamsen said, "I've been with the OHC for many years. This is the most rewarding, the most meaningful work of everything I've done. It takes what we learn as students and applies it to the way we live. It helps people explore the big issues, giving them a safe space and quiet time so that they can hear their own inner dialogue and the voices of those around them."

PCR has continued to work in fruitful partnership with the Ohio Humanities Council, collaborating in early September on a training workshop held in Columbus for OHC facilitators. The training was co-led by Georgina Dodge, Assistant Vice Provost for Minority Affairs at The Ohio State University; Tonya Matthews, Vice President of Museums at Cincinnati Museum Center; and PCR's Adam Davis. Pat Williamsen described the participants—some experienced, others new facilitators—as diverse, bringing to the table a mix of experience, values and ideas. "The discussions alone were wonderful, but to watch the group latch onto this idea of using literature not only as a teaching tool but a tool for reflection—watching them embrace that concept as AmeriCorps members have embraced Meaning of Service—was a great experience."

Bring civic reflection into your civic engagement! Attend a PCR training or webinar. Contact us at civic.reflection@valpo.edu or at (219) 464-6767.

RESOURCES

New in the Resource Library

Below are recent additions to our online Resource Library, along with a few questions they raise.

"A Good Traveler Has No Fixed Plans" by Lao-Tzu.

• What are my obligations to my neighbor? What, if anything, releases me from those obligations?
• What do serving and giving have to do with freedom?
• What is the relationship between our principles and our actions?

"Church" by Tim O'Brien.

• How should we care for others?
• What are our motives for giving to or serving others? Does it matter what our motives are?
• What sets some people apart for ministry?

"Why I Make Sam Go to Church" by Anne Lamott.

• How should gifts be received? Why is it difficult to receive well?
• Is humility important? How is it connected to service?
• What does parenting have to do with giving?

Recommend a Reading

Have you read a short story, poem, essay, or other short work of literature that could spark a good civic reflection discussion? Tell us about it! We're always looking to add more offerings to our Resource Library.