Creating Community Solutions

By Steve Brigham

AmericaSpeaks is excited to announce our involvement in Creating Community Solutions, which is part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health announced by President Obama on Monday, June 3, 2013. We are working with other national deliberative democracy partners: the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, Everyday Democracy, National Issues Forums Institute, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation and National Institute for Civil Discourse, to increase understanding and awareness of mental health by holding community conversations in cities all across the country.

Charleston Housing Summit and Engaging Millennials

By Daniel Clark

I facilitated table discussions and keypad polling at a housing summit for the Charleston, South Carolina tri-county area. I have had the pleasure of working in this area several times now over the past few years. Between the beaches, the inter-coastal waterways, and historic Charleston, it is a beautiful place with fantastic food, great culture, and wonderful people.

Intern Spotlight: Alex Minore

My name is Alex Minore and I am excited to be interning with AmericaSpeaks from now until August. Originally from New Jersey, I am rising a senior at the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science. In American politics, my interests are focused on campaign finance, education policy, electoral campaigns, and engaging voters.

The Convergence of Engagement, Journalism, and Digital Tools

By Elana Goldstein

During our work with the Face the Facts initiative, we had the opportunity to experiment with some of our traditional town meeting tools in online and TV broadcasts. As we were doing this work, we noticed that many public affairs programs (either on TV or online) weren’t utilizing all of the available tools to make programs as interactive and engaging as possible.

U.S. Open Government National Action Plan: Evaluating Round One and Looking Forward

By Daniel Clark

Two evaluations of the U.S. Open Government Partnership National Action Plan were released in March. The White House released its self-assessment report, and OpenTheGovernment.org released a report produced by a coalition of over 30 civil society organizations.

Reflecting on the Facts

By Elana Goldstein

Over the past nine months we have been working with the Center for Media Innovation at George Washington University on a project called Face the Facts. The initiative aimed to bring more civil and fact based discussion into our national political dialogue.

Lessons for online crowdsourcing from a Flint, Michigan town meeting

By Daniel Clark

On March 13, AmericaSpeaks produced a large visioning and goals workshop for the city of Flint, Michigan, which was part of their first comprehensive planning effort in 50 years. This was one of our larger 21st Century Town Meetings of the past year.

Freedom to Tweet: Grading Social Media Policies in the Federal Government

By Michael Halpern
Program Manager, Center for Science and Democracy

Social media can transform debates, inform discussions and, as we saw with the Arab spring, help spread democracy. And information and science have a key role to play in democracy (hence the new Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists).

Designing a 21st Century Summit in Less than 24 Hours

By Steve Brigham

We had a fascinating experience last week that challenged us in the use of our model. We were invited in by the Center for Excellence in Public Leadership at George Washington University to facilitate the majority of the 3rd day of a 4 day leadership capstone that they were conducting for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (part of U.S. Department of Agriculture).

In Search of Real American Beliefs, Filmmaker and Mother Travels the U.S. Untangling Divisive Politics

By Talking Eyes Media

Democracy is founded on robust dialogue, but somewhere along the line, politics replaced sex as the one thing in America we don’t discuss in mixed company even amongst friends and family. Increasingly, political pundits dictate the tenor of our national conversation and we have allowed divisive catch phrases to supplant genuine dialogue. One filmmaker–a mother of two teenagers– is traveling across the United States with a star-spangled table asking people to sit down with her and share their political beliefs.