This document lists and provides brief descriptions of organizations that promote civic engagement and public deliberation on important issues. Some of the key organizations mentioned include Everyday Democracy, which helps facilitate discussions to solve community problems, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, which promotes the use of dialogue to address challenges, and America Speaks, whose tools engage citizens in public decision making.

1. 2013 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit
Weaving Deep Connections through Dialogue
Resources of Interest
Everyday Democracy
http://www.everyday-democracy.org/
Everyday Democracy helps people of different backgrounds talk 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 and
emphasizes the connection between complex public issues and structural racism.
National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation
http://ncdd.org/
The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation promotes the use of dialogue, deliberation,
and other innovative group processes to help people come together across differences to tackle
our most challenging problems. We serve as a gathering place, a resource clearinghouse, a news
source, and a facilitative leader for the dialogue and deliberation community and beyond.
National Issues Forum
http://www.nifi.org/
National Issues Forums is a network of civic, educational, and other organizations, and
individuals, whose common interest is to promote public deliberation in America. It has grown to
include thousands of civic clubs, religious organizations, libraries, schools, and many other
groups that meet to discuss critical public issues.
The World Café
http://www.theworldcafe.com/
The World Café is a powerful social technology for engaging people in conversations that
matter. It's a way of thinking and being together sourced in a philosophy of conversational
leadership.
Sustained Dialogue
http://www.sustaineddialogue.org/
Sustained Dialogue is a systematic, open-ended political process to transform relationships over
time. It conceptualizes of three decades of experience with dialogue among citizens outside
government in such relationships. It may be used in national, community, corporate, or campus
settings.
America Speaks
http://americaspeaks.org/
AmericaSpeaks’ mission is to reinvigorate American Democracy by engaging citizens in the
public decision-making that most impacts their lives. Our tools, like the 21st
Century Town
Meeting®, give citizens an opportunity to have a strong voice in public decision-making within
the increasingly short timeframes required of decision-makers.

2. The Deliberative Democracy Consortium
http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/
The Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC) is a network of practitioners and researchers
representing more than 50 organizations and universities, collaborating to strengthen the field of
deliberative democracy. The Consortium seeks to support research activities and to advance
practice at all levels of government.
Participedia
http://participedia.net/
Participedia is an open global knowledge community for researchers and practitioners in the field
of democratic innovation and public engagement.
The Democracy Imperative
http://www.unh.edu/democracy/
The Democracy Imperative is a national network of scholars, campus leaders, and civic leaders
committed to strengthening democracy in and through higher education.
The Kettering Foundation
http://kettering.org/
The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit operating foundation rooted in the tradition of
cooperative research. Kettering’s primary research question is, what does it take to make
democracy work as it should? This research is distinctive because it is conducted from the
perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do collectively to address problems
affecting their lives, their communities, and their nation.
Public Agenda
http://www.publicagenda.org/
Public Agenda, an innovative public opinion research and public engagement organization,
works to strengthen our democracy's capacity to tackle tough public policy issues. Our efforts are
all focused on ensuring that the public's views are represented in decision-making.
Public Conversations Project
http://www.publicconversations.org/
Since 1989, PCP has worked in the U.S. and around the world facilitating dialogues on a wide
range of contentious issues including abortion, forest management, homosexuality and faith,
biodiversity, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and many others. In a world bristling with tension,
controversy, polarization, and war, PCP aims to reduce rancor in public squares and promote
effective communication within communities.