The Dialogue Tools page of the Xenia website is intended to provide viewers with various resources on Dialogue initiatives, studies, and movements– whether they be people, books, films, articles, or links to relevant sites. We plan to update this page regularly with ‘tools’ that we feel are beneficial to the process of cultivating a healthy civic life through meaningful communication. By accessing them, we hope that we can all discover new and creative ways to apply the skills of dialogue in our own lives.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions! If you have recommendations for additional resources you feel we should add, or general comments, please scroll to the bottom of this page and fill out the contact form, or feel free to send an email to xenia.institute@gmail.com.

National Issues Forums:

“National Issues Forums (NIF) is a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally sponsored public forums for the consideration of public policy issues. It is rooted in the simple notion that people need to come together to reason and talk — to deliberate about common problems. Indeed, democracy requires an ongoing deliberative public dialogue. These forums, organized by a variety of organizations, groups, and individuals, offer citizens the opportunity to join together to deliberate, to make choices with others about ways to approach difficult issues and to work toward creating reasoned public judgment.” (www.nifi.org)

Eboo Patel and Interfaith Youth Core:

This New York Times article tells the amazing story of Eboo Patel and his efforts to to quell religious conflict and counteract the recruitment of youth by religious extremists. Through his organization, Interfaith Youth Core, he aims to recruit youth instead to ‘Interfaith Activism’ using the tools of dialogue and by cultivating a deep respect for all of humanity. His book, Acts of Faith, is required reading on 11 college campuses in the US.

Civil Discourse Resources by Dr. Bob Swisher:

Dr. Bob Swisher, Faculty Emeritus at OU and a local and national National Issues Forums leader, created the website civildiscourseresources.wordpress.com, which offers an incredible and extensive collection of– you guessed it– resources on civil discourse. As stated on the site: “This site is a resource for materials about civil discourse, annotating fundamental, foundation readings about civil discourse, and pointing out current information about aspects of the country’s demographics, opinions and practices that relate to civil discourse and civic engagement.” Check it out!

The Kettering Foundation:

“The Kettering Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan research organization rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. Everything Kettering researches relates to one central question: what does it take for democracy to work as it should? Or put another way: What does it take for citizens to shape their collective future?…Kettering’s research is distinctive because it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people collectively can do to address problems affecting their lives, their community, and their nation. The foundation seeks to identify and address the challenges to making democracy work as it should through interrelated program areas that focus on citizens, communities, and institutions.” (www.kettering.org)

Pew Research Center Publication:“Social Isolation and New Technology: How the Internet and Mobile Phones Impact Americans’ Social Networks”

This study explores the ways in which technology has shaped and altered our social interactions and relationships. You can view the full article here.

National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD):

NCDD’s (ncdd.org) Engagement Streams Framework “helps people navigate the range of dialogue and deliberation approaches available to them and make design choices that best fit their circumstance and resources. Although it was designed for beginners to these processes, the tool also helps more seasoned practitioners understand where their own experience resides on the continuum, and which methods they may want to learn more about depending on the needs of their clients and communities.”

You can view and download the full PDF of the Engagement Streams Framework document by clicking here: xenia-d&d-handout.

CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement):

CIRCLE “conducts research on the civic and political engagement of young Americans.” Director Peter Levine recently released a policy paper entitled Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication. You can watch a brief address in which he outlines this paper here:

Teaching Tolerance at the Southern Poverty Law Center:

“It is difficult to hear anything when everyone has a megaphone. For young people trying to learn how to speak and listen, this is an especially complicated business…Educators are well positioned to provide a counterweight to this loudest-is-best approach. Schools and classrooms strive to be safe places where students can exchange ideas, try out opinions and receive feedback on their ideas without fear or intimidation. Children, of course, often come to school with opinions or prejudices they have learned in their homes or from the media. Schools can become a place of intolerance and fear, especially for students who voice minority opinions. Schools, then, must work to be the site of social transformation, where teachers and young people find ways to communicate effectively…Civil discourse is discourse that supports, rather than undermines, the societal good. It demands that democratic participants respect each other, even when that respect is hard to give or to earn. Democratic societies must be societies where arguments are tolerated and encouraged, but this is not always easy.”

You can read more about this initiative here or by going to tolerance.org.

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