Many of us are feeling powerless these days. We are overwhelmed by disturbing news stories and feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Yet we also want to contribute to making things better. We ask ourselves, “What can I, just one individual, do to make a difference? How can I be the change …
Continue reading “The Power of Civity: A Story with a Moral and More”
By Daniel Friedman In everyday parlance, to describe a situation as “complex” is to deem it complicated, intractable, and unmanageable. Politicians might label an issue as “complex” if there is no clear path toward resolution, essentially using the adjective “complex” as a rhetorical parry to side-step further discussion. Thus, from the smallest towns to the …
By Daniel Harris Is Silicon Valley making the world a better place? In a piece recently published in CityLab, entitled What Silicon Valley Doesn’t Get About People, Daniel Harris of the Knight Foundation suggests that the Valley could use some more empathy … right in its own backyard. Poor planning didn’t just aggravate the area’s …
We at Civity, along with people throughout the country, were gripped by the events in Charlottesville. As in the wake of many disturbing events like this, we first reacted with horror and sadness. Then came the questions – those persistent questions that we turn over and over in our minds. We look back: What happened? …
Continue reading “A Divided Nation? The Civity Counter-Story”
Over the past few months we have conducted Civity workshops with people at some wonderful organizations! In these workshops, we provide simple and focused strategies for connecting with one another, sharing stories, and listening to each other’s stories. Civity storytelling and storylistening support understanding and celebration of difference – as well as discovery of commonality. …
Fear seems to be everywhere. “Angry white men” fear becoming economically redundant. Black Americans fear police violence. Women fear sexual assault and marginalization. Immigrants fear being targeted and deported. Scientists and environmentalists – and others – fear climate change. Evangelicals fear changing cultural mores. The LGBTIQ community fears diminished civil rights. Poor people fear getting …
Continue reading “Fear, Pill Bugs, and the Possibility of Trust”
By Claudia Cohen Claudia Cohen is Adjunct Faculty in the Social-Organizational Program & Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (MD-ICCCR) at the Teachers College of Columbia University. On a recent Friday morning, while half-listening to NPR, I found myself riveted by a story. It was a conversation between a District Court judge …
Continue reading “Everyday Dignity: An Illuminating Act of Justice”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-orjHsgxDQ Many people have shared with us at Civity the Heineken ad showing people who were brought together to engage across difference over a beer. This ad and others like it tap into the growing awareness of just how polarized we are, as well as encourage us to find commonality, even in the face of …
Continue reading “Telling the Civity Story: Heineken & Intentionality”
Many of us came out of last year’s election season battered and bruised. It seemed that no matter who we voted for, many of us were (and still are) angry – angry at the other side. Some of us went into the holiday season concerned about facing members of our family across the dinner table …
Continue reading “Civity Update: Experiencing Civity in India”
The airwaves this summer and fall have been filled with division – as well as people clamoring to be heard. Civity’s message about the importance of seeing people who are different from us as members of our larger community has taken on a new urgency. Civity’s framework – Intentionality, Authenticity, Respect and Empathy across Difference …
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