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. …
Category Archives: Blog
Fear, Pill Bugs, and the Possibility of Trust
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 …
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Everyday Dignity: An Illuminating Act of Justice
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 …
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Telling the Civity Story: Heineken & Intentionality
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 …
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Civity Update: Experiencing Civity in India
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 …
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Civity Is in the Air
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 …
Civity’s Bay Area Academy
Last spring Civity invited Bay Area leaders working for equity to a Civity Academy. Individuals from a range of organizations, including Bay Area Social Justice Funders Network, The Bridgespan Group, Palo Alto Forward, VolunteerMatch, and Catholic Charities, came together to prepare to use Civity to further their work. The two dozen leaders also hailed from …
Civity Helps People in Arlington, VA in Challenging Racism
Civity is helping people in Arlington, VA, learn how to facilitate complex and challenging discussions on race. Marty Swaim, co-founder of Challenging Racism, says it works through facilitated conversation groups that “build a community of people who, whenever the subject of race comes up, they don’t run away. They stay there and they listen and …
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Guest Blog: Got Empathy?
By Mario Morino & Lowell Weiss, Leap of Reason One of the people who inspire us is Mario Morino, Chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners and author of “Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Age of Scarcity”. Morino and his colleague Lowell Weiss also publish a monthly Leap of Reason update. Mario recently offered …
Searching for Civity
Civity and the Civity Academy are grounded in cutting-edge research into how the actions of individuals can influence society – for the better. From time to time, we will share key aspects of this evolving field with our readers. We look forward to hearing your thoughts! The political weather reports are telling us that it’s …