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 …
Category Archives: Blog
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 …
Continue reading “Civity Helps People in Arlington, VA in Challenging Racism”
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 …
Civity on the Move – Building Civity in Communities
Civity is on the move, bringing our work to communities! Our conversations with civic leaders – who are deeply concerned about the problems fueled by inequity and hungry to connect with others – have inspired us. We asked ourselves: What can we do, right now, to support those leaders to better connect across difference and …
Continue reading “Civity on the Move – Building Civity in Communities”
From “NO” to “KNOW”
(PHOTO COURTESY: Angry Asian Man) A few weeks ago in San Francisco, “NO MORE CHINESE” graffiti appeared in the Portola district. Days later, courtesy of Photoshop, a blogger countered with “KNOW MORE CHINESE.” From “NO” to “KNOW” – that’s Civity in a nutshell. “NO” – We are all “NO” people. “NO” captures our very human …
Guest Blog: How Civity Served as a Catalyst for LGBT Civil Rights
By Mariah Burton Nelson Over the past 40 years, I’ve told whole hordes of people that I’m a lesbian. I now prefer to think of this as being out rather than coming out, since coming out implies a closet, and an announcement, and an expectation of surprise on the part of the listener. Being out …
Continue reading “Guest Blog: How Civity Served as a Catalyst for LGBT Civil Rights”
Civity Crescendo
The completion of the Civity Conversations Pilot Project and the Civity Launch late last spring provided a springboard for taking Civity to the next level. With our center of gravity still in Silicon Valley-San Francisco, Civity is now ready to train established and emerging leaders in partner organizations in the business, government, and non-profit sectors …
Civity Has Launched!
The cutting-edge Civity initiative helps people work better together to solve community problems, and many prominent leaders and thinkers are taking notice. Founders Malka Kopell and Palma Strand believe “building and strengthening relationships to reach across social, political and organizational divides” is the only way “to tackle complex civic challenges.” At a recent event at …
The Civity Conversations Pilot Project
A Civity Conversation is a valuable tool for “connecting through difference.” People who care about their community contact someone in their social network who is different from them in a way that is potentially divisive. A structured one-on-one conversation of only an hour enables the growth of a genuine relationship grounded in understanding. These are …