►Overview
►Facilitation Skills
►Agenda
►Presenters
►Registration
►Credit Option
►Parking & Hotel Information
►Contact Us

The seventh ICDD Facilitation Workshop will be at K-State Monday 4 March to Wednesday 6 March 2013 in the International Grains Program building, 1980 Kimball Ave. (across the street from the Bill Snyder Family Stadium).

Grow your skills and boost your confidence to:

• Plan and lead public meetings
• Moderate discussions of complex problems
• Guide groups to mutually acceptable decisions
• Anticipate and manage conflict before it becomes a problem
• Gather a community around an issue
• Conduct grass-roots asset based planning

The ICDD Facilitation Workshop is designed for: 

• Extension professionals
• Municipal, county and state officials
• Public librarians (Read more here)
• Educators and administrators
• Nonprofit leaders
• Community and economic development professionals
• Community activists
• Faculty and students

Our communities face important and controversial issues such as shrinking water tables, risk and disaster preparedness, immigration, energy, public education, the environment, and issues of economic development. To move forward in a positive and productive way it is essential to include everyone’s voice and understanding of the issues. Unfortunately, many citizens have disappeared from public life and are leery of discussing issues in public.  People are busy enough with family and work commitments and do not want to be part of a public process that is characterized by intolerance, inaction, rudeness, and anger. This is why the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy’s (ICDD) Public Issues Facilitation Workshop is so important. From noon Monday to noon Wednesday this workshop will equip participants with skills necessary to organize, facilitate, and assess community events that address critical local issues in positive, satisfying ways.

Workshop Topics:

• How to set up public forums
• 
The role of the facilitator
• Facilitation values
• Best practices for facilitators
• Assessing public issue forums
• Choosing an appropriate method for a public conversation
• Practice and coaching sessions to develop individual facilitation skills

"Public issues are matters of widespread concern in the community. They are resolved by group decision processes that create local public policy. We often assume that the responsibility for resolving public issues is in the domain of government. But as society becomes more complex, and we acknowledge the limits of what government can achieve, we recognize the need for public and private interests to work together. Involving diverse interests in public issues, however, can often heighten local conflict and make the resolution of community issues more difficult" (Leatherman & Howell, 2000).

This workshop has gone to Johnson County Kansas (initiated by Johnson County Libraries), Saskatchewan (Community Development Society), Wisconsin (Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service), and Atlanta (National Council for the Social Studies). Contact ICDD for further information about hosting a workshop in your community.