The City of Culver City has been selected by the University of Arizona’s National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) as one of five “deep dive” cities nationally to participate in its “Revive Civility Cities” program. Revive Civility Cities is a nonpartisan program where the NICD works with and encourages communities to restore values of civility and respect for each other. NICD will work with Culver City during the remainder of 2018 to help bring the City civil discourse strategies around the issue of growth and development in the Fox Hills neighborhood.
Activities will include stakeholder interviews by the NICD, a declaration by the City Council of Revive Civility Month, and a series of community visioning meetings. NICD will synthesize the input heard at the community visioning meetings and, based on that input, create a community vision and action plan. The community vision and action plan will be presented to the community for final input, and ultimately be presented to the City Council.
“I am delighted that we are one of five cities throughout the country who have been selected to participate in this fantastic program, and we look forward to working with NICD and the community to elevate and enhance our community conversations,” said Culver City Vice Mayor Thomas Small, who introduced the program to Culver City.
NICD selects deep dive cities for its Revive Civility Cities program based on the city’s commitment to civil discourse, the nature and interest of the problem identified, the availability of resources (both from NICD and the city), and the likelihood that the project would be a useful case study for other cities. Culver City joins an elite group of participating cities located throughout the country, including Maine, Washington, Ohio, and Iowa. NICD Director Hala Harik Hayes will lead the effort in Culver City. Hayes has managed more than fifty civic engagement projects around the country, including a large-scale public engagement in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The program is expected to launch in April, 2018, with the community visioning meetings planned for June 2018.
The date, time, and location of community meetings will be posted when scheduled.
The National Institute for Civil Discourse is a non-partisan institute based at the University of Arizona’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences dedicated to addressing incivility and political dysfunction in American democracy by promoting structural and behavioral change. Informed by research, NICD’s programs are designed to create opportunities for elected officials, the media, and the public to engage different voices respectfully and take responsibility for the quality of our public discourse and effectiveness of our democratic institutions. Our National Advisory Board includes former Presidents Bill Clinton and George Herbert Walker Bush; former Senators Tom Daschle and Olympia Snowe; former Secretaries of State Madeline Albright and Colin Powell; former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; and journalists like Katie Couric, Greta Van Susteren, and NPR’s Scott Simon.
As a counter-narrative to the incivility permeating our public spaces, NICD is spearheading a national grassroots Revive Civility initiative to give Americans and leaders solution-oriented actions to restore and call for civility in the nation’s democracy. Through the initiative, citizens and elected officials are helping to improve the tone of the nation’s political discourse by reviving civility in cities and everyday conversations.
Be the first to comment