Local Voices: Citizen Conversations on Civil Liberties and Secure Communities

Organizing a community event

A project of the League of Women Voters Education Fund 1730 M Street, NW Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20036 202-429-1965 www.lwv.org

in cooperation with

Study Circles Resource Center P.O. Box 203 Pomfret, CT 06258 860-928-2616 www.studycircles.org Lake Snell Perry Mermin & Associates 1726 M Street, NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20036 202-776-9066 www.lspa.com

Contents: What is the Local Voices Project Why host a Local Voices event Best practices in public dialogue Important planning questions Deciding on your agenda Strengthening your League Appendix Event Agendas 1 2 2 4 6 6 8

What is the Local Voices project?

This guide was developed as part of Local Voices, an initiative to foster public dialogue about the balance between civil liberties and homeland security through broad community conversations. In partnership with the League of Women Voters Education Fund, local Leagues in 10 communities across the U.S. held public forums in the summer of 2005. Recommendations collected from participants at each site will form the basis of a national report that was released to Congress (and to the country) in the fall of 2005. The reach of Local Voices will extend far beyond those ten Leagues and the final report, however. It is important for citizens in as many communities as possible to have an opportunity to have their voices heard in this timely and critical debate. Furthermore, while the Congressional debate over the sunset provisions of the Patriot Act may conclude this fall, homeland security and civil liberties will remain critical issues for the foreseeable future. Since these issues are also high priorities for the LWVEF, we hope to involve as many Leagues as possible in this project, during 2005 and beyond. In addition, many of the principles contained in this organizing kit and the discussion guide will be helpful to Leagues and other organizations as they engage the community on other topics as well. It is vital that we know which communities are using these materials, and how. Please visit www.lwv.org for more information about how the outcomes of your dialogues can be captured to be shared with LWVEF, policymakers, and the larger public. LWVEF is receiving funding for Local Voices through a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Other partners in the project are Lake, Snell, Perry Mermin & Associates, the Study Circles Resource Center, and the Constitution Project. Local Voices continues the Leagues traditional leadership in the area of civil liberties. In the 1950s, the League led a national campaign, The Freedom Agenda, to educate the public about their rights and to combat the impact of the McCarthy hearings. More recently, the organization has lobbied Congress on legislation that affects civil liberties, and Leagues across the country have held educational forums about the Patriot Act.

Why host a Local Voices event?

There are many important reasons for your community to consider hosting a Local Voices event. The following list is not comprehensive; it is meant to suggest the breadth and scope of the opportunities associated with this project. The voices of your community will be magnified by participating in a national conversation that will be shared with Congress and other policymakers. Balancing civil liberties and homeland security is a timely and important debate that affects all of our communities and all of our lives. These issues will be even more prominently discussed in national and local media in the coming months, and the League should and will be a part of that discussion.

These issues have been put in a new context since September 11th, and structured debate will help communities to grapple with their complexities. As an organization, LWV holds civil liberties as a #1 priority, and with the Leagues long and tireless history of working to preserve individual freedoms, it is critical that we continue that work today. In the same tradition, the League is a trusted member of the community. Individuals look to the organization for balanced information and as a safe place for all points of view to be welcomed and accepted. Local Voices dialogues continue this tradition and reflect our core mission as an organization. As these are such hot topics, Leagues that host these dialogues will raise their visibility in the community, and open themselves up to many opportunities for outreach and partnership with new groups and individuals.

Best Practices for Community Dialogues

League leaders historically have recognized the need to mobilize citizens and to make that participation more meaningful and productive. By organizing a Local Voices event, you are part of a larger shift in the way that people address critical public issues through dialogue processes. A number of best practices have emerged from dialogue projects. The Local Voices project is based on some of these ideas: When organizers can mobilize a diverse critical mass of citizens for a project where people consider a range of views and options, the deliberation can influence public decisions at a number of levels (community, state, and nationally). In face-to-face dialogue, people can be expected to learn, empathize with people with different views and backgrounds, and change their own opinions. Reaching out through a wide array of groups and organizations is critical for mobilizing large numbers of citizens, and many different kinds of people. Giving people a sense of political legitimacy a sense of status and membership in their community promotes individual responsibility and leadership. To harness the power of these practices, consider the following steps: 1. Assemble a team. Dont try to do this alone! Reach out to other local leaders who have a stake in these issues, and invite them to join you. Partners might be particularly helpful for: Recruiting people who wouldnt normally get involved; Demonstrating that the project is balanced and will allow a range of views to be heard; Providing information on the local context for these issues; or Assisting with next steps that might emerge from the forum. 2. Recruit, recruit, recruit!

Your event will be much more powerful if you can involve a critical mass of citizens a diverse set of people with diverse opinions. The best approach is to reach out through various community networks, enlisting the help of different kinds of leaders, so that people are recruited by someone they already know. In other words, successful recruitment is a contact sport: you approach a set of key people, who will approach their own sets of people, and so on. Gaining access to organizations e-mail lists is a fast way to broadcast your message. Remember that participants (and facilitators) do not need to be experts on these issues. The forums should be as inclusive as possible and viewed as way for people to learn more. 3. Find facilitators. Since these forums have both large-group and small-group components, your League will need one facilitator for every 8 participants at the forum, plus some backups. Many Leaguers have extensive facilitation experience, but even novices can make excellent facilitators as long as they follow the cardinal rule of keeping their own opinions out of the discussion. 4. Handle the logistics. Your site requirements should be a simple: an easily accessible building with a large room and space for small-group breakouts. College and high school campuses often make good (and free) sites. If you are going to provide food, factor that into your site planning. You might also consider other factors such as handicap accessibility, access to public transportation, and parking facilities. 5. Reach out to the media. Media coverage alone will not guarantee you many participants, but it is an excellent supplement to other recruitment methods. You may be able to convince a local newspaper to publish articles that give some of the local context on these issues in the days leading up to your forum. Also consider submitting an op-ed piece to your local paper to run the day of or day before your event. 6. Get advice and assistance. Please dont try to do this alone! Contact the Study Circles Resource Center for free advice and assistance. SCRC: 860-928-2616 or info@studycircles.org. You can also utilize other League resources, such as the recent publication Citizens Building Communities: The ABCs of Community Dialogue, at www.lwv.org, and SCRC resources available at www.studycircles.org.

Important planning questions

When you begin planning your project, there are some key questions to consider: What are your goals for this project? Most good public dialogue projects have a number of goals. In the Local Voices project, two goals are clear from the start: Helping citizens educate themselves about issues of civil liberties and homeland security; Gathering input to give government policymakers particularly but not limited to those at the federal level. There are a number of other goals you might set for your Local Voices event: Gathering input on local policy decisions related to these issues; Resolving conflicts and divisions in the community around these issues; Generating innovative solutions to community problems, and encouraging citizens and citizen groups (including churches, businesses, nonprofits, and neighborhood associations) to help implement them; and Involving people who havent been active in the community before. Who should you try to involve? A large, diverse, critical mass of citizens is almost always more powerful, knowledgeable, and effective than a small, homogeneous group. In assembling this critical mass, there may be certain segments of the community that you particularly want to have in the mix. On issues of civil liberties and homeland security, some of the key constituencies might be: recent immigrants; police and other law enforcement professionals; Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent; civil rights activists; emergency preparedness workers and local officials. In order to recruit a wide range of people, you need to reach them through the networks and organizations to which they belong. Some of the possibilities include: churches, synagogues, and mosques; libraries; police departments; neighborhood associations; colleges and universities; human rights and human relations commissions; organizations serving recent immigrants; and local offices of the political parties. You might also consider community gathering places such as restaurants, markets, or hair salons. Free and paid media may also be effective, especially if you are trying to target a certain population. Consider ethnic newspapers or other media outlets. If one of your goals is to influence how your community deals with these issues, it will be crucial to have public officials and other key decision makers involved in the project. Some of these stakeholders might make good speakers for one of the sessions of the forum. Others would be critical for informing and supporting action efforts that emerge from the event. Your list of decision makers to invite might include: mayors, city managers, city council members, police and fire chiefs, human rights and human relations directors and commissioners, city attorneys, and other city and county officials. You

might also consider state-level human rights commissioners and representatives of the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Department of Justice. Why would people want to get involved in this? (What are their interests?) Understanding the interests or motivation of the potential participants is just as important as deciding your own priorities. You have to convince people that your project will help them achieve what they want, or they wont take part. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the people you are trying to recruit: Why would a young person get involved? Why would a citizen with conservative/liberal views participate? Why would a citizen from a particular racial or ethnic group want to take part? Why would a public official want to join in? As you begin talking about your project with various kinds of people, be sure to ask lots of questions and listen carefully to the answers: people will often tell you the reasons why they will (or wont) get involved. Here are a number of potential reasons why people might participate in your Local Voices event: Because they want more information, especially about what is happening locally on issues of civil liberties and homeland security; Because they want to have an impact on these issues locally; Because they want to have their input included in this wider project and presented to policymakers, such as Congress; Because they see the connection between these issues and a controversial local issue; Because civil liberties and homeland security are seldom addressed in the same project bringing these two terms together suggests that the event will provide an opportunity for truly nonpartisan, even-handed dialogue; Because the speakers for the event are a draw; Because they have concerns about their safety; Because they have concerns about their civil liberties being affected; Because they are concerned about how first responders police, firefighters, ambulance personnel are affected by these issues; Because they are concerned about how these issues are affecting local budgets. Dont overlook some of the most basic incentives, either citizens are usually more likely to come to an event if they know there will be time for socializing, if child care will be provided, if transportation or parking is accessible, and if there will be food. Where can I get more information? The following resources provide more in-depth organizing advice: Citizens Building Communities: The ABCs of Public Dialogue (League of Women Voters of the USA), available through www.lwv.org. Organizing Community-wide Dialogue for Action and Change (Study Circles Resource Center), available at www.studycircles.org.

Deciding on your agenda

There are three options for your Local Voices forum agenda: 1. The National Debate and the Local Picture, which uses Sessions 1, 2, and 3A to help participants discuss both the national debate and some of the local options for addressing these issues. (4- 5 hours) 2. The National Debate, the Local Picture, and Conclusions, which uses Sessions 1, 2, and 3A and a concluding plenary to help participants discuss both the national debate and some of the local options for addressing these issues and provides an opportunity to synthesize the perspectives and ideas. (5- 5 hours) 3. The National Debate, the Local Picture, and Ways to Make a Difference, which uses Sessions 1, 2, and 3B, covers all of the topics in the shorter agendas and also gives participants a chance to strategize about how to make an impact in their communities. (6 hours) The best way to make this decision is by talking with your League leaders and community allies about the potential goals of your event, and thinking about why citizens might want to participate and then choosing the agenda which best fits those goals. For example, some organizers have had more success recruiting large numbers of people particularly those who are not normally involved in public life by making their events more intensive (and therefore longer). Let your goals determine your agenda, not the time considerations. For more details on what will happen in each session in the agendas, please see the Appendix (page 8) and the Local Voices Discussion Guide (available on www.lwv.org).

Using this project to strengthen your local League

The role of convening public dialogue is a promising way for the League of Women Voters to expand its influence in public life. This role capitalizes on the Leagues reputation as a trusted convener in local, state, and national politics. It reflects the Leagues history as a caretaker of the political process. It draws on some of the characteristic strengths of members: energy, credibility, connections, and a commitment to solving public problems. The Local Voices project can help local and state Leagues establish and develop this reputation as a convener of public dialogue. To maximize its potential for strengthening your League, consider the following strategies: Keep the Local Voices participants in touch with the League. Collect the contact information of participants and keep them informed about this project and about other education efforts by the League. Be sure to have membership brochures at your event and invite participants to become LWV members. Support and publicize the local action efforts that result from Local Voices. Wellorganized public dialogue efforts can produce a range of outcomes, from individual

volunteer efforts to small-group projects to policy changes. Keep tabs on the various action efforts that emerge at your event try to help these groups maintain their momentum by referring them to useful stakeholders and other resources. Make the media aware of their progress. In this way, you can demonstrate the capacity of your public dialogue efforts to produce tangible changes. Publicize the Local Voices report to Congress. Let the Local Voices participants and the local media know about the national results of the project. Consider holding a follow-up event that compares your local outcomes with those contained in the national report. Maintain the connections you make with local papers and reporters. Use Local Voices to forge relationships with local newspapers and specific reporters. Once you have a relationship with a reporter, they will continue to come to you for quotes and background, which will help you keep the League in the public light. Maintain your connection with the public officials who participated in Local Voices. Increasingly, local officials are using public dialogue efforts to involve citizens in solving problems and making policy decisions. The project will demonstrate your Leagues capacity to assist with this kind of work in the future. As hot issues and high-profile decisions arise, suggest ways that the League might work with local government to mobilize citizens. Look for funding opportunities to continue work on this issue or next action steps. Some of the Leagues with the most success in public dialogue have supported their work by winning grants from community foundations, or by soliciting donations from community organizations businesses, government, nonprofit groups that have an interest in the issue being addressed. Think of ways to leverage your Leagues involvement with Local Voices to raise new funds for your League. For example, you can cite the value of the project and your Leagues leadership in bringing this discussion to the community, using this as a selling point with your fundraising outreach appeal letters, personal visits, telephone calls to local foundations, businesses and philanthropists. Demonstrate the capacity of public dialogue for civic education and leadership development. Community leadership programs are focusing increasingly on citizen involvement skills; high schools and universities are interested in public dialogue projects as an opportunity for active civic education. Reach out to leadership trainers and educators and involve them as allies in your public dialogue work. Identify and develop leadership for your League. Use Local Voices as an opportunity to develop new League leaders. Give new or less active members roles that will develop their understanding of LWV, facilitation and community organizing.

APPENDIX Event Agendas Agenda 1 The National Debate and the Local Picture (4-5 hours) Welcome and introductory remarks by League leader (30 minutes) Small-group session 1 How do these issues affect us? (60 minutes) Participants break into groups of 8. Participants will return to these same small groups throughout the event. Please be sure that diverse breakout groups are created. Specifically, do not let attendees that come together sit together. For example, if members of the same organization attend, spread them out over different groups. Break (10-15 minutes) Small-group session 2 What values should we uphold? (75 minutes) Participants stay with the same small group. Speaker(s) on local context: What can we do in our community? (35-45 minutes) All participants speakers provide some of the local context on these issues. LWVEF suggests identifying a speaker that can address how balancing these two issues is occurring in your community. For example, consider inviting the local sheriff or chief of police. Small-group session 3A Promoting security and liberty at the community level (45 minutes) Participants stay with the same small group. Concluding remarks & questionnaire (15-20 minutes) All participants come back together and League leader provides some concluding remarks and adjourns event. Be sure to remind participants about the national report and how League will inform them about its completion. Participants complete the questionnaire individually. **Please note that it is suggested that food is provided to participants during the opening remarks or while the speaker is presenting, depending on what time of day your event is held.

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Agenda 2 The National Debate and the Local Picture with a concluding plenary session (5-5 hours) Welcome and introductory remarks by League leader (30 minutes) Small-group session 1 How do these issues affect us? (60 minutes) Participants break into groups of 8. Participants will return to these same small groups throughout the event. Please be sure that diverse breakout groups are created. Specifically, do not let attendees that come together sit together. For example, if members of the same organization attend, spread them out over different groups. Break (10-15 minutes) Small-group session 2 What values should we uphold? (75 minutes) Participants stay with the same small group. Speaker(s) on local context: What can we do in our community? (35-45 minutes) All participants speakers provide some of the local context on these issues. LWVEF suggests identifying a speaker that can address how balancing these two issues is occurring in your community. For example, consider inviting the local sheriff or chief of police. Small-group session 3A Promoting security and liberty at the community level (45 minutes) Participants stay with the same small group. Concluding plenary session (45 minutes) All participants come back together and facilitators share some feedback (2-3 strongest issues) from each groups discussion. League leader provides some concluding remarks. Be sure to remind participants about the national report and how League will inform them about its completion. Questionnaire (10 minutes) Participants complete the questionnaire individually. **Please note that it is suggested that food is provided to participants during the opening remarks or while the speaker is presenting, depending on what time of day your event is held.

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Agenda 3 The National Debate, the Local Picture, and Ways to Make a Difference (6 hours) Welcome and introductory remarks by League leader (30 minutes) Small-group session 1 How do these issues affect us? (60 minutes) Participants break into groups of 8. Participants will stay in these same small groups throughout the event. Please be sure that diverse breakout groups are created. Specifically, do not let attendees that come together sit together. For example, if members of the same organization attend, spread them out over different groups. Break (10-15 minutes) Small-group session 2 What values should we uphold? (75 minutes) Participants stay with the same small group. Speaker(s) on local context: What can we do in our community? (35-45 minutes) All participants speakers provide some of the local context on these issues. LWVEF suggests identifying a speaker that can address how balancing these two issues is occurring in your community. For example, consider inviting the local sheriff or chief of police. Small-group session 3 Promoting security and liberty at the community level (90 minutes) Participants stay with the same small group. The last 30 minutes of the discussion will focus on developing a list of 2-3 action ideas. Concluding plenary: Common themes and action ideas (30-45 minutes) All participants come back together and participants are matched with next steps (see below). League leader provides some concluding remarks and adjourns event. Be sure to remind participants about the national report and how League will inform them about its completion. Process for matching participants with next steps: Post the 2-3 action ideas agreed upon by each of the small groups in Session 3. Each idea should be on an individual sheet of paper. The ideas will be sorted and posted according to the approaches listed in Session 3. Participants will be able to see common areas of potential action, and League leaders can encourage individuals to come together or form a priority team to take action on the issue that interests them most. Optional: Allow time for the priority teams to come together and schedule their next meeting. Questionnaire (10-15 minutes) All participants, individually.

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**Please note that it is suggested that food is provided to participants during the opening remarks or while the speaker is presenting, depending on what time of day your event is held.

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