This Is Civity

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Jacqueline Font-Guzmán, vice president for diversity, equity, & inclusion at Eastern Mennonite University; and strategic vision director for the Center of Justice & Peace Building at EMU. Civity has been privileged to support EMU on its Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) journey with workshops for the President and her Cabinet and the Board of Trustees. Together, we explore how to make DEI work transformative, including the importance of making it relational, and building trust and partnership among groups in a community to forge strong connections.

In this episode, we welcome Graham Bodie, professor of integrated marketing communication at the University of Mississippi, and chief listening officer with the Listen First Project. As with Civity, the Listen First Project supports the creation of bridging relationships - focusing its efforts on elevating the impact, visibility, and voice of organizations doing bridging work. We explore how Listen First brings bridging organizations together and works to bring more people to the experience of connecting across differences.  We also discuss the act of listening itself, the importance of learning how to listen, and what listening looks like in different contexts.

In this episode, we speak with David Eisner, CEO of the nonprofit bridging organization Convergence , about the increasing role of bridging organizations in cultivating relationships across difference, and working to preserve and nurture healthy civic spaces. Convergence convenes people and groups with divergent views to build trust, identify solutions, and form alliances for action on critical national issues.

In this episode, we talk with Josh Schachter - Founder & director of Community Share, a nonprofit that connects community resources, artists, organizations, and people to teachers, students, and schools.  The goal is to share wisdom and knowledge across these connections… and create real-world learning experiences for young people. To find out more … or get involved… go to CommunityShare.us.  

Welcoming Week is an annual event put on by the organization Welcoming America to support communities seeking to increase belonging among all members of their communities, including immigrants. The theme for 2021event is “Belonging Begins With Us” - reminding all of us that we can do our part to help others feel welcomed. My guests are: Jordyne Krumroy, Senior Regional Manager for Welcoming America -AND- Anthony Salas, Senior Manager of Events & Membership for Welcoming America Welcoming Week 2021 takes place fromSeptember 10-19. Find out more at https://welcomingamerica.org/WelcomingAmerica.org or BelongingBeginsWithUs.org 

In this episode, we explore the importance of bridging and relational infrastructure to achieving healthy communities.  Our guest is Nang Mo Kham, Eisenhower Fellow & senior health specialist at the World Bank. Based in Myanmar. Nang sees herself as someone who can help establish a system that knits together local services, including education, public health, and others, to improve access for everyone, no matter their social status, background, or ethnicity… and thus improve the overall health of her community.  Nang’s work aligns with the civity principles of building relational infrastructure to bridge difference and move from us-vs-them to ‘we all belong.’  We are also joined in this episode by our Civity intern, Maya Fiorella.  

 In this episode, we explore the role of the public health department, and how civity practices can help local public health officials navigate differences and help residents feel heard and seen.  The public health department is involved in anything that can impact the health of populations – from obvious activities, such as educating the public about COVID-19, to activities that may not be immediately clear, such as being involved in transit planning or declaring racism a public health crisis.  To be effective and really reach the publics that they serve, public health departments must figure out how to communicate with those who may disagree with government officials and each other.  My guest is Andy Wessel, community health planner with the Douglas County Health Department in Omaha, Nebraska. 

In this episode, we talk with Melissa Weintraub, founder & co-executivedirector of Resetting the Table , which focuses on building dialogue and deliberation across political divides. RTT focuses on seemingly intractable differences that are breeding distrust, a lack of empathy, and marginalization. To learn more about Resetting the Table, and to view the film Purple – which uncovers humanity beneath our national conflicts, go to ResettingTheTable.org/Purple. 

 In this episode, we talk with Adriana Sanchez-Solis, Policy & Education Program Manager, in the Office of Equity & Inclusion… at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. Adriana’s office worked with Civity as part of a Seeding Civity grant, and she discusses how Civity influenced her work. 

In this episode, we explore the Seeding Civity partnership with the University YMCA at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My guests are: Jes DeVries, director of immigrant family services at the University YMCA, and Cynthia Markstahler, Global Engagement Coordinator and AmeriCorps Vista Coordinator at the University YMCA.