Report to the CAN Board of Directors Deliberative Dialogues on Safety & Justice Report to the CAN Board of Directors February 9, 2018

Kettering Foundation What does it take to make a democracy work as it should?  Dialogue Respect Listening Understanding You may recall that CAN was invited by the Kettering Foundation to participate in a Learning Exchange on Naming and Framing Local Issues. Through this exchange, CAN became involved with the Deliberative Dialogue process for community engagement. The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. Kettering’s primary research question is, what does it take to make democracy work as it should? Kettering’s research is distinctive because it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do collectively to address problems affecting their lives, their communities, and their nation. The basic idea is that we can improve the quality of our democracy by improving the quality of the conversations we have with each other.

National Issues Forum The NIF Network – Anyone interested in the practice of group deliberation. The NIF Institute – Publishes and distributes an ongoing series of Issue Guides and Videos that Network members can use. The Kettering Foundation – A vital research partner whose research is used by the NIF Institute to develop issues guides and shared with the NIF Network.

Deliberative Dialogues CAN’s History with Deliberative Dialogues Building a Community of Equity & Opportunity – 2015 & 2016 NIF Issue Guide: Safety & Justice – 2017 NIF Issue Guide: Addressing the Opioids Epidemic - 2018 Note that for the first dialogue topic, we had to draft our own issue guide which included six to nine months of listening sessions to get diverse perspectives on the topic before developing the three options that will drive the dialogue process.

Deliberative Dialogues – The Process Forums are neutrally moderated. (25 people trained as moderators) The issue to be discussed is introduced using the National Issues Guide, our local issues insert and a 3 to 5 minute video on selected topic. Participants are asked to share how the issue affects them. Participants consider 3 options for addressing this challenge. Participants deliberate and identify common ground.

Safety & Justice Dialogues Play Video for Safety & Justice Dialogues Note that for the first dialogue topic, we had to draft our own issue guide which included six to nine months of listening sessions to get diverse perspectives on the topic before developing the three options that will drive the dialogue process.

Safety & Justice Dialogues September –October 2017 St. Edwards University University Presbyterian Church Huston-Tillotson University We hosted the dialogues in different parts of the City. Advertisement was through the CAN email news list and also via social media. Organizations hosting the dialogues also advertised opportunity to their members and networks.

Who participated? Ninety people from 45 different zip codes. Fifty-eight percent were women. Almost one-half were White, 16% were Hispanic, 18% were African American and 11% were Asian or Other Race/Ethnicity. 37% were between the ages of 18 and 30 27% were between the ages of 46 and 64 17% were aged 31 – 45 17% were 65+ Over 100 people participated in the 3 sessions. 90 of them completed evaluations, which gave us this data.

3 Options Enforce the Law Together: Expand policing while strengthening community-police partnerships. Apply the Law Fairly: Remove injustices, reform inequities and improve accountability. De-escalate and Prevent Violence: Reduce the culture of violence and take direct actions to disrupt conflict. We considered three approaches to promoting safety and justice. People were encouraged to consider the trade-offs and negative consequences of the solutions they liked the most. Neutral moderators made sure every voice was heard.

5 Overarching Themes Strengthening ties between the police and the community. Increasing education and training. Encouraging engaged and responsible community members. Accountability and transparency in the justice system. Addressing broader systemic and societal issues. Pages 3 to 6 of report provide greater details for the top themes that emerged.

Specific Actions Advocated By Dialogue Participants Engagement & Communication Addressing Mental Health Issues Training and Education Other Actions Pages 3 to 6 of report provide greater details for the top themes that emerged.

Impact on Participants About 2/3 of participants reported talking about aspects of the issue they hadn’t considered before attending the forum. About 1/3 of participants reported that the dialogue changed how they felt about ideas or proposals they found favorable coming into the forum.

Next Steps Share Safety & Justice Report with local elected officials and law enforcement agencies. Discuss our local experience with Kettering Foundation later this month. Develop a planning team for 2018 dialogues on Addressing the Opioids Epidemic. Hold dialogues in September 2018.