From our friends at the West Virginia Community Development Network:
How do we work together to build a more resilient, flourishing community? How do we make democracy stronger and more vibrant? These are the questions we will explore and answer together with guidance and insights from one of the nation's leading consultants and authors on these issues.
WVU's Eberly College of Arts & Sciences and its Department of Public Administration, the WV Community Development Hub, and the WV Center for Civic Life invite you to join internationally acclaimed author and consultant Matt Leighninger for a daylong workshop on how we can make democratic governance more inclusive, deliberative, and collaborative.
Where & When
The workshop will be offered twice. On Thursday, August 30th, from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM, it will be held in Morgantown at WVU at the Mountainlair Rhododendrom Room. On Friday, August 31st, from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM, it will be offered in Charleston at the University of Charleston Ballroom. There is no charge for the workshop, but registration is required, and in Morgantown, registration is limited to 60. There is no limit at the Charleston workshop.
This is an exciting opportunity for West Virginians who care about their communities to learn from one another and from one of the world's leading experts on democratic governance.
Don't miss this opportunity! Save one of these dates on your calendar! More details, along with the workshop agenda and registration information, will follow shortly.
What the Workshop Offers
Participants will learn why collaboration is critical for community improvement, and why engaging the broader community in conversations about its future is critical to developing that collaboration.
Workshop participants will leave prepared to host a series of community meetings designed to build the civic infrastructure necessary for collaborative planning and action. These preliminary activities prepare communities to develop the partnerships necessary to achieve successful, sustainable community and economic development projects. The workshop will provide tools, techniques, and materials that can be used in local communities by governments, nonprofits, and civic organizations.
We encourage you to forward this email to your networks and contacts! Help us spread the word!
A Little About Matt Leighninger
Leighninger is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, a network of over 50 organizations and universities collectively seeking to strengthen the field of deliberative democracy. He is a long-time research fellow to the National League of Cities and the Kettering Foundation. In short, his life mission is to make democratic governance more inclusive, deliberative, and collaborative. His book, The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance-And Why Politics Will Never Be the Same (Vanderbilt University Press) offers many case studies of successful collaborative democratic governance.
From the book's foreword by U.S. Senator Bill Bradley: "The stories he tells are rooted in his own experience – he really knows these people and has worked side-by-side with many of them. He has learned why civic engagement initiatives work – and how they sometimes fail."
