What We Do

Neighborhood Leadership Program (NLP)

What are Dialogues-to-Change?

The Neighborhood Leadership Program (NLP) of the Human Services Coalition (HSC) uses the discussion/issue guides of Everyday Democracy for its dialogues-to-change. NLP has also created its own successful guide (Access to Action), which helps groups analyze healthcare access issues at the community level, develop a vision for improved healthcare for the community and follow through with action plans. The guide is currently part of Everyday Democracy's online Issue Guide Exchange.

Everyday Democracy (www.everyday-democracy.org) is a national, nonprofit organization that helps local communities explore ways for all kinds of people to think, talk and work together to solve problems. Using groundbreaking tools and methods for organizing large-scale dialogue and collaborative problem solving, Everyday Democracy works with neighborhoods, cities and towns, regions, and states, helping them pay particular attention to how racism and ethnic differences affect the problems they address.

Frequently Asked Questions @ Dialogue-to-Change:

Dialogues-to-change are used as a community building and leadership development tool.
Dialogues-to-change are most successful when many dialogue groups are being facilitated at one time. Participants are then brought together to share outcomes, network, identify resources and access organizing and training opportunities.
Essentially the dialogue-to-change is composed of a diverse group of community members (race, ethnicity, educational levels, professional/non-professional, local leaders, concerned community members, etc.)
Each dialogue-to-change should have 10 -12 participants.
Well facilitated dialogues-to-change provide a level playing field for all participants to respond to important issues, learn to listen to others and discover how to work together to bring positive change to communities.
Dialogue-to-change methodology concentrates on building community assets (strengths).
An important outcome of Dialogue-to-Change is the likelihood of increased community engagement around important issues.
A variety of dialogues-to-change issue guides provide opportunities for communities to learn from each other, exploring opportunities and building community collaboratively. Guides cover a range of options: building strong neighborhoods, building neighborhoods for families with children, education, racism and diversity, building healthy communities, etc. >> find guides
Trained facilitators are essential to the success of dialogues-to-change.

For more information on dialogue-to-action, discussion/issue guides, etc., visit Everyday Democracy (www.everyday-democracy.org).