What are National Issues Forums?
National Issues Forums (NIF) bring people together to deliberate carefully on urgent issues so they can lay the foundation for public choices that everyone can live with. In these forums, everyday people gather to do the public’s business.
We weigh the benefits and advantages in each of several approaches against the costs and consequences.
We work through the emotional and ethical dilemmas of an issue to find some tradeoffs we are willing to accept.
We filter and clarify the values and choices that support the public’s hope that policy decisions will increasingly reflect the public’s ‘common ground’ values.
NIF workshops are held at the University of California at Davis or, increasingly, at other sites in northern and southern California for specific interest groups. These workshops offer training sessions that are fast-paced and experiential in style, providing a safe and friendly atmosphere to gain understanding and skill in the practice of non-partisan, deliberative decision making.
The NIF Basics Workshop teaches a proven small-group discussion methods that participants can use to lead deliberative conversations in a variety of settings--this workshop starts the learning process in deliberative decision making.
The Community Teams Workshop teaches additional roles and methods that community members can use to generate deliberative forums in support of inclusive local participation in public decisions.
The Issue Framing Workshops lead participants through a sequence of research and writing activities to prepare a discussion guide on local community issues.
How did the California Network in NIF develop?
A nonpartisan nationwide network of individuals and organizations who conduct NIF-style forums has grown through the years as people from all over the United States discovered the power of public deliberation. Since 1991, workshops have been conducted at the University of California at Davis to share NIF understanding and skills, and to create an informal network of NIF practitioners. The California Network has worked on many different deliberative projects through the years, and has developed many partnerships across California. Recently, our primary method of workshop development has been with community, governmental, and non-profit groups that want on-site sessions with a specific issue in mind.
Contact the California NIF Network at consult@nifica.org or director@nifica.org
© 2006 California NIF Network