Making Civic Connections

In 1996, the National Endowment for the Humanities challenged communities to start a national conversation about "American Pluralism and Identity". Imagine Chicago launched Making Civic Connections, a series of intergenerational public forums linking community values to issues of civic identity and participation. Community groups discussed and discovered what they had in common as Chicagoans and as ‘Americans’.

Program organizers began by contacting religious and cultural organizations including "newcomer" communities and inviting them to participate with an intergenerational team which included a humanist from their own community. The invitation resulted in 19 teams, including participants from the Zoroastrian, Kampuchean Buddhist, Somalian, Laotian Christian, Filipino, and Native American communities, just to name a few.

Throughout the summer, ‘community scholars’ led intra-group preparatory conversations in which each group discussed and documented their own ethnic, religious, historical, and cultural identity around the question: "How do we want to be known in the city?" The Mexican community, for example, thought that "while there are greater employment opportunities in the U.S., racism and discrimination are key factors reducing the quality of life and the advancement of the Mexican community."

As part of these initial conversations, some groups even drafted "declarations of independence" as a way to identify the rights and values most important to them.

Three communities then combined into groups to have conversations in local venues, such as a library. These meetings were open to the public, and each conversation was designed around a series of organizing questions. Certain key national documents were used to further stimulate discussion.

This program brought many voices to the table who may not otherwise have an opportunity to be heard. Participants could reflect in public and frame common concerns. They were invited to share their perspectives on topics ranging from "Remembering the Tests of History" and "Considering Chicago as a Testing Ground for Democracy" to "Imagining Chicago’s Future Together". Conversations were initiated around opening questions, like "Why does the U.S. Constitution begin with the phrase, ‘We the people’?" The intent was to provide an uncommon opportunity for substantive dialogue about how the city’s future gets created out of the best of our collective inheritance. One Filipino leader commented, "For the twenty years we have been in Chicago, we have only been talking in our community organization about survival. Now we have been asked what we have to contribute to the city. It is an exciting question that we are now asking ourselves."

One of the most engaging moments of the program occurred with participants from Chicago’s Baha’i Community, Haiti’s Tenth Department Organization and the Muslim Social Scientists Group. Group introductions fueled subsequent conversations about the slave revolt in the Haitian community, the history of Islam, and fundamental beliefs of the Baha’i faith. Soon members of each team were actively engaging in a discussion about the strength of diversity and the place of religion in a "secular" society.

The conversations built better understandings within and among groups, and also set the stage for various joint community efforts. As Harry Fouché, of Haiti’s Tenth Department Organization stated, "From these exchanges, we are not only learning from each other, we are also discovering who we really are ourselves."

More on the National Conversation can be found in One America Indivisible published by NEH.