In 2017, the Village Arts and Culture Commission hung banners on the north and south ends of Xenia Avenue in Yellow Springs. The banners’ message, “KIND NESS,“ was intended to spur conversation and reflection about community values. (Submitted photo)
Villagers launch Civil Discourse Pilot Program
- Published: July 5, 2025
In a village known for civic engagement and public discourse, recent debates over deeply felt issues — housing, schools and the community’s future — have sometimes broken down into fraught communication. This summer, local organizers hope to help chart a constructive path with the launch of the Civil Discourse Pilot Program, an initiative designed to foster more thoughtful dialogue by modeling civil discourse through a series of public events.
The program, funded by the Yellow Springs Community Foundation, is led by longtime resident and former Village Council member Marianne MacQueen and April Wolford, local activist and business owner.
“The idea for this project took shape after the LIHTC discussions,” Wolford said, referring to last year’s sometimes contentious public debate over a proposed affordable housing project. “It sometimes felt vicious, and many people were thinking, ‘We have to be able to do better than this in terms of coming together, communication and respect.’”
The first event of the pilot, “Running for Local Office — It’s Important,” will take place July 8 at the John Bryan Center. At the top of the program, local resident Ellis Jacobs will discuss the importance of effective local democracy, and Mayor Pam Conine will give an overview of the structures and functions of Village, Township and school board governance.
A moderated panel of local elected officials — including Conine, Village Council member Carmen Brown, Township Trustee Chair Chris Mucher and Board of Education President Rebecca Potter — will talk about what it means to serve in office and how public discourse affects both local governance and those elected to govern on a personal level.
“We’re experiencing the erosion of democratic processes at the national and even state levels,” MacQueen said. “That makes it really critical for us to know how to work democratically at the local level.”
The program will be moderated by Village Mediation Program Coordinator Brady Burkett, who will facilitate an audience Q&A following the panel discussion. He will also help establish “ground rules” for discussion — a common practice in mediation, in which all participants agree to guidelines that offer everyone a chance to hear and be heard.
MacQueen pointed out that giving folks an understanding of the varied aspects of serving in local public office seemed like a natural starting point for the pilot program, since much of the discord in public communication over the last few years has taken place within, or surrounding, the meetings of local governing bodies. She added, however, that local government meetings themselves aren’t always the best places for the “types of discussion needed to find solutions most effectively.”
“Ideally, this project — if it continues — will help us develop venues and spaces where these discussions can take place,” she said. “This could be a great service to those in elected offices, as a way to develop the educated will of the people.”
What might civil discourse look like?
While “civil discourse” is sometimes mistaken for simply being polite, it’s an intentional practice with a far-reaching goal, emphasizing empathy and the understanding that we work better together than we do apart.
The Ohio State University’s Center for Ethics and Human Values, in an introductory essay about its “Civil Discourse for Citizenship” program, describes the practice as “deliberating about matters of public concern in a way that seeks to expand knowledge and promote understanding,” with the aim of developing mutual respect, building civic trust and identifying common ground. The program emphasizes the “4 Cs” of civil discourse: “Be curious, be charitable, be conscientious and be constructive.”
Across the U.S., the need for civil discourse skills has grown more apparent over the last several decades, with communication across political divides often the most difficult bridge to gap. In response, initiatives like OSU’s that research and educate about civil discourse have been established at a number of higher learning institutions, including at Duke, Harvard and American universities. The town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a population of 30,000, operates its own volunteer-led civil discourse initiative.
In Yellow Springs, conflicting ideas are often more constrained to local issues than national ones, at least in public discourse — but Wolford pointed out that the effects of rifts in communication are often the same, no matter the locus of the disagreement.
“And social media doesn’t help — people can be much meaner in online forums than they would be if talking face-to-face,” she said. “So, our goal is to create in-person spaces where people can disagree productively, hear each other, maybe think about things differently afterward — or at least walk away with a better understanding of where others are coming from.”
The pilot program draws inspiration from earlier Yellow Springs traditions — in particular, the Friday Forums series launched in 1983 by Antioch College professor Al Denman. Those forums brought community members together to hear informed views on key issues, with the aim of deepening understanding across divides. Two additional events within the pilot program currently being planned for later in the summer will hark back to the Friday Forums, but will experiment with format and reach.
“We’re really trying to think about: What’s the right model now?” YS Community Foundation Program Manager Chloe Manor said. “How do we create a space where people can listen to opposing views without freaking out?”
The pilot program’s founders hope they can find the best path forward via consistency, by listening over shared meals that they plan to incorporate into forum events later this summer, and in follow-up discussions sessions after the forums.
“It’s important that these are not one-and-done events,” Wolford said. “The goal is to build this into a sustained process. You can’t change how people communicate overnight. It takes time — and opportunities for sustained dialogue.”
The pilot dovetails with the YS Community Foundation’s evolving mission, which has included its establishment of the YSEQUITY guaranteed income program, as well as its support of civic engagement and discussion through last year’s Village Cafe events, among other initiatives. As Manor explained, the Foundation is part of a national cohort with CFLeads, which works to help community foundations play a stronger role in civic leadership, economic and racial justice and community learning.
“We’ve been thinking a lot about, ‘How do we do more convening? How do we make the most meaningful impact by helping people collaborate, getting different folks to the table and making a place for people who aren’t normally heard?’” Manor said.
She added that the pilot program is, as its name suggests, an experiment, the shape of which could change, as it also aims to help shape what modeling civil discourse on a village level looks like.
“Is this model going to reach beyond the 20 people in the village who show up to everything?” Manor said. “Those 20 people are so important, but we’re really interested in finding a way to hear [from a range of] people and know where they’re coming from, where they’re at, what they’re experiencing and what their ideas are.”
“Running for Local Office — It’s Important,” the kick-off event for the Civil Discourse Pilot Program, will be held Tuesday, July 8, 7–9 p.m., in Rooms A and B at the Bryan Center. All are welcome to attend.
More information about the pilot program’s second and third events, slated for later this summer, will be announced in future issues of the News.
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