Resources
285 Resources found
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Nurturing Collaboration in Colorado’s Water Community: What Have We Learned?
Building on the development of Basin Roundtables for each of the state’s river basins, Colorado's 2015 water plan set a goal of developing stream or integrated water management plans for many of the state's rivers. Now in full swing, these efforts are attempting to meet a range of stakeholder needs by seeking consensus-based solutions such as operational changes, infrastructure improvements, and restoration alternatives. CBI Senior Mediator Ryan Golten and CBI Senior Consultant Dan Birch reflect on the challenge not just of technically integrated planning, but of the human dimension of collaboratively managing water.
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Cities Building a Culture of Climate Action
Ona Ferguson and Osamu Kumasaka had the pleasure of helping Somerville, MA, develop a pilot Climate Forward Ambassadors Program that aims to foster relationships, share information, and learn with residents. CBI was hired by the Office of Sustainability and Environment to research models for community engagement, present options for staff consideration, and then refine and develop one approach into a pilot project.
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Past as Present: Facilitating collaborative processes with those who have been historically wronged
How do fundamental issues of identity, justice, and power affect the facilitation of dialogue with groups that include individuals who have experienced injustice? How does one’s own identity as a facilitator affect the ability to remain neutral and help these groups address challenges? Managing Director Pat Field reflects on lessons learned from engagements over his 25 years as a facilitator and mediator.
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Collaboration and Offshore Wind Development
Offshore wind development is rapidly accelerating in U.S waters – and diverse new and traditional users, and their interests, need to be balanced. Senior Mediator Bennett Brooks and Managing Director Patrick Field suggest that processes must accommodate substantial uncertainty as agencies, stakeholders, and developers venture into previously uncharted waters. They argue that collaboration among participating agencies and across jurisdictions is key to sustaining cooperation and trust, and avoiding costly and painful conflict as offshore wind development expands.
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CBI launched diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative
Core to CBI’s mission is our belief that all who may be affected by a decision should have a voice in the conversation. Including the perspectives of marginalized or underrepresented populations is important morally, and practically, to ensure wise and durable agreements. CBI is engaging in a process to explore how well we are living the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in our organization and in our work. We offer some initial insights about how to thoughtfully undertake a DEI initiative.
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Common Ground
In the Vina Basin in Northern California, the entire community is 100 percent reliant on groundwater for all water needs. CBI’s Senior Mediator Tania Carlone is helping the basin establish a groundwater sustainability agency and address the central issue of how to design a governance structure that will support the collaborative development of a sustainability plan for a basin where everyone has a stake.
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Volunteer Committees: Set Them Up for Success!
Some of my most rewarding projects have been with local committees that engage members of the community to make important decisions that affect that community or region. As I reflected on some of these facilitations, a number of insights and learnings surfaced about how to set up, support, and reward these volunteer bodies. Here are four suggestions for choosing the right people, setting the right expectations, and providing the right support right off the bat.
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Building a National Stakeholder Consensus on "Working Up"
Central to the American Dream is the belief that through education and hard work, each generation can raise its standard of living, and create greater opportunities for the next. But over the past forty years, incomes for lower-wage workers have stagnated, and economic inequality has increased. Education and hard work are no longer a guarantee of upward mobility for lower-wage workers.
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Addressing Land and Property Claims Amidst Rubble in Marawi
Facing growing pressure and concern to generate a strategy to address land and property issues in Marawi, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) turned to the Consensus Building Institute. CBI mediators have helped develop systems to manage post-conflict land and property issues in peace processes in Guatemala, Timor Leste, and Sri Lanka.
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CBI Helps West Virginia Schools Rebuild After Historic Flooding
It’s hard to find an arena closer to people’s hearts than their schools. In Nicholas County, West Virginia, despite shrinking enrollment and tight budgets, the rival high schools in Richwood and Summersville have served as the centers of civic community life. So it wasn’t surprising that a proposal to consolidate the schools erupted in controversy and intense conflict.
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Energy Siting Can Be Incendiary
As energy extraction and production technology has advanced, a whole host of issues around siting arose across stakeholders. CBI outlines seven key lessons from mitigating these types of conflicts and announces a new book.
