Rebuilding New Orleans:
Invitation to Skilled Facilitators
(application below)
 
COMMUNITY CONGRESS II DECEMBER 2, 2006 Skilled facilitators are invited to volunteer for an essential role at the Unified New Orleans Planning Process’ Community Congress II, a historic and innovative town meeting in which thousands of New Orleanians will discuss and influence options for rebuilding their beloved city. Community Congress II will be held on December 2, 2006 across five locations: New Orleans, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Dallas and Houston. A limited number of facilitators are required for each location, so please carefully review the following information and apply immediately if you are interested. We look forward to hearing from you! UNIFIED NEW ORLEANS PLAN The Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP), created by the City of New Orleans, is a process to create a single city plan for New Orleans that will incorporate planning at the neighborhood, district, and city level. Citizens will have the opportunity to contribute to the UNOP planning process through a series of meetings that focus on individual districts as well as three Community Congresses that will address the city-wide plan. For more information on UNOP, visit www.unifiedneworleansplan.com. Community Congress II will bring together the current and former population of New Orleans for thoughtful deliberation about the plan to rebuild the city. Facilitators will work with small groups of ten people to deliberate about a series of questions that will be asked over the course of the day. Via laptop computers and keypad polling devices, individual tables will share results of their conversations with the thousands of others participating across the five sites. The results of this meeting will shape the next steps for the Unified New Orleans Plan. PROCESS This unique meeting will be designed and produced by AmericaSpeaks using its 21st Century Town Meeting model. These Town Meetings create an intimate, safe space where diverse groups of people can tell their stories, listen to one another, and wrestle over tough choices, while at the same time finding consensus among thousands of people through the use of keypad polling and groupware computers. Community Congress II is aiming to engage as many New Orleanians as possible who are currently living both in the city and in the diaspora. In particular, we are seeking participation from citizens whose voices have not been heard in the process to date, in addition to those who are already involved. AmericaSpeaks is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that has worked in more than 40 communities around the U.S and in Europe. For more information: www.americaspeaks.org. And, 25 Cities Host Library Meetings: We are also recruiting outreach coordinators and facilitators for 25 libraries that are hosting a webcast meeting connected to the five larger sites on December 2. This will provide a much needed opportunity for hundreds of displaced New Orleanians participate in: Austin, Birmingham, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Jackson, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, NYC, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington DC. TO APPLY to be an outreach coordinator or facilitator, or for more information, visit the online application at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=170522741924 FACILITATOR REQUIREMENTS SKILLS & QUALITIES • Significant experience facilitating small group face-to-face deliberation, building toward consensus while holding respectful space for difference • Able to adhere to a tightly-timed program, but also able to immediately respond to real-time change in design and direction from lead facilitator • Able to focus on one's own small group while maintaining overarching responsibility to the total assembled group • Deep listening skills; able to hear both unique individual voices and also emergent themes • Comfortable with diversity on many dimensions • Comfortable with the expression of strong emotions and able to support this expression, drawing the important content back into the conversation • Aware of one’s own thoughts, opinions and feelings but able to transcend them to stay in a facilitation role despite any personal stake in the content of the conversation Because of the significant impact that Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans’ African American community, AmericaSpeaks is strongly seeking local facilitators of color to support the deliberations. Please assist us to recruit as many facilitators as possible who fit one or both of these characteristics. Note that all applicants to be a volunteer facilitator are appreciated and will be considered. MUST BE WILLING TO COMMIT TO... • Volunteer your time from 8:00am to 4:30pm on Saturday December 2nd in one of the five meeting cities: New Orleans, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Dallas or Houston. • Register and attend (we will accommodate telecommuting) a 2-1/2 hour program orientation at one of several sites and times before the meeting. • Participate in a quick debrief at the conclusion of the meeting to provide feedback and suggestions to planners and colleagues. IF INTERESTED Please complete our online application. You will be asked to provide information about your full contact information (name, email, phone, address, race and gender), a short summary of your facilitation experience, how you heard about this facilitation opportunity and at which location you would like to facilitate, Online Application: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=170522741924 Thank you... for considering this opportunity. We welcome your support in helping us recruit skilled facilitators for Community Congress II through the wide distribution of this email to your networks. Note that spaces for facilitators are limited, so please apply soon if you would like to participate. 

Don't hesitate to be in touch with any questions you may have. Susanna Haas Lyons Community Congress II Facilitator Coordinator shaaslyons@americaspeaks.org   202-775-3939 x1019   http://www.unifiedneworleansplan.comhttp://www.americaspeaks.orghttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=170522741924http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=170522741924mailto:shaaslyons@americaspeaks.org%22%20%5Co%20%22mailto:shaaslyons@americaspeaks.orgshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4
(Photos by Dirk Velten taken at April 2006
AmericaSpeaks event in Dallas)