What makes deliberative dialogue more effective than other forms of public discourse, such as brainstorming or debate?
The process allows people to tell personal stories that apply to the issue and the choices they’re talking about. With a lot of forms of discussion, there’s not the opportunity for people to tell real stories. But in deliberative dialogue, people can get to the root of why they believe the things they do. Can you provide any specific examples? One community in South Sumter used the NIFI forum to discuss violent kids. At first, the group said one of the biggest problems is the young people who loiter on the curbs, and that we need to work with law enforcement to remove them. I was facilitating that forum and decided to share a story with them about a recent incident: I had gone to one of the recreation facilities at one of the CYFAR sites and there were 10 big burly guys standing around in a circle on the front curb. It looked odd, so I asked them what they were doing. And there was this dog on the street at their feet. They said the dog had just been hit by a car and they were waiting
