Making the case

C2D2's Making The Case Campaign

Dialogue and deliberation (D&D) is making a real difference to Canadian community life, public policy making, responding to major problems such as climate change and homelessness, and how governments interact with their citizens. These contributions need to be heard and celebrated more widely.

Call for stories
To read the submitted stories, click here

We Need Innovative Solutions

Communities across Canada are examining their future prospects, seeking coordinated and innovative responses to the impacts of homelessness, poverty, mental illness, the global economic downturn, public safety, climate change and ecological deterioration. These communities are also seeking more collaborative and creative approaches to the issues facing our diverse and complex world. Governments, however, are faced with finite resources and growing needs. They recognize that finding lasting solutions calls for new ways of engaging the public. 

We Need Diverse Viewpoints and Shared Ownership of Process and Results

D & D is a form of social innovation, much needed to develop creative and responsive public policy. We need greater involvement of citizens and experts across disciplines to frame the challenges and find innovative solutions. Neither top down, nor bottom-up responses are adequate. We need dialogic methods and approaches that harness good ideas, problem solving and action from all sectors of society. In our growing multicultural Canada we have a huge opportunity to tap the potential of this diversity. Canada is seen as a model for how multiculturalism works. Are we making the most of it?

What do we mean by D & D? Here are our basis assumptions:

Dialogue is concerned with:

• Surfacing assumptions
• Willingness to suspend certainty and look beyond the obvious or given orthodoxies for new possibilities)
• Listening to understand rather than convince

Genuine dialogue requires:

• Empathy (profound listening) 
• Equality among participants (a level “playing field” among participants
• Courage to challenge ourselves and each other with respect

Deliberation is:

• About exploring options to make choices
• A process that leads to decision-making by including all stakeholders in considering balanced information, options and diverse perspectives

Deliberative dialogue is:

• A method of dialogue oriented to values-based choice-work.

Potential of D&D

D&D processes, well designed and implemented, have the potential to:

• Deepen understanding,
• Transform adversarial relationships,
• Inform decision making/public policy, and
• Provide the basis for collaborative work.

These four streams of dialogue and deliberation are drawn from the pioneering work of Sandy Heierbacher and the US based National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation.