Overcoming Challenges to Democracy Event

Following the 2009 – 2010 Alabama Issues Forums project cycle, Mark Wilson and I decided to author a report and present it at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. We entitled the event, “Overcoming Challenges to Democracy in the State of Alabama,” and the report focused on forum reflections and concrete examples of communities in Alabama overcoming democracy’s challenge through innovative projects and programs. The report also contained a list of the community partners that participated in the project cycle, as well as the post-forum questionnaire tallies. Melanie Poole helped to design the report, and, overall, we were very pleased with the outcome. A link to an electronic copy of the report can be found here.

The reporting-out event at the Archives was a true success. Fortunately, Dr. Vaughn Grisham, director of the McLean Institute for Community Development and professor of sociology at the University of Mississippi, agreed to serve as the keynote speaker, and, in my opinion, we could not have found a more fitting presenter.  A total of seventy people attended the event, and Mark Wilson used the venue as a perfect opportunity to display the commissioned PhotoVoice pieces in the main hallway. Nearly fifty students from across the state participated in PhotoVoice, and several were in attendance for the event.

At the beginning of the presentation, Mark and I discussed the project and allowed the four Auburn interns to describe their experiences with AIF. Specifically, they discussed the communities that we worked with, PhotoVoice, public deliberation, and the Citizens’ Congress event. At the end of the first half of the presentation, we asked the attendees to answer the 2010 – 2011 Citizens’ Congress question on a small piece of paper.

Following our presentation, I asked Tom Walker, CEO of American Village, to introduce Dr. Grisham. Tom delivered a great introduction and summary of Dr. Grisham’s past work, and, to be honest, I had a few attendees tell me that they thought Tom was the keynote speaker! Dr. Grisham’s presentation was fantastic, and the Montgomery Advertiser did a great piece focusing on his case studies the following day. His case studies dealt with small towns across the country that are accomplishing extraordinary things in the midst of trying economic times. The Minnesota case study relates perfectly to the drop out rate issue that will be addressed by AIF in 2010 – 2011.

By the end of the day, over 100 reports were distributed at the Archives, and Mark and the four Auburn interns passed out a report to every legislator in the State House. Overall, I think that the event was very successful, and I am so grateful that Dr. Bridges allowed us to use the Alabama Power Auditorium.