Ohio State University Foundation | Moritz College of Law

Organization

Ohio State University Foundation | Moritz College of Law

Project

The Divided Community Project

Grant Amount

$250,000

Overview

Since 2017, the AAA-ICDR Foundation has supported the Divided Community Project to support leaders nationally through the Academy Initiative to equip them with tools to strengthen democratic engagement and address civil unrest and community division.

Overview

Resources for Communities

The Divided Community Project’s Virtual Toolkit is a resource that describes specific community engagement and conflict resolution strategies that local leaders can use to identify and address community division and its underlying causes.

Go to the virtual toolkit

CASE STUDIES

Featuring participants in Divided Community Program’s Academy Initiative:

Case Study #1

Kenyon College

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Case Study #2

Bloomington, Indiana

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Case Study #3

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Testimonial

“We all have different positions and a lot of stress on top of everything else that’s going on, we need to respect each other and recognize that all the different organizations out there have to make tough decisions. I came away from the Academy Initiative with profound respect for others in the community, I came away with more understanding to respect the decisions of others and to be more patient, to not jump the gun and wait to hear from others before reacting to them with little information”

Representative of the Hispanic League at Winston-Salem

Testimonial

“In any community, there will inevitably be different perspectives. How do you find ways of making people feel heard and their concerns acted on? How do you find ways of arriving at consensus? These are the questions the Academy helped us ask and answer.”

Senior Advisor to the President Kenyon College

Testimonial

"The Academy Initiative helped to amplify the idea that there is a shared group of individuals who want to work together to create a safe space within our community – to know that there are others who want to make this community as safe as I do was reassuring."

Assistant Director of Diversity Initiatives Indiana University Indiana University

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THE ACADEMY INITIATIVE

The Divided Community Projects Academy Initiative sought to work with communities seeking to design processes which identify and address divisive issues tearing at the fabric of participant communities. To learn more about the Academy Initiative, please click here.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The Divided Community Project’s third Academy Initiative was hosted in Chicago from June 13-15, 2021 in partnership with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution. The project convened “core leadership groups” composed of approximately eight stakeholders from four communities: Canton and Stark Counties, Ohio; Cheverly, Maryland; Winston-Salem, North Carolina with approximately 20 leaders from across the state of Michigan.

Bloomington Indiana

The Divided Community Project’s second Academy Initiative was hosted in Chicago from March 1-3, 2020 in partnership with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution. The project convened “core leadership groups” composed of approximately eight stakeholders from four communities: Bloomington, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; Indianapolis, Indiana and Midwest City, Oklahoma.

Kenyon College

The Divided Community Project’s inaugural Academy Initiative was hosted in Chicago from March 3-5, 2019 in partnership with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution. The project convened “core leadership groups” composed of approximately eight stakeholders from four communities: Charlottesville, Virginia; Memphis, Tennessee; Kenyon College, Ohio; The state of Oregon, with an emphasis on Portland

"The Academy served as a catalyst for developing a roadmap for our community. it provided a set of resources and a set of processes that you can implement in your own setting and try to make sense of in your own community. Providing that kind of framework is very helpful for any city, and it was for our city in particular. "

– Local pastor, Winston-Salem

Learn more about the Academy Initiative.

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