About Renewing Democracy’s Promise Programs
Renewing Democracy’s Promise is a four-year, cross-sector initiative built on the belief that communities can best maintain and strengthen shared freedoms by practicing them together. Welcoming higher education institutions, students, alumni, faculty, and staff, as well as community leaders and organizations, artists, and scholars, we foster meaningful conversations that help those with differing views find common cause and provide space to create real-world impact on America’s democratic infrastructure.
Democracy250: Preserving a Free, Fair Future
The inaugural action of Renewing Democracy’s Promise is Democracy250, a national civic initiative led by Wesleyan University in partnership with campuses, organizations, educators, artists, journalists, students, and communities working across traditional lines of division to embrace one fundamental belief: democracy belongs to all of us. Through national convenings, storytelling campaigns, student leadership initiatives, public conversations, courses, campus partnerships, and media engagement, Democracy250 seeks to make civic participation accessible, relevant, and hopeful.
Conversation to Action
A cornerstone of Renewing Democracy’s Promise initiative, Conversation to Action is a collaboration between Wesleyan University and Urban Rural Action. Together, we offer our campus and Middletown, CT, communities, as well as our national network of partners, opportunities for meaningful conversations that help bridge divides, promote civic engagement, and create impactful collective action.
Components of Conversation to Action are embedded throughout the Renewing Democracy’s Promise initiative. As part of your participation, you may encounter:
This series of large campus events engages both our campus and broader communities in conversations about democracy featuring panels of practitioners, scholars, artists, and public figures who spark ideas for our network to build on.
Open to our campus and Middletown community members, these regular, in-person gatherings build critical skills in communicating about important issues across differences. Participants receive training in collaboration techniques and learn how to facilitate conversations on sensitive issues between groups that disagree that promote understanding and spread the ability to restore civility in polarizing times.
This summer program trains participants to become teachers themselves, equipped to instruct others in how to lead constructive conversation, facilitate rapid deescalation of political tensions, and implement collaborative civic action. In collaboration with our Office of Student Affairs, Conversation to Action will also provide conferences for student leaders at Wesleyan and partner institutions.
These groups are determined by location and gather students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community members for a full academic year of collaboration. Together, they build the skills to engage in meaningful political dialogue, collectively identify civic issues, and successfully implement solutions.
Working with partner institutions, we will host conversations amongst students, support faculty exchange programs, and sponsor collaborative research for students and faculty at Wesleyan and our partner institutions including Benedict College, The College of Holy Cross, Connecticut State Tunxis, Goshen College, and the University of Austin.
