Thank you for your interest in participating in The Community Academy: Strengthening Engagement. Stanford Law School—along with colleagues from the Divided Community Project at the Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law (DCP), the National Civic League, and Fordham Law—is hosting similarly situated leaders from selected metropolitan areas to design and implement strategies to address polarizing community dynamics. This Stanford Law School Community Academy presents an opportunity to work with dispute systems design experts from across the country and community leaders from across the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
This Academy program was piloted by DCP in 2019 collaboration with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution in 2019 with core leadership groups from Charlottesville (VA), Memphis (TN), Portland (OR), and Kenyon College.
The Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School will hold The Community Academy on September 15, 16, 17 in Stanford California. Participants will work collectively to build collaborative skills. Participants will share resources with other similarly situated leaders in their community (community organizer to organizer; city manager to city manager; county sheriff to deputy policy chief). Participants will engage in role plays and hand-on planning grounded in resources from the the Divided Community Project (DCP) at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law. Participants will work with leaders, former Academy participants, a former state attorney general, former Department of Justice Community Relations Service Conciliators, and other experts to develop action steps to implement in their communities.
Applicants who are chosen to participate as core leaders will invite 6-8 individuals from their community who will attend the program and participate in their core leadership group. Communities can be municipalities or counties. Four communities will be selected. It is anticipated that there will be a total of thirty participants. Lodging and food costs are provided at no cost and there is no cost to the participants’ community. It is expected that individuals who are selected for the program will participate in the 2.5 day session, complete a few questionnaires and be willing to report back from discussion groups. The application for the Academy can be found here.
Take a look at this video from former Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney describing her experience at an Academy program.
The Community Academy is a collaborative effort between Stanford Law School Gould Center for Conflict Resolution, Fordham University Law School, the National Civic League, and the Divided Community Project at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and is funded by the AAA-ICDR Foundation.
If you have any questions about the Academy, please email the Gould Center’s Administrator, AnaMaria Ponce at aponce@stanford.edu