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International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College
Columbia University

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  • The U.S. has the highest rate of youth-firearm violence in the industrialized world.
  • Between 1970-1989, employment discrimination cases increased 2,166%.
ICCCR

International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution

ICCCR Practice > ICCCR Current Projects

ICCCR Current Projects

Dialogue and Public Engagement - The ICCCR is interested in fostering social change through research and practice in the areas of dialogue and public engagement.

Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) - We worked with the CFE and Public Agenda in helping facilitate the dialogue and public engagement aspect of their efforts. The CFE, a coalition of parent groups, community school boards and education advocacy organizations, launched a constitutional challenge to New York’s education finance system in 1993 on behalf of school children from and around the state. The CFE won their case in 2005 when schools were awarded an additional $5.6 billion for operating expenses to be paid out over four years and $9.2 billion for facilities.  The public engagement aspect of this effort was to create community-level dialogue to inform and stimulate public education reform. The complexity of the educational system and prevalence of seemingly intractable conflicts among the various stakeholder groups pose challenges to social change in areas that are in alignment with the educational, scholarly, and practical foci of the ICCCR.

NYC School Districts - We worked with parents and administrators in two school districts of the New York City Department of Education. We helped plan and facilitate Study Circles Programs on the theme of “Helping Every Student Succeed.” The underlying concern of the Parent Association presidents was the uneven distribution of resources within the school districts. The different stakeholder groups within the communities concerned were given the opportunity to convene together and be heard.

Parent Association Scholar Interface - We had the opportunity to facilitate discussions and workshops with Parent Association groups on how parents can build effective parent teams and therefore partner more effectively and constructively with schools.

Co-Authoring Article with CBO - We have been engaging with a community based organization in an Appreciative Participatory Action Research (A-PAR) process, supporting them in addressing their organizational changes and improvement of intra-organizational communication. The process has been very successful with many learning opportunities, we want to collectively write about the experience for other organizations to learn from this model.