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Speak Out Lexington1992 – 2001For Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (Kentucky), we designed Speak Out Lexington, a community-wide citizen public talk project that occurred annually between 1992 and 2001. We trained volunteer moderators and reporters to run the 50-200 facilitated, carefully designed conversations that took place each year from 1992 until 2000. We produced both a moderators' guide (644 KB, pdf) for those session and a tips booklet for moderators and reporters (624 KB, pdf). The Speak Out conversations took place within established groups, such as neighborhood associations, civic organizations, youth groups, school classrooms, or religious groups. The conversations in each session centered around the chosen topic for that year. Speak Out topics typically covered a wide range of issues and interests. The following list contains all topics addressed by Speak Out Lexington; in some years, Speak Out participants addressed more than one topic. For more information about some of these topics, check out reports from the last six years. Speak Out Lexington topics, 1992-2000:
You can also view the questions (35 KB, pdf) that accompanied each Speak Out topic or look at pictures from the 1995 Speak Out Lexington Unity Festival. On average, more than one thousand people participated in Speak Out Lexington every year. Each year we analyzed and reported on the outcomes from the meetings. As part of Speak Out Lexington in 1997 and 1998, we facilitated the Speak Out Lexington Citizen Symposium, an open citizen "think tank" for which participants read materials, and, on occasion, conducted research on the Speak Out topic for that year. Symposium participants then met four or five times to share a light meal and hold in-depth exploratory conversations on the Speak Out topic. Speak Out Lexington 2000 asked the question "How Can We Fulfill Our Promise to Young People?" The "Promise" refers to Lexington's status as a partner in General Colin Powell's national movement, America's Promise: Alliance for Youth. General Powell named Lexington a "Community of Promise" in recognition of the many things our citizens have done or are doing to provide the resources young people need to grow into successful adulthood. For the first time, Speak Out Lexington 2000 offered an alternative program — speakers from the Partners for Youth Speakers Bureau. Forty groups and 730 people participated in Speak Out sessions or heard Speakers Bureau presentations. Speak Out 2000 also featured a "Community Ties Festival" on October 5, 2000. The Festival focused on enhancing our community's commitment to young people. More than 600 people attended. To supplement the ongoing Speak Out sessions and Speakers Bureau in 2000-2001, the Mayor's Office and Urban County Government sponsored a Dialogue on Youth. The Dialogue on Youth was modeled on the work of Nobel laureate David Bohm and presented an opportunity to learn an innovative approach to group work on matters of common concern. RKI partner Steve Kay facilitated the six sessions. An average of 30 people participated in these sessions. Read more about this approach to dialogue in the Spring, 2000 issue of Best Practices, the RKI newsletter, or in an article developed for an RKI workshop at the International Association of Facilitators annual conference, which took place in April, 2000. 
Visit other descriptions of our work in the area of community change and citizen engagement.
Visit descriptions of other clients for whom we have designed dialogue processes. Reports from Speak Out LexingtonEvery year RKI analyzed the written reports from each Speak Out session. We then described the major themes or patterns of participants' responses in a Final Report. We also created a Summary Report each year that outlined the main findings. Some of these reports are now available in pdf format. You can download the reports and view them in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Speak Out 2000: How Can We Fulfill Our Promise to Young People? Speak Out 1999: How Can Our Community Be More Connected to Our Schools? Speak Out 1998: What's Going on with Young People in Our Community? Speak Out 1997: How Can We All Take Part in Our Community's Big Decisions? Speak Out 1996: Building Permanent Prosperity for Our Whole Community Speak Out 1995: How Can We Heal Racial and Other Divisions in Our Community? |
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