The Speak Your Peace Civility Project is a project of the Community Foundation’s Millennium Group, which serves as a community resource for building civic engagement in our region.

The focus of the Speak Your Peace Civility Project is to provide civil and respectful opportunities for people to present their views and discuss community issues and, thus, increase civic participation. The Project’s key message is to promote nine simple tools for practicing civility, taken from P.M. Forni’s book Choosing Civility. The tools are:

1. Pay Attention. Be aware and attend to the world and the people around you.
2. Listen. Focus on others in order to better understand their points of view.
3. Be Inclusive. Welcome all groups of citizens working for the greater good of the community.
4. Don’t Gossip. And don’t accept when others choose to do so.
5. Show Respect. Honor other people and their opinions, especially in the midst of a disagreement.
6. Be Agreeable. Look for opportunities to agree; don’t contradict just to do so.
7. Apologize. Be sincere and repair damaged relationships.
8. Give Constructive Criticism. When disagreeing, stick to the issues and don’t make a personal attack.
9. Take Responsibility. Don’t shift responsibility and blame onto others; share disagreements publicly.

Target audiences include elected officials, political groups, neighborhood clubs and organizations, unions, businesses, church groups, and schools. The Millennium Group wants to reach people who are uncivil as well as those who allow uncivilized behavior to happen.

Status: The curriculum developed around the nine tools of civility is being edited and updated to incorporate teacher feedback.

Highlights:
-On November 5, 2006 the nationally syndicated, Nickelodeon News, featured a segment on the Community Foundation’s Speak Your Peace initiative.
-A proposal to include a Speak Your Peace presentation was selected from over 150 applications submitted to the 2006 Minnesota Council on Foundations/Minnesota Council of Nonprofits fall conference.
-The Community Foundation is working in conjunction with Cleveland Heights, Ohio, to develop a proposal for a national Ad Council campaign.

Civility Project Curriculum Members: Facilitators, Kathy Bartsias and Deb Anderson. Plus a team of 25 teachers, students and AmeriCorps VISTA workers.

For more information, contact, Initiatives or 218-726-0232.

HT Klatzky & Associates, a Duluth advertising and public relations firm, generously contributed all of its creative, design, and media relations work for the Project, including creating a title and logo; developing a Vision Statement; designing the kickoff event invitation, poster, wallet cards, outdoor and print advertising, buttons, window clings, and a website (www.dsaspeakyourpeace.org); producing two television spots and a video; and obtaining donations for paper, printing, radio and TV, the website, newspaper, and outdoor advertising. These generous in-kind contributions totaled more than $150,000. After hearing about the Project from Klatzky staff, a local musician volunteered to compose a song for the Project, “I Will Remember You.”

Millennium Group members, Community Foundation staff, and the Klatzky firm planned and produced the Project’s kickoff event on August 25, 2003. About 100 people attended the kickoff where they heard remarks from members of the Project’s Committee, saw the video and first television spot, and heard the song.

A common resolution which supports the premise of the Speak Your Peace Civility Project was developed by City Councilors from Duluth and Superior, and was passed by the Duluth City Council on August 25, 2003. Five other public bodies have since passed the resolution, most unanimously: the Superior City Council (which added a tenth tool: “Tell the Truth”); the School Boards for the School Districts for Duluth and Superior; the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners, and the Douglas County Board of Supervisors. The resolution can be adopted by any group. A speaker’s bureau is being developed; presentation materials include Speak Your Peace video, a power point presentation with script, a video of the TV spots, and campaign materials. Presentations have been made at local service clubs, a hospital, and a college, and a special invitation to speak was made by the organizers of a Civility Symposium which occurred on February 17, 2003 in Northfield, Minnesota. The keynote speaker at this Symposium was Kent Roberts from the National Civility Center. More than 5,600 posters, wallet cards, buttons, window clings, and Vision Statements have been distributed, and the Community Foundation receives requests for these every week as well as requests for speaker presentations. The radio and TV spots and outdoor ads continue to run.

The audience response has been enthusiastic and supportive; this citizen’s comment is typical: “I’ve already been telling people about it (bank teller this morning!) and plan to have the poster laminated tomorrow! I think this is such an important set of values to keep in mind.” The Project has generated media interest – it has been the subject of or referenced in articles, editorials, and letters to the editor/guest editorials in newspapers (the Duluth News Tribune, Budgeteer News, The Daily Telegram, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and TwinPortsPeople.com), and in radio and TV station reports, shows, and interviews (Minnesota Public Radio, WCCO-AM radio, WDIO-TV, WDSE-TV, and KDLH-TV). Two of the mayoral candidates in Duluth’s fall 2003 elections declared their support for the Project.

In 2004 the Project’s Committee will explore ways to work with youth from the Scott Anderson Leadership Foundation, which promotes leadership training and service among area youth. The Foundation has an endowment fund with the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation.

While the public information campaign has not ended, it has reached hundreds of people in our area, and support for the Project continues to grow. Please see www.dsaspeakyourpeace.org for more information.