James Madison University
IN-48: Innovation B

With a mission to “inspire dialogue and deliberation that shapes engaged and inclusive communities and informs sound policies,” the Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue (ICAD) at JMU serves to advance the practice of designing and facilitating conversations that help communities talk and think together. By coupling the practice of facilitating dialogue, deliberation, and collaboration with project-based training to build facilitation capacity, ICAD strives to empower stakeholders to engage across differences as a cultural norm and employ these tools to address challenges and opportunities of civic life. The institute’s contributions make for efficient and effective collaborations between campus and community groups striving to make progress towards a more sustainable world. ICAD’s work minimizes setbacks that can sabotage enthusiasm and group momentum and helps strengthen collaborative relationships necessary to make sustained and significant change at JMU and within the community.

ICAD prioritizes working with groups and organizations that are focused on broad community outcomes, and they also work with organizations interested in designing and implementing strategic discussions about their mission, values, and goals. ICAD has an open call for requests by campus and community groups interested in ICAD services. Since its inception in 2012, the institute has supported university and community focused efforts by partnering with groups dedicated to forwarding initiatives that can be aligned to each of the three dimensions of sustainability, with many initiatives addressing all three dimensions of sustainability simultaneously. The following are some examples of groups ICAD has worked with, listed by the aligned dimension:

All Dimensions: JMU Sustainable Development Goals Dialogues, Harrisonburg and Rockingham Bike-Walk Summit (annual and ongoing), Renew Rocktown Strategic Planning, and
Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market Strategic Planning

Environmental Dimension: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Green Government initiative, Virginia Green – Green certification program for travel and tourism industry, and Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaboration

Social Dimension: United Way ALICE Community Conversation, Students as Neighbors: Collaborating for Sustainable Solutions, Northern Shenandoah Valley Rails to Trails Project, Harrisonburg City Council Candidate Forums, Virginia Social Studies Leadership Consortium, and Access to Health – It’s Political

Economic Dimension: Shenandoah Valley Planning District Commission’s Fields of Gold program Way2Go, and an unemployment insurance card program - A National Issues Forum (NIF) - Our Budget Priorities

Below are details for some of the above facilitated conversations and processes with the community (source: ICAD's 2019-2020 annual report):

While the 2020 Harrisonburg and Rockingham Bike-Walk Summit was postponed due to the pandemic, in 2018-2019, ICAD continued its longitudinal support of this annual Summit, a collaborative effort by the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition and the Central Shenandoah Valley Planning District Commission to bring together key decision-makers, public administrators, university actors, and bicycling/walking enthusiasts to discuss ways to improve biking and walking in the City and the County.
Northern Shenandoah Valley Rails to Trails Project – ​ICAD continues to serve as the facilitation consultants for the Northern Shenandoah Valley Rails to Trails Project, a regional collaboration involving two counties, two Planning District Commissions, fifteen towns, and a range of non-profit stakeholders. Activities in the 2019/2020 reporting period included facilitating the development of draft bylaws for the Partnership, designing and implementing a region-wide feedback survey on these bylaws, facilitating the incorporation of this feedback, and moderating the first official meeting of the Partnership where the bylaws were reviewed by all key stakeholders in-person and subsequently approved, hereby kicking off the official Partnership.
Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative​ – The Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, a conservation organization based in New Market, VA convened a set of governmental and non-profit collaborators to earn a $1 million grant to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation aimed at ramping up the capacity of these collaborators to address nutrient issues for the Chesapeake Bay TMDL regulations generated from farming in the Shenandoah Valley. ICAD facilitators volunteer their time to provide facilitation services for this effort, helping the Collaborative navigate the early stages of figuring out effective relationship building and decision-making processes. Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) Green Government Initiative​ – Staff members at VADEQ contacted ICAD for facilitation support regarding a workshop for state agency stakeholders across eight agencies to develop strategies for implementing the Governor’s Green Government directive regarding the environmental sustainability of state procurement and waste management behaviors. ICAD developed, implemented, and wrote a final report for a half-day workshop held at DEQ offices in Richmond.

Fields of Gold/Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission (CSPDC)​ – ICAD continued its relationship with the CSPDC and its Fields of Gold agritourism economic development program by designing, implementing, and crafting the final report for a half-day meeting of its Advisory Board where the Board and staff deliberated on whether or not to continue Fields of Gold programming as the program neared mission fulfillment.

ICAD innovates public and organizational process design targeted to meet specific needs and goals as well as anticipate and mitigate challenges that could prevent groups from being able to collaborate. These processes often integrate digital components as well as face to face facilitated forums and meetings and utilize a wide variety of models and tools that promote engagement, systems thinking, promoting creativity and generativity, and sound decision-making.

Publication available online: https://www.jmu.edu/news/2015/12/03-icad-mm-winter2016.shtml