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: City of Harrisonburg American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) Public Input Process, Madison Center’s JMU Week of Deliberation 

Environmental Dimension: The Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative (SVCC), Shenandoah Valley Rail Trail Exploratory Partnership 

Social Dimension: Gemeinschaft Home Strategic Conversation, Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority Strategic Planning, Harrisonburg Housing Technical Working Group, JMU’s Lifelong Learning Institute, JMU Task Force on Racial Equity, Rockingham County Schools Dialogue Project, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance Accessible Downtown Session 

Economic Dimension: Way to Go Strategic Planning, Arts Council of the Valley Strategic Planning

Below are details for some of the above facilitated conversations and processes with the community (source: ICAD's 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 annual reports):

Valley Conservation Council/Friends of North Fork/Friends of Middle River/VA Wilderness Committee

 In 23 - 24, ICAD designed and implemented two full-day strategic conversations for the VCC, a land conservatory based in Staunton, VA. These full day workshops occurred with the full board and staff six months apart and included multiple meetings with Board and staff leadership to plan plus several hours of work to type of reports to use when implementing the resulting outputs.

Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. ICAD designed and implemented two evening strategic conversations similar to the work performed for the Valley Conservation Council.

Friends of the Middle River. ICAD designed and implemented one full day strategic conversation similar to the work performed for the Valley Conservation Council.

Virginia Wilderness Committee. ICAD designed and implemented one full day strategic conversation similar to the work performed for the Valley Conservation Council.

City of Harrisonburg American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) Public Input Process

Due to our previous work in the community and specifically with our city staff and city council, ICAD was invited to partner with these entities to design and facilitate a process to gather public input about how to best invest the 23.8 million dollars Harrisonburg is receiving from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The process has spanned six months and to date has engaged over 2,000 community members in giving digital survey input or engaging in in-person conversations about the pandemic impacts and post-pandemic needs. In addition, the process also utilized over 20 graduate and undergraduate students, and JMU alumni who have worked with ICAD, as process designers and facilitators. ICAD will formally present the report.

In FY 22-23, ICAD continued work extending the six-month large-scale public engagement process and data collection effort to gather public input about how to best invest the 23.8 million dollars Harrisonburg received from ARPA. We continued to synthesize the data into a report for City Council and an interactive Tableau dashboard. We were then asked to lead city council through two work sessions in August and September 2022 grounded in the data to help them make funding decisions.

Way 2 Go strategic planning

In FY 21-22, ICAD designed and implemented a strategic planning process that piggy-backed on regularly scheduled once-a-month virtual board meetings of the nonprofit organization, Way 2 Go. Activities included a Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Challenge analysis, identification of strategic and operational issues, and ideation for strategies on how to address priority strategic issues.

The Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative (SVCC)

The Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley convened twelve governmental and non-profit collaborators to write 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. This grant emphasized the use of facilitation services to generate collaborative momentum and capacities and ICAD was contacted to provide those services. ICAD serves as the ‘on call’ facilitative consultant for this Collaborative. In AY 21-22, ICAD designed and facilitated two Collaborative half-day retreats, assisted with performance goal achievement evaluation, and supported capacity building with two organizational members of the Collaborative.

ICAD continues to provide fee-based facilitation services for the SVCC and its members to advance their strategic and operational work. During the 2023 and 2024 AY, ICAD provided over 100+ hours of facilitation and consulting services for community meetings, organizational strategic planning, and inclusivity capacity building.

JMU Task Force on Racial Equity

In the summer of 2021 ICAD helped the JMU Task Force on Racial Equity hold four virtual and in-person input sessions to curate a multi-voiced A Narrative on Race at JMU and to begin to openly and truthfully acknowledge where we are as a campus regarding racial relations and racial equity. Over 200 people participated in the sessions. ICAD also helped the TFRE analyze the data from the sessions which revealed four narrative themes that emerged capturing a rich and deep recounting and acknowledgment of the racial landscape at JMU. The goal is for the narrative to inform meaningful and effective change.

Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley

ICAD is a member of the steering committee for the CBI IV grant held by the Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley. In this role, ICAD participates in planning and implementing strategies for strengthening ‘networks of networks’ of organizations whose work overlaps in the areas of water quality, outdoor recreation, health equity, and cultural preservation in our portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Virginia Highlands Partnership

ICAD designed and facilitated a stakeholder dialogue and deliberation aiming to build a network of public and private land managers covering the Highlands ecological region spanning SW Virginia and NE Tennessee. This facilitation entailed multiple leadership team meetings to design the process and then a full day facilitated workshop held at Natural Bridges State Park in November for 35 participants.

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. Projects and descriptions taken from ICAD public annual reports, found at: https://www.jmu.edu/icad/projects.shtml. Accessed 7/24/24

Update available online:

https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/icad/2022/02/03/a-long-overdue-icad-update/?_gl=1*zc50f7*_ga*NzU2ODU4OTg5LjE2ODk3NzAwNjI.*_ga_VDJD052M5K*MTcxMTAzODE3MS40NTAuMS4xNzExMDM5MjYyLjUyLjAuMA..&_ga=2.183177382.1031356711.1710700417-756858989.1689770062

2012-2024 annual reports at:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/175F1kEVLy2fIDUcuqCaI832pJJrhX5YP?usp=sharing 

Credit updated by Essa Paterson, ISNW, 8/7/24