Yesterday I attended an excellent conference sponsored by the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation at De Anza College.  A big theme of the conference was civic engagement–both by government officials and staff and by citizens.  Jim Keene, former City Manager of Berkeley and current City Manager of Palo Alto, talked about “co-creating” democracy with citizens, noting that residents are or should be active citizens, rather than passive consumers of City services.  There is a great opportunity for mediators and facilitators to support civic engagement, in addition to other creative problem-solving and  support programs around the Bay Area.  Redwood City uses “block captains” to do outreach to neighborhood communities, to gather and share information, and to organize residents to lobby and act on important issues.  San Francisco has created a “neighborhood empowerment” program–find out more at empowersf.org.  Palo Alto created Community Collaboration for Youth Well-Being in response to recent and tragic teen suicides.  I am looking forward to seeing more partnerships between mediators, facilitators and local governments to respond to immediate conflicts and to implement dispute resolution programs that can address ongoing conflicts and help  foster a  meaningful relationship between citizens and their government.