Center for Public Life Initiatives
Resilience Fellows
Center for Public Life at OSU-Tulsa Resilience Fellows lead dialogue and action and promote constructive change in the 918. Resilience Fellows collaborate with other community members to implement ideas designed to create positive community impact. Participants work in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office for Resilience and Equity on the project.
- Work with community members to mobilize resources and opportunities for building resilient neighborhoods in north Tulsa
- Build relationships with residents, organizations, business and faith leaders to promote lasting change as a result of the project
- Receive training to organize dialogue-to-action events and learn to lead conversations that result in change
- Meet regularly to learn from community leaders and practice community building skills
Dialogues4Change (formerly Cowboys Coming Together) uses dialogue-to-action, an approach to community change developed by the nonprofit organization Everyday Democracy that puts small-group facilitated dialogue at the center. Dialogue-to-action brings different kinds of people together around a public concern and creates a space that enables constructive, respectful conversation.
Participants meet over time (4-5 weeks). During these sessions, people develop trust and relationships, as well as a shared understanding of the issue under discussion. An issue discussion guide and facilitated dialogue help participants develop an action plan intended to address the issue.
Dialogues4Change dialogues
Community Voices for Change
Community Voices for Change brought together 50 community members in North Tulsa to discuss the issues of health disparities. An advisory team of community leaders guided the process. Using the dialogue-to-action model, three dialogue groups met for five weeks getting to know each other, understanding the root causes of health disparities and developing action plans to address root causes of health disparities in North Tulsa.
This initiative was developed in partnership with the North Tulsa Community Coalition as part of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, a graduate fellowship program to support engaged scholarship around health issues in the community. The national Albert Schweitzer Fellowship hosts local chapters in 15 cities, including Tulsa, OK.