The PACE Voices for Democracy and Civility (VDC) project—formerly known as the Community Deliberation Project—is a nonpartisan effort to partner with local citizens and groups to discuss controversial issues in a civil manner, primarily through public dialogue and deliberation. Dialogue and deliberation processes are moderated primarily by PACE students, who receive special training and gain invaluable skills through the experience.

Voices for Democracy and Civility also offers educational workshops on active listening, moderator training, issue framing, and conflict resolution.

Voices for Democracy and Civility has facilitated public deliberations with local groups and organizations on a wide range of topics:

Community Justice And Mediation Center (CJAM) —“Downtown Safety, Civility and Justice Project”

In response to the Mayor of Bloomington's request, CJAM collaborated with VDC for support in designing, training and facilitating a three-stage public engagement process to identify perceived problems and generate potential solutions about downtown safety and civility issues.

Bloomington Community Orchard—“How to Share the Harvest”

“Who gets the fruit?” was one of the most common questions asked about the orchard when it was formed. This community forum explored key issues about fruit distribution, including community concerns, orchard commitments, and opinions about how the harvest is shared.

South Central Community Action Program (Circles Initiative)—“Care of Young Children”

VDC moderators facilitated a deliberation about the well-being of young children with Circles representatives and the families they serve.

Local High Schools—“Climate Change”

Students from Bloomington High School North, Seymour High School, and the Burmese Youth Leadership Program joined with VDC moderators for a series of deliberations on climate change.

Meadowood Retirement Community—“Climate Change” and “Social Security”

VDC moderators worked with Meadowood community members to discuss two complex issues—climate change and Social Security. As a result of the climate change deliberation, Meadowood created a task force to find ways to reduce the retirement community’s carbon footprint.