Where Alabama talks it out.
We are a non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt corporation. We build skills, habits, and capacities for more effective civic engagement and innovative decision making. Simply put: we work to strengthen civic life in all 67 Alabama counties.
Our programming includes convening and moderating deliberative public forums, hosting reporting-out events, conducting moderator and convener training workshops, and developing youth leadership and community engagement opportunities. The Mathews Center also authors the Alabama Civic Health Index to measure how Alabamians engage with each other and the issues they care about. DMC signature programs equip Alabamians with tools to find strength in themselves, and their fellow citizens, to find solutions to knotty community problems and pressing public issues.
Because we believe that Alabamians should play a role in defining the public issues—and their solutions—that affect their daily lives, we listen as much as we speak. Much of our time is spent in Alabama communities working with an ever-growing network of everyday Alabamians in their capacities as small business owners, university professors, educators, service providers, faith-based community members, and more to strengthen civic life in our state. Over the past decade, this diverse group of partners has remained united in a common goal: to work better together in our communities and across our state. We invite you to join us.
Our Namesake
Dr. David Mathews is the former president and chief executive officer of the Charles. F. Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio. Since 1981, his leadership shaped the Kettering Foundation's pioneering research and work with public deliberation and democratic practices in communities all across the nation and the world.
Prior to his work at the Kettering Foundation, Mathews was named President of the University of Alabama in 1969, and at the age of 33, he was the youngest president of a major university. He served as the university’s president until 1980, during which time he was named to President Gerald R. Ford’s cabinet as the 11th Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1975 to 1977.
Our Programs
Community Engagement
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AIF is a signature program designed to help Alabama communities talk through issues, rather than just about issues. Learn more.
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CCI workshops equip Alabamians to identify an issue of public concern, find common ground among differing perspectives, and move towards collective action. Learn more.
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The Civic Institute is our annual conference that brings together over 200 Alabamians for a day of inspiration and reflection at the gorgeous American Village campus in Montevallo. Attendees are treated to speakers, panels, and interactive fora centered around the work of communities and individuals across our state. Learn more.
Civic Education
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The JOIP internship provides immersive civic learning opportunities for college students interested in local community engagement. The DMC administers the JOIP program, collaborating with faculty mentors to recruit students from institutions of higher education across Alabama. Learn more.
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The Civic Fellows program seeks to equip recent college graduates for more effective, deliberative civic engagement through a year of service. Fellows engage in immersive civic learning experiences while assisting with signature DMC programming focused on strengthening civic life in Alabama. Learn more.
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This program trains educators to incorporate deliberation in their classroom. Educators from across Alabama—and the country—engage in issue analysis and participate in moderator development exercises. Learn more.
What is deliberation?
Deliberation helps us locate the areas between agreement and disagreement, which might be called “common ground for public acting.” We discover this common ground when we learn, through conversations, what people are and aren’t willing to do to solve problems, what costs and consequences they will and won’t accept, and whether they share a sense of direction.
Follow our work in communities across Alabama on our Instagram!
