Developing Deliberative Skills with OLLI
This summer, the Mathews Center had the exciting opportunity to partner with the Greater Birmingham chapter of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Alabama to teach Developing Deliberative Skills: Weekly Conversations on Topics of Public Concern, a new course that was piloted during this summer semester.
Over the eight week course, participants worked through a variety of published issue guides that focused on different concerns and affected every person in a different way, such as mental health, immigration, and climate choices. Utilizing methods of public deliberation, citizens were given a space to define the problem and talk through rather than about the issue, working together to find common ground for taking action. This created an environment where citizens can become actors of addressing community issues, rather than passive recipients, and left the participants excited for more the next week.
Throughout the summer, participants were also encouraged to think about different objectives and how to incorporate these skills into their everyday lives. An effective and fun activity that was utilized was the poker chip method, where each participant received three poker chips they could “cash in” during discussions, whether that was sharing their opinion or enacting active and critical listening skills. Not only did the students develop these individual skills, but they were also able to create a civic network and relationship amongst each other.
After a productive semester, the OLLI members were eager to share new ideas on how to continue adapting and developing the course for next year. To encourage more action steps, members suggested that topics span two classes instead of one, allowing them to develop a better background before jumping into brainstorming and discussion for the second class. In addition, some thought that breaking into small groups would help create a different format for discussion, or incorporate a crash course on petition creation, getting others involved, and ways to contact your local representatives, in an effective way.
The Mathews Center is so glad that we could partner with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama and are very thankful for the OLLI staff and amazing members. We cannot wait to join again next year and hope to see some familiar (and new) faces!