{"id":14469,"date":"2024-12-23T11:28:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T12:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14469"},"modified":"2024-12-23T13:56:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T13:56:01","slug":"irg-unveils-the-results-of-its-civil-society-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14469","title":{"rendered":"IRG Unveils the Results of its Civil Society Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/6730-2\/\">https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/6730-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screenshot-2024-12-20-at-11.27.13-AM-793x1024-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>December 23, 2024\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>IRG Unveils the Results of its Civil Society Summit<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span>Despite political differences, Wisconsinites share the same goals, dreams, and aspirations.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>DELAFIELD, WI \u2013 <\/b><span>Can rural Trump and Milwaukee Harris supporters have a civil conversation on the issues? One week after the 2024 residential election, we tried to answer that question. IRG, in partnership with Mercatus Center, brought together residents from Milwaukee and rural parts of the state with diverse political opinions for a four-hour-long discussion on major public policy issues. With equal parts liberal and conservative, participants discussed school choice and socioeconomic mobility. The results were nothing short of amazing. IRG reveals all the insights we gained and the lessons we learned from bringing this group together in its new report, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Civil-Society-Summit-Bridging-Wisconsins-Divides-on-Education-and-Opportunity.pdf\"><i><span>Civil Society Summit: Bridging Wisconsin\u2019s Divides on Education and Opportunity<\/span><\/i><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Here is what some of our participants had to say about the summit experience:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<ul>\n<li><i><span>From a rural participant:<\/span><\/i><span> \u201cIt was a great experience. I feel like I learned quite a bit. I didn\u2019t really expect how emotionally invested in everybody else you become as soon as you start hearing that their values kind of line up with yours even though they\u2019re from different backgrounds.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i><span>From a Milwaukee participant<\/span><\/i><b>: <\/b><span>\u201cIt was really beautiful to me because we don\u2019t have these conversations a lot in the world and I figured this is the way they have a solution for all of the problems in the world. We need to come together, share like-minded ideas \u2013 even if they don\u2019t sound the same or if the path isn\u2019t the same \u2013 but just try to figure out ways to understand one another and ways to progress and move forward.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i><span>From a rural participant:<\/span><\/i><span> \u201cI love diversity of opinions because that is how you get to good solutions. I could tell that everyone that was there was speaking from the heart and with true honesty. It was a great exchange of ideas and thoughts.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Here is what we observed during the first Civil Society Summit:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Despite political differences, there was broad agreement on what the issues in society are and what the end goal should be.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>No one said that the government was the solution to these issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>There was consensus on the need for stronger communities, engaged parents, and the need to reform public benefit programs to encourage self-actualization.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>A newfound appreciation for the idea of the American Dream as an ideal based upon individual goals and aspirations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Participants walked away wanting to have this experience duplicated for more people and we hope to convene the group in 2025 to further discuss state policy issues.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>To see a short video explaining what we did and to hear from the participants themselves, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/GTI7ycCE7wU?si=6_VcuSNoXDQ4eVaH\"><span>click here<\/span><\/a><span>. For further insights into this discussion and for all the details of what they discussed read <\/span><i><span>Civil Society Summit: Bridging Wisconsin\u2019s Divides on Education and Opportunity<\/span><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Civil-Society-Summit-Bridging-Wisconsins-Divides-on-Education-and-Opportunity.pdf\"><span>here<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>\u201cIt\u2019s often overused, but there is truly more that unites us than divides us. That is what we learned from this discussion. We brought together eight strangers with different politics, experiences, and worldviews \u2013 asking them to openly discuss what can be controversial public policy issues. The results were eye-opening.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span>\u201cInstead of arguing, we saw listening. Instead of dismissing one another, we saw this group develop a bond. These eight brave participants went into this exercise as strangers and came out with friendships. What we experienced here can and should be duplicated across the state,\u201d<\/span><\/i><b> -CJ Szafir, CEO, Institute for Reforming Government.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span>###\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>The<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/\"><i><span> Institute for Reforming Government<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span> is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that seeks to simplify government at every level by offering policy solutions to thought leaders in American government in the areas of tax reform, government inefficiency, and burdensome regulations. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/6730-2\/ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 23, 2024\u00a0 IRG Unveils the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":14471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-institute-for-reforming-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14469"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14472,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469\/revisions\/14472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}