“We help communities face division.” With that statement, Carl Smallwood of the Divided Communities Project kicked off a three-day academy on mediating conflicts at Stanford University in mid-September. During the event, we also heard about an innovative approach to dealing with conflict from Palo Alto, which used the approach to manage activist demands for a city council statement regarding the War in Gaza.
As the Director of the Divided Communities Project (DCP), a program at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, Smallwood counsels people on “processes to convene groups across division in troubled times.” The National Civic League is a partner in a series of academies being sponsored by DCP at law schools around the country.
The Stanford academy featured participants from three California communities, Orange County, Imperial County and the town of Calipatria, and was hosted in conjunction with the Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at the Stanford Law School, which is directed by Grande Lum, a former director of the Community Relations Service in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Each of the three communities sent a delegation of government and community members to the Stanford academy to learn about public engagement, conflict mediation, equity, and trust building. As DCP Deputy Director, Bill Froehlich, said to the group, “the core of the engagement work you all are doing is trust. It’s about building trust in your community.”
The delegations from the three communities appreciated the time and guidance during the academy to do problem-solving regarding challenges they’re facing, and each took back plans on how to improve community engagement and trust. Recognizing the difficulty of changing how they interact with the community, one participant commented, “the bad thing about lack of action and complacency is that when efforts to change things happen, people don’t notice.”
Using an Innovative Approach to Break a Logjam
One of the speakers participating in the DCP academy was Palo Alto City Councilwoman Vicki Veenter, who spoke about the city’s use of a democratic process outside the usual norm of city processes to tackle a particularly thorny global issue. Last year the city was witnessing a large number of residents attending their city council’s comment period to air their beliefs regarding the conflict in Gaza, with many asking for a ceasefire. With many other cities in the region, like San Francisco, adopting resolutions urging a ceasefire and Palo Alto’s previous mayor, Mayor Lydia Kou, issuing a proclamation condemning the October 7 attack on Israel, the new mayor, who took office at the beginning of 2024, and council had little appetite for further statements.
At the same time, the mayor and council were also tired of the pressure from groups calling for the city to take sides. One of the more recently elected councilmembers, Vicki Veenter, an attorney and professional mediator, convened a dozen of the people who were frequent visitors at council meetings to voice their concerns about the Middle East situation for a mediation process to search for common ground on the issue. With support from the new mayor, Greer Stone, Veenter convened a series of meetings over a six month period among Jewish and Muslim residents and other interested people. In the end, the group issued a “unity statement” that was then recognized by city council.
The unity statement essentially expressed sorrow at the loss of life on both sides of the Middle East conflict and called for peace and understanding, both there and in Palo Alto, including the following statement:
Here at home, Palo Alto affirms its commitment to fostering hate-free environments, and promoting understanding and empathy. The city cherishes cultural richness and welcomes the accompanying range of dress, cuisine, and religious practices. We will lead by example in ensuring that all people feel respected, heard, and valued. We recommit to creating inclusive communities that uphold human rights and reject discrimination and hate. We encourage residents to show civility, compassion and understanding in support of their neighbors who may be in great pain and suffering.
While not everyone in the community was happy with the details of the unity statement, the city council voiced unanimous support for the statement and has seen a reduction in speakers at their meetings calling for action on this issue.
