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Initiatives for Democratic Practices program is based on the premise that democracy is an ecology in which people in communities work in complementary ways with one another to address public problems. The two-year program involves a series of learning exchange meetings. Participants in the Initiatives for Democratic Practices are resources for generating deliberative democratic capacity for addressing public problems. The approach used by the Network, in partnership with the Kettering Foundation, is to support experiments in deliberation with young people around the world who are engaged with professional or civic organizations and institutions, including colleges and universities.

Throughout these exchanges, participants will explore the following questions: How can initiatives such as the ones being developed in this program foster the use of deliberative practices in ways that recognize the power of people to make collective decisions and prepare young people for their work as productive members of society? How can deliberative practices be used to address issues in communities?