| About CPN Contents What is CPN?
Terms and conditions of use
Editorial team
Partners
Contact Information What is CPN? Born of the movement for a "new citizenship" and "civic revitalization," CPN is a collaborative and nonpartisan project dedicated to bringing practical tools for public problem solving into community and institutional settings across America. Who We Are We are community organizers, civic journalists, and youth activists. We are grassroots environmentalists, business people and civil servants working collaboratively to create safe and sustainable local economies. We are union and business innovators, dispute resolution practitioners, participatory urban planners. We are teachers and librarians working to develop civic skills at every level of our educational system. We are community health and social welfare professionals working to empower families and develop community capacities for solving problems in a diverse and complex society undergoing rapid change. We are trainers and consultants in some of the most successful community partnerships and consensus building projects in the United States today. We are civic leaders, foundation officers and policy experts developing new approaches that enhance citizens' roles in active public problem solving and responsible democratic deliberation. Telling the Stories, Sharing the Tools Our common mission is to tell the stories of civic innovation, share the practical wisdom, and exchange the most effective tools available. Our affiliates provide case studies from which others can learn. We provide training manuals, "best practice" guides, and evaluative tools so that all of us can become more skillful about the public work that we do. We map innovative projects around the country, and help each other locate other civic assets and partners. And we engage each other about the big ideas that underlie our democratic heritage so that we can continue to renew it to meet the challenges of the 21st century. CPN is a pluralist and nonpartisan network of civic educators and practitioners who share this commitment. Our World Wide Web pages provide online, multimedia capacities to exchange the broadest range of practical tools and diverse experiences, and to fashion these for use in many different settings: schools and professional training programs, community centers and public libraries, government agencies and private businesses, homes and churches—wherever people gather to do important civic work and learning. We provide these online to the broad public as a common resource for practical civic education, responsible community action, and democratic policy making. They can be printed out, photocopied, and assembled as customized workbooks, course readers, and resource guides. Original printed materials and other resources can be ordered from our affiliates, and previewed online: videos, manuals, audio tapes, project evaluations. CPN charges no fee for this service, and minimizes copyright barriers for all nonprofit educational uses. Join Us We invite all civic innovators to join us in this collaborative endeavor by sharing their own case studies and best practices. Help us develop ways to make your work more widely known and utilized. Help us to build together a resource that reflects the richest practical work occurring in communities and workplaces all across America, and that is worthy of our common commitment to educate ourselves—and our leaders!—about collaborative ways to solve problems, renew our civic culture, and revitalize our democratic institutions. The CPN gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Surdna Foundation as well as the Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare at Brandeis University, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Hubert. H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and Temple University Press. If you have questions, or want to know more about sharing your work on CPN, you can write us or send materials. See contact information at the bottom of this page. Terms and Conditions of Use The material on CPN is delivered as intellectual property, copyrighted by CPN, except in cases where those supplying such material indicate a prior copyright. You may make a paper or electronic copy for your personal use. You may also make copies for nonprofit educational purposes provided that citation is given both to CPN and to all authors and organizations providing such material, and provided that these authors and organizations have not specified further terms and conditions of use. Copies made under this provision may not be made for sale or resale, except for a fee equal to the cost of reproduction for use in courses, training, and other nonprofit purposes. All other uses, including any derivative use, requires prior written permission from CPN and those individuals and organizations supplying the material. Information has been obtained from practitioners themselves, or from public sources believed to be reliable; however, the Civic Practices Network does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or usefulness of any information and provides it on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose and assumes no responsibility for anyone's use of the information. The Civic Practices Network disclaims all liability for errors or ommissions that may exist and shall not be liable for any incidental, consequential or other damages. If you find any errors or omissions, we encourage you to report them to us. See contact information at the bottom of this page. Editorial Team Carmen Sirianni, co-editor (bio)
Lew Friedland, co-editor (bio)
Sheila Webb, production editor (bio)
Melissa Bass, associate editor (bio) Partners AmericaSpeaks
Center for Democracy and Citizenship
Center for Youth and Communities
CIRCLE
Common Enterprise
Democracy Collaborative
Kettering Foundation
National Civic League
Pew Partnership for Civic Change
Study Circles Resource Center Contact Information Civic Practices Network (CPN)
Center for Human Resources
Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare
Brandeis University
60 Turner Street
Waltham, MA 02154
Phone: (617) 736-4890
FAX: (617) 736-4891
email: cpn@cpn.org | 
