The Door County Civility Project is a community-based initiative formed in the spring of 2013 under the umbrella of the Door County Community Foundation.
The mission of the Door County Civility Project is to foster and incorporate the principles of civility into the fabric of everyday life in Door County.
The vision is an engaged community that values the opinions and ideas of others and is committed to civil behavior and discourse.
The activities of the project are planned by a steering committee of community leaders concerned about civil dialogue. We host workshops, facilitate discussions, and train community members to engage in conversations and approach conflicts using the nine principles of civility. We’ve had hundreds of rich conversations with community members in Door County to improve listening and communication. Our aim is to help each individual community member improve civility in their home, school, workplace, and our larger community.
We believe that disagreements can lead to healthy debate, which brings new information and ideas to light. However, good communication is the key! We reach out to not only elected officials and political groups but also regular people, in schools, neighborhood organizations, service groups, churches, businesses, and even the parents on the sidelines of youth athletic contests.
While most of the individuals we work with in Door County consider themselves to be “civil people” and the groups they are involved with to “generally behave in a civil manner”, most also admit that they’ve had personal and professional experiences when they or others around them have struggled to be civil… usually when angry, frustrated or hurt. There are tools of civility to help individuals deal with that struggle.
We honestly believe that civility can be contagious!
