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Bringing Global Topics Into Local Conversation
We are living through a period in which many of the most important questions facing our communities are also among the hardest to discuss. Global issues increasingly shape local life, yet division, distrust, information overload, and entrenched conflict can make it difficult to listen across differences, understand competing perspectives, or imagine a shared path forward.
The Community Dialogue Initiative responds to that challenge by creating space for people to learn together, connect global issues to local realities, and engage one another with curiosity, respect, and a willingness to consider what our shared future could look like.
In Spring 2027, the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council will expand its programming across Johnson County through the Community Dialogue Initiative, a new series designed to connect global issues with the ways they are experienced, understood, and discussed here at home.
The initiative will bring together community members, local organizations, subject-matter experts, and civic partners for structured, small-group conversations about issues shaping our communities and our world. Rather than asking participants to arrive with answers, these programs are designed to create space for learning, listening, reflection, and thoughtful discussion across different experiences and perspectives.
Global Context. Local Impact.
Community Conversation.
The goal is not debate or consensus.
Each Community Dialogue program will begin with a brief expert presentation providing factual context and exploring both the global dimensions of the topic and its implications for Iowa and Johnson County.
Participants will then move into small-group conversations around three guided questions.
The goal is not debate or consensus. It is to give people an opportunity to:
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Learn more about complex issues affecting communities locally and globally.
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Consider how those issues are experienced differently by their neighbors.
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Ask questions and share perspectives in a respectful setting.
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Identify areas of common concern, shared values, and continued inquiry.
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Build connections among residents, organizations, and communities across Johnson County.
Topics under development for Spring 2027 include broad questions surrounding artificial intelligence and data centers, affordability and the cost of living, and immigration, with an emphasis on understanding the facts, exploring local impacts, and making room for a range of community perspectives.
How the Initiative Began
ICFRC's Community Dialogue Initiative was developed throughout 2026 in partnership with David Supp-Montgomerie, PhD, Associate Professor of Instruction and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Communication Studies at the University of Iowa and a Faculty Fellow in the Division of Student Life, with support from an anonymous donor.
The initiative grew from a desire to carry forward ICFRC's long history of community connection, conversation, and collaboration while creating a different kind of space for engaging some of the difficult questions shaping our shared future. At a time when division and distrust can make complex issues feel increasingly difficult to discuss, the Community Dialogue Initiative creates opportunities for people to learn together, listen across differences, and better understand how global forces are experienced within our own communities.
Drawing inspiration from approaches developed by Braver Angels, Living Room Conversations, and "What's Next America?," the initiative combines expert learning with structured, small-group dialogue. Its purpose extends beyond facilitating respectful conversation. It is about holding space for members of our communities to explore difficult questions together: What are we learning? What does it mean for the places where we live? What do we value? And what kind of future do we want to build together?
Through conversations centered on global topics with local impact, ICFRC hopes to strengthen understanding and awareness, uncover areas of shared concern, and create new opportunities for people and organizations across Johnson County to connect with one another even when perspectives differ.
Moving the Conversation Into the Community
For many years, the Iowa City Public Library has been an important home for ICFRC programming. The Community Dialogue Initiative is an opportunity to build on that foundation by taking conversations beyond our regular program location and into communities across Johnson County.
Tentative Spring 2027 locations include Coralville, North Liberty, and Iowa City, with programs hosted in partnership with community organizations and accessible public spaces.
By meeting people where they are, ICFRC hopes to:
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Reach new participants who may not regularly attend programs in downtown Iowa City.
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Strengthen relationships with existing community partners.
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Create opportunities for organizations and residents to participate together.
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Bring more voices from across Johnson County into conversations about issues with both global and local significance.
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Build a broader network of people interested in thoughtful, informed civic dialogue.
A Different Kind of ICFRC Program
Join the Conversation
The Community Dialogue Initiative will launch in Spring 2027, with program dates, locations, speakers, and community partners announced as plans are finalized.
Whether you are a longtime ICFRC participant, a community organization interested in partnering, or someone who has never attended one of our programs before, we invite you to be part of the conversation!
Interested in participating?
Watch for upcoming program announcements and registration opportunities.
Interested in becoming a community partner?
Contact ICFRC to explore hosting, outreach, participation, and partnership opportunities.
Community Dialogue programs will be intentionally participatory.
Following the expert presentation, participants will gather at small tables for approximately 45 minutes of guided conversation. Each table will identify a conversation lead who helps keep the discussion moving, makes room for different voices, and introduces additional prompts when useful.
The format is inspired by models of structured community dialogue that emphasize curiosity, listening, personal experience, and respect rather than argument.
Participants do not need expertise in the topic. They only need a willingness to listen, learn, ask questions, and contribute thoughtfully.
Community Partners Are Part of the Conversation
ICFRC is especially interested in partnering with organizations already working within Johnson County communities.
Nonprofits, neighborhood and community organizations, service providers, educational institutions, cultural organizations, local businesses, advocacy organizations, faith communities, and other community-based groups can participate in several ways:
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Help host or promote a Community Dialogue program.
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Invite the people and communities they serve.
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Identify local perspectives that should be represented.
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Join participants at discussion tables.
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Help ICFRC reach residents who may not typically attend international affairs or public-policy programs.
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Suggest future topics with meaningful global and local connections.
The intent is not simply to bring an ICFRC program into another building. It is to develop programs with communities, in communities, and with the people already doing the work of connecting and supporting them.
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