Civil Dialogue in Divided Times: WIPPS Releases Final Report on Let’s Talk, Marathon County

Civil Dialogue in Divided Times: WIPPS Releases Final Report on Let’s Talk, Marathon County

The Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service has released the final report for Let’s Talk, Marathon County, a multi-year deliberative dialogue program that brought together residents for conversations on public issues.

Let’s Talk, Marathon County was launched in 2023 with a mission to foster discussion among community members on a variety of highly charged and complex public issues. Through this program, a panel of nearly 100 politically and demographically diverse residents from across urban and rural areas of Marathon County, Wisconsin has met regularly in small groups to weigh approaches to topics, including youth mental health, homelessness, immigration, U.S. elections, childcare, and firearms.

“We tend to converse with people who hold very similar opinions as the ones we hold,” reported a Let’s Talk participant. “This allowed me to speak with people who have different opinions in an organized way with defined rules of engagement.”

After each dialogue, participants were asked to fill out a survey that measured whether the conversation broadened perspectives, encouraged consideration of solutions and tradeoffs, fostered appreciation for differing viewpoints, and increased interest in community engagement on the topic. The results of these surveys provided the research team information to evaluate the efficacy of the program.

After analyzing survey responses across all 6 topics, Let’s Talk participants report:

  • Greater confidence in their community’s ability to have civil discussions. Across all Let’s Talk, Marathon County topics, large majorities (more than 80%) reported that the dialogue made them “somewhat more” or “much more” confident that their community can engage in civil conversations about complex topics.
  • Considerable common ground, despite political differences. Each dialogue included participants with a range of political affiliations. Even with these differences, at least 7 out of 10 dialogue participants reported “quite a bit” or “a great deal” of common ground surrounding the topics and solutions they discussed.
  • High levels of respect within the dialogues for those with differing views. Across the topics, 3 out of 4 participants reported that those with differing views acted “very respectfully” toward one another.
  • Increased understanding of community issues and the pros and cons of potential solutions. More than half reported that participating in a dialogue helped them better understand the issue they discussed and helped them evaluate the pros and cons of solutions “quite a bit” or a “great deal.”
  • Expanded perspectives and viewpoints. Many participants (at least half in most dialogues) reported that the dialogue helped them “quite a bit” or “a great deal” to consider perspectives or viewpoints they had not considered before.
  • Input was highly valued. Nearly 9 out of 10 dialogue participants responded that they valued “quite a bit” or “a great deal” the input provided by the other participants.
  • Increased appreciation for differing viewpoints. At least two-thirds reported that participating in a dialogue made them value viewpoints that differed from theirs “somewhat more” or “much more” than before the dialogue. Similar percentages reported being “somewhat more” or “much more” comfortable interacting with members of their community who hold different viewpoints from theirs.
  • Increased interest in community engagement. Generally, at least two-thirds of dialogue participants reported that participating in the dialogue made them want to be “quite a bit” or “a great deal” more involved with community decision-making about the topics they discussed and made them want to learn “quite a bit” or “a great deal” more about the topics.

In addition to the final report, WIPPS has released a short video about Let’s Talk, Marathon County featuring interviews with program participants.

Let’s Talk, Marathon County was selected as one of 32 grantees for the Healing Starts Here initiative, a nationwide effort to understand and address division in communities while promoting healing. The initiative is funded by New Pluralists, an organization dedicated to helping Americans recognize our shared humanity, embrace differences, and work together to solve common challenges. WIPPS was chosen from a pool of nearly 800 applicants.

With the initial grant complete, WIPPS aims to carry forward the Let’s Talk model as a tool for addressing community challenges and helping organizations answer difficult questions.

“This format has proven to be an effective way for people to talk across differences,” said Eric Giordano, executive director of WIPPS. “The results show that when you bring community members together in a respectful setting, they not only find more common ground than expected, but they also leave with greater confidence in their community’s ability to address complex issues.”

To learn more about the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service and Let’s Talk, Marathon County, visit wipps.org.