Local Events

Colorado Springs, Penrose Library. Join us for a free, in-person one-hour event—Crossing the Continental Divide—designed for community leaders seeking practical tools to bridge the political divide and foster civil dialogue, co-hosted by the Colorado Southern Front Range Alliance of Braver Angels and Reclaiming Civility. Gain actionable strategies to lead more constructive conversations across differences in your organizations and communities. This event is intended for civic leaders, including such as elected officials, political and faith leaders, educators, charity officials, and those who lead parent and community organizations eager to strengthen relationships and depolarize our local civic life.

Colorado Springs, Library 21C. Join us for a free, in-person one-hour event—Crossing the Continental Divide—designed for community leaders seeking practical tools to bridge the political divide and foster civil dialogue, co-hosted by the Colorado Southern Front Range Alliance of Braver Angels and Reclaiming Civility. Gain actionable strategies to lead more constructive conversations across differences in your organizations and communities. This event is intended for civic leaders, including such as elected officials, political and faith leaders, educators, charity officials, and those who lead parent and community organizations eager to strengthen relationships and depolarize our local civic life.

Colorado Springs, Brandt Barn. 

Family relationships can become casualties of a toxic political environment. Family members are having bitter political arguments, avoiding each other, or even cutting off lifetime relationships.

If you want to preserve important family bonds while still being true to your values and political beliefs, this in-person workshop will offer you:

• Insight into why family differences over politics are uniquely challenging

• Recognition of common roles that family members play in political conversations

• Strategies and skills for handling family political differences in a constructive way

Although the focus is on family relationships, you can use learnings in this workshop with any loved one. You’ll laugh and have some fun in this workshop—it won’t be all serious. After all, we all come from quirky families.

Stay for lunch, then participate in the afternoon community debate (More information and additional RSVP below). Resolved: Public schools should prioritize parental input over state mandates when teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation.

If political discussions have caused strife in your family, this Braver Angels debate is for you. The goal of our community debates is not to win or even to change minds. Our debates are about listening, sharing, and discussing different perspectives on complex issues. By hearing each other’s stories and insights, we gain deeper understanding into the topics and the people behind the views, even if we disagree.

Colorado Springs, Brandt Barn. 

In this polarized time, we lack basic understanding of why people on the other political side hold their beliefs. We don’t see them as they see themselves–their core values and central concerns–but instead as we choose to see them. We are tempted to regard our own side as principled and the other side as self-interested.

When we try to communicate across this gap, we often lack the skills for listening carefully, looking for common ground, and sharing our perspectives in ways that connect rather than create more misunderstanding.

We can learn to disagree better in polarized times, which means accurately seeing where we differ and where we share common ground.

Goals

• More understanding of the values and concerns of people who differ from you politically

• Better skills for listening in a way so that the other person feels heard

• Better skills for sharing viewpoints in a way the other person might hear -- even if they disagree

Stay for lunch, then participate in the afternoon community debate (More information and additional RSVP below). Resolved: Colorado’s gun control laws unfairly infringe on personal freedoms. 

If political discussions have caused strife in your family, this Braver Angels debate is for you. The goal of our community debates is not to win or even to change minds. Our debates are about listening, sharing, and discussing different perspectives on complex issues. By hearing each other’s stories and insights, we gain deeper understanding into the topics and the people behind the views, even if we disagree.

Colorado Springs, East Library. Join us for a free, in-person one-hour event—Crossing the Continental Divide—designed for community leaders seeking practical tools to bridge the political divide and foster civil dialogue, co-hosted by the Colorado Southern Front Range Alliance of Braver Angels and Reclaiming Civility. Gain actionable strategies to lead more constructive conversations across differences in your organizations and communities. This event is intended for civic leaders, including such as elected officials, political and faith leaders, educators, charity officials, and those who lead parent and community organizations eager to strengthen relationships and depolarize our local civic life.

Colorado Springs, Brandt Barn. 

Join us for a new workshop focused specifically on skills development, regardless of political orientation. Learn how to listen, acknowledge and respond when having a difficult conversation.

Goals

• Become more aware of our inner polarizer and ways to counteract it. 

• Practice skills to critique issues and perspectives productively

• Practice skills for intervening in polarizing conversations

Stay for lunch, then participate in the afternoon community debate (More information and additional RSVP below). Resolved: Freedom of religion safeguards the right to public religious expression rather than mandating its prohibition. 

If political discussions have caused strife in your family, this Braver Angels debate is for you. The goal of our community debates is not to win or even to change minds. Our debates are about listening, sharing, and discussing different perspectives on complex issues. By hearing each other’s stories and insights, we gain deeper understanding into the topics and the people behind the views, even if we disagree.