Accomplishments

Civic Engagement Among College Students
Seventeen college students from throughout Wisconsin met with U.S. Representatives Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) and Mark Green (R-Green Bay) on January 8, 2004. They discussed the students' negative feelings about politics. The students came away with overall favorable impressions of Baldwin and Green.
Audio Recording of Session
Radio Coverage
Order Video Recording of Discussion - Note: This recording includes students' discussions prior to the arrival of the politicians, the panel discussion with the politicians, and a debriefing with the students following the panel.

Racine Odyssey Project
Earl Shorris was at Wingspread in November 2001 to introduce his program, The Clemente Course, also called "Humanities for the Homeless". This program has been very successful in other cities, and officially started in Racine in October 2003. Twenty-five students attend class twice a week , and discuss such works as Socrates, Shakespeare, Hobbes and more. Classes include philosophy, literature, art history, American history, and writing and critical thinking. The graduation was in May 2004.
Graduation Video Recording

Justice Without Borders
This international conference was held in May 2002 and brought together representatives from 17 nations (including the President of Trinidad and Tobago and the public defender for the State of Israel) to establish a worldwide network for legal defense for the indigent (similar to Doctors without Borders). The group is scheduled to meet again in India in 2003.

Work, Family and Democracy
This project, which began in 1998 and will continue through 2003, was initiated by the Foundation and funded by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. A policy report was compiled: Learning from the Past; Looking to the Future, and can be found here at www.johnsonfdn.org/pubs/workfamily.htm. A book of essays will be published in 2003 by Princeton University Press. The meetings also led to the Work, Family and Democracy Initiative at the Harvard School for Public Health, which is developing an assessment tool by which states, communities, and the nation as a whole can compare efforts on work and family issues.

LEED® Green Building Standards
Three Wingspread conferences in 2000 and 2001 were held with the U.S. Green Building Council to develop the first generation of LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards for residential construction and the next generation of standards for commercial construction, LEED® Version 3.0. These standards have been adopted by the marketplace as well as state and local authorities. For more information, www.usgbc.org

Election Reform
Representatives of organizations that run state and local elections met April 10-12, 2001. The group drafted election reform resolutions that were referenced at hearings before the House Administration Committee and the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committees. The President signed the election reform law in early 2002.

High-Conflict Child Custody Cases
The last decade has produced a great deal of research about the effects of high conflict divorce on children. This Wingspread conference held September 8-10, 2000 brought together an interdisciplinary group to develop new reform standards. Judges, lawyers, and child and family advocates from three countries compiled a report that has been published in three journals: Family Law Quarterly, Family Courts Review, and Canadian Family Law; and discussed at the annual meetings of four organizations: Irish Family Law Barristers, the Canadian Family Law Bar, the ABA Family Law Committee, and American Family and Child Counselors.

The Precautionary Principle
Environmental leaders met at Wingspread January 23-25, 1998, to develop guiding principles for evaluating decisions that affect human health and the environment. The group called for government, corporations, communities and scientists to implement the following when making decisions: “When an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.” The Precautionary Principle has become a touchstone for evaluating environmental and human health policy nationwide.

Sustainability Principles for Disaster Planning
At a January 13-15, 1998 conference, a set of principles was developed to help communities and government agencies enhance sustainability in disaster-prone communities. The principles include a checklist for disaster mitigation and a policy action framework. These principles have been adopted as part of disaster preparedness and response strategies by numerous local, state, and federal disaster response agencies. For more information, www.sustainable.doe.gov/wingspread2/wingupdate.html

National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture
At a 1984 Wingspread conference, conservationists mapped out strategy to influence federal farm policy to encourage conservation. This effort was a resounding success in the 1985 farm bill. A follow-up conference was convened, a loose coalition formed, and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture was born. For more information, www.sustainableagriculture.net/