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July 14, 2009
AIO Nominated for International Award

Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) was nominated for the Global Dialogue Prize this month, for outstanding achievements in intercultural communication.

According to the Global Dialogue Project, the prize “acknowledges outstanding achievements in the advancement and application of intercultural value research. The prize is awarded to individuals, institutions, and organizations from around the globe.”

“AIO works toward true consensus. In fact, most tribes were traditionally more democratic than today’s U.S. government because all community members had the opportunity to contribute to decision making,” AIO’s founder and President, LaDonna Harris, said. AIO developed and utilizes a civic engagement facilitation process, based on Indigenous values called the Indigenous Leaders Interactive System™.

AIO has been a practitioner and developer of ILIS™ and its predecessors since the 1980’s. “Native Americans utilize the process because it is reflective of Indigenous values and demonstrates that everyone’s contributions are precious,” Harris said.

AIO has worked with researcher and AIO board member, Dr. Alexander Christakis, since 1985 to hone the process. The organization has used ILIS™ around the world, including: facilitating southern African artists, engaging Maori, American Indian and Indigenous Bolivian emerging leaders in Bolivia, and student representatives from five countries of north east Asia . Harris believes that ILIS™ is successful because, “the facilitation process allows all voices to be heard, and because of that it becomes a spiritual experience, like true dialogue should be.”