Common Ground Conversations
Home
About Us
Conversations Journey
CGC Podcasts
FAQ
K-12
Municipalities
Police
Higher Education
Businesses
Churches & Nonprofits
Media
TESTIMONIALS
Common Ground Conversations
Home
About Us
Conversations Journey
CGC Podcasts
FAQ
K-12
Municipalities
Police
Higher Education
Businesses
Churches & Nonprofits
Media
TESTIMONIALS
More
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Conversations Journey
  • CGC Podcasts
  • FAQ
  • K-12
  • Municipalities
  • Police
  • Higher Education
  • Businesses
  • Churches & Nonprofits
  • Media
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Conversations Journey
  • CGC Podcasts
  • FAQ
  • K-12
  • Municipalities
  • Police
  • Higher Education
  • Businesses
  • Churches & Nonprofits
  • Media
  • TESTIMONIALS

CGC IN THE MEDIA

CGC PRESS RELEASE

RELEASED AUGUST 22, 2023

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


USPTO Issues Trademark to Minority-Owned Southern Oregon Company 

New Conversations Journey® Process Equips Americans to Effectively Engage in Productive Conversations About Race


Contact: Emily Green
Phone: (541) 301-0682
Email: Emily@commongroundconversations.com


MEDFORD, OR: On August 22, 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially issued a new trademark for a process called a “Conversations Journey® to help individuals, companies, organizations, government agencies and institutions effectively engage in honest, civil and productive conversations about race. The process was created by Mike and Emily Green, a married biracial couple raising their family in southern Oregon. Mike and Emily are co-founders of Team Green Ventures, LLC, dba “Common Ground Conversations on Race in America” (CGC - commongroundconversations.com). 


Ironically, this unique Conversations Journey process was established in an Oregon county named after President Andrew Jackson, a notorious antebellum white supremacist and architect of the “Trail of Tears.” Jackson County is 91.9 percent White, and Oregon is a state that was founded in 1859 as a “White Utopia” with an exclusion clause in the state constitution prohibiting Black people from living in the state. Yet, it is an Oregon company blazing a trail for others with a replicable process for building a common ground of knowledge and understanding about race in America, and helping leaders across the nation learn how to transform the culture of work environments. 

Over the past three years, Mike and Emily Green have developed, tested and refined their Conversations Journey® as a group-learning and engagement process that has proven to be effective with consistently positive outcomes across a broad spectrum of industry sectors. These include:


· Municipalities

· Police Departments

· K-12 school districts

· Higher Education Professional Development

· Community Nonprofits

· Evangelical Churches


The Conversations Journey® process began in 2019 as an experimental workshop, “How to Talk to Kids About Race in America,” launched at Kids Unlimited, a charter school in Medford, Oregon. Following the murder of George Floyd, the market for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Antiracist supportive programming ballooned, as did interest in finding ways to build a common ground of knowledge and understanding about racial issues. 

From May 2020 to October 2022, more than 1,300 leading corporate CEOs have committed more than $340B to racial equity efforts. Today, researchers continue to study the impact and effectiveness of such investments, which remain inconclusive. CGC entered the racial equity training market believing that participants in DEI and Antiracist trainings would be better prepared if they entered the process with an established common ground of accepted knowledge and understanding. 


“Conversations about race can be hard,” Emily Green said. “But they don’t have to be. We believe people cannot teach what they don’t know.” 


“Our Conversations Journey® process provides people with paradigm-shifting new knowledge, practical tools and a process of conversational engagement in a safe, no-blame, no-shame environment that equips them to become empathetic societal change agents,” Mike Green said.


Earlier this year, retired Police Chief Kristine Allison joined CGC as a consulting partner to help facilitate CGC training with police departments. Mike and Emily also recently launched a new monthly CGC Journal to engage general audiences. 


To learn more, visit commongroundconversations.com.

Why Does Race Matter to You?

Podcast Excerpt: Grants Pass Remembrance Project

9-minute excerpt: On July 25, 2023 Mike & Emily respond to the question: Why does race matter to you? 

Host: Gabi Johnsen of the Grants Pass Remembrance Project.

Watch the Complete Interview

Mike and Emily Green are interviewed on July 25, 2023 by Gabi Johnsen of the Grants Pass Remembrance Project on their podcast. 57 minutes.

HOW TO TALK TO KIDS ABOUT RACE IN AMERICA

MIKE & EMILY ON NPR

We began this journey in 2019 with a workshop on "How to Talk to Kids About Race in America." As a homeschool mom of biracial kids living in Southern Oregon, Emily received frequent inquiries about how we talk to our kids about race. She realized that most White parents do not know how to teach their kids about race.

LISTEN
RACHEL NIELSON INTERVIEWS MIKE & EMILY GREEN

MLK'S TRUE LEGACY

As White Americans, too often we sugarcoat and whitewash the legacy of Dr. King, while remaining ignorant of the truth of his work and how it remains unfinished today.  I am as guilty of this as anyone else, which is why I sought out two experts to be our guests on the podcast today: Mike and Emily Green.

LISTEN

Danielle Craig interviews Mike & Emily

Podcaster Danielle Craig interviews Mike and Emily Green on her Happiness in Progress podcast.

MIKE GREEN: ONE THING TO CHANGE AMERICA

INTERVIEW WITH MIKE & EMILY GREEN

SOUTHERN OREGON BUSINESS JOURNAL

Feature Article on CGC

The Southern Oregon Business Journal published a feature article on Mike and Emily Green and the development of Common Ground Conversations in February 2022, as CGC began to grow in the Southern Oregon region and beyond the borders of the state.

READ THE ARTICLE

THE STATE OF RACE IN AMERICA

IN THE NEWS

EQUITY = OWNERSHIP

RENOVATING WHILE BLACK

RENOVATING WHILE BLACK

A tech company developed a proven model connecting underserved and underestimated populations to high-wage jobs in the tech economy. Minority Business Review article.

RENOVATING WHILE BLACK

RENOVATING WHILE BLACK

RENOVATING WHILE BLACK

Homeownership is a major step toward establishing an equitable stake in the American Dream of prosperity and building generational wealth. But there can be unforeseen problems. 

PROPOSED PUBLIC POLICY

RENOVATING WHILE BLACK

PROPOSED PUBLIC POLICY

Congressional Reps. Pressley and Booker introduced a bill into Congress to begin to address the issues of reparations for Black American Descendants of Slaves. (Video 1:27) .

RACIAL EQUITY EFFORTS

NYPD POLICE CHIEF LEAVES

PROPOSED PUBLIC POLICY

From May 2020 to October 2022, more than 1,300 CEOs committed $340B to support racial equity efforts across the nation. But what happened to that money? McKinsey's Institute for Black Economic Mobility reports its findings.

NYPD POLICE CHIEF LEAVES

NYPD POLICE CHIEF LEAVES

NYPD POLICE CHIEF LEAVES

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell abruptly resigned her position in June 2023. Although she did not state any specific reason after meeting with Mayor Eric Adams, she gave plenty of insightful clues. New4 report.

HOMEOWNERSHIP GAP

NYPD POLICE CHIEF LEAVES

NYPD POLICE CHIEF LEAVES

Municipal leaders, economic development strategists, homeownership advocates and organizations, federal and state government agencies all agree on the importance and value of homeownership. Here's the gap data.

TALK TO US

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Copyright © 2024 Common Ground Conversations - All Rights Reserved.

  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • TESTIMONIALS