SALT LAKE CITY – The Dignity Index will host its first-ever summit in Salt Lake City on Monday, Oct. 20.
Entitled “Building a Culture of Dignity,” the gathering will offer practical strategies for connection in polarized times, using dignity to ease divisions, prevent violence and solve problems.
“We’re building a new culture based on honoring each person’s dignity and inherent worth,” according to Dr. Tim Shriver, co-founder of the Dignity Index. “This summit will be a unique opportunity to connect as a community and accelerate the work” of the Dignity Index.
The dignity summit will be held at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center in Salt Lake City. Organizers of the event include Tami Pyfer, a Cache Valley native and former education advisor to former Gov. Gary Herbert.
The dignity effort is an initiative of the non-profit organization UNITE, originally created in 2018 to combat polarization in politics.
Developed in 2021, the Dignity Index is an eight-point scale designed to measure and score political language for either dignity or contempt, developed and refined in Utah with researchers from the University of Utah.
The Dignity Index was first publicly tested in Utah’s 2022 midterm elections when a team of 22 politically and ideologically diverse students from the Hinckley Institute of Politics and the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute were trained as coders.
They scored phrases from candidates’ campaign speeches, debates, ads and social media posts. Scores were released publicly throughout the campaign season, highlighting language that either built understanding or fueled division.
Shriver says that the full-day Dignity Summit will begin with a keynote address from Dr. Donna Hicks, an international conflict resolution specialist, a associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and author of Leading with Dignity.
The event will also include main stage presentations about how to use the Dignity Index to build more positive cultures on college campuses and in the media.
Break-out sessions throughout the day will include training on how to score speech using the Dignity Index, focusing on the workplace, politics, higher education, kindergarten through grade 12 education and community groups.
The Dignity Summit will kick-off with an informal networking reception at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 19 at the Hilton Center.
Additional information about the events can be found by going online to www.dignity.us/summit.
The Hilton Salt Lake City Center is located at 255 South West Temple Street in Salt Lake City.