Community listening
A few notes and observations from recent events and activity. Pausing the 100 Evanston Stories project I'm putting the 100 Evanston Stories: Navigating Trumpism project on pause. What I learned (once again) is that folks find it challenging to tell a story about their lives. I heard "
Design
This is offroad a bit from thinking about community listening. But...it's really not. It's about paying attention to human moments. Stay with me here as I connect these dots. I am not a huge baseball geek but am slowly growing to appreciate the sport'
Community listening
100 Evanston Stories Project "When Fred Rogers was overwhelmed by the suffering of the world, his mom would tell him to 'look for the helpers.' I see helpers everywhere in Evanston. "The businessman who shares his sandwich with an unhoused person in front of Jewel. The
Community listening
I had another opportunity this past week to attend a community listening event. This one was successful in a number of ways, but I am now beginning to form a short list of principles I think may lead to improving the design of these events. * Design to the type of
Community listening
Earlier this week I attended a meeting billed as a community listening event. It drew 100-plus folks. And it has me thinking about missed opportunities to engage every participant who attends such events. The event I attended was styled as a town hall with a very specific topic focus: Options
Community listening
In the next two weeks I have the opportunity to participate in a few community listening events. I've been thinking about what I want to pay attention to. Three things jump out: * How are the sessions designed to actively listen? And did the design reasonably facilitate that desired
Thinking out loud
Today I am sharing the first six stories I've received. I hope these first six lead others to share similar moments, which I know most all of us in the community experience. Finding others who remind us we are not alone in our thinking or actions. Recognizing the
Thinking out loud
I did not plan to write this story/post. But the moment filled my heart, and head. I'm using the question prompts from the 100 Evanston Stories Project - Navigating Though Trumpism to tell the story and what it means to me: How deeply you feel community when
Community listening
This week I am officially launching a project: 100 Evanston Stories: Navigating Through Trumpism. I aim to collect and share 100 stories about how the local Evanston community (where I live) helps its members resist Trump and his enablers and work toward a different future. Real stories. Told by folks
Thinking out loud
An acquaintance of mine, educator and higher ed leader Suzanne Wilson Summers, posted a comment on LinkedIn to an article calling on us all to remember history and to heed current calls for action. Her comment struck me at a moment when I was questioning my own current strategy of
Community listening
Fair warning: This post gets into the weeds and is long-ish. Jump to the What now? section to get a tl;dr version. My head is swirling in reaction to all the actions that are focused on resisting what is going on around us. Protests, advocacy campaigns, boycotts, political organizing,
Community listening
"What if everybody's job is to do repair?" comes from Jessica Norwood, founder and CEO of Runway. Runway is a Black and Brown women-led financial innovation firm focusing on building Black community wealth through early-stage business funding, support and partnerships. Norwood is a successful entrepreneur and