February 2018 Dialogue Training: How to Facilitate Community Conversations

Based on many requests that emerged through the Hands Across the Hills MA-KY project, and the training currently underway this January, Dr. Paula Green will offer an additional two-session training program in core facilitation skills for community conversations. 

Note about the dates:

Saturdays: February 17 and 24 

9am-2pm each day

Attendance in both sessions required.

Program Description

Each session will be five-hours long, allowing ample time for hands-on practice in methods that support groups to do their best speaking, listening, and understanding. The emphasis will be on facilitating opportunities for communities to explore views, values, and sensitive issues beyond the heated rhetoric, blame, and polarization currently dividing us. We will provide dialogue handouts, recommend supplementary reading, and encourage participants to reach out for partnerships for dialogue in the Valley and beyond. In the last session, we will focus on ways that you can apply these new skills in your own community.

Why Dialogue?
Dialogue fosters a search for common ground and mutuality, often providing an opportunity to establish relationships, increase empathy, broaden views of conflict dynamics, and bridge differences. Dialogue is a tool for building more peaceful communities, but is not a substitute for other interventions or a cure-all for our global dilemmas.