2019 has been full of gratitude and recognition. I will be telling you more about that in the coming months. In this issue of our weekly update, I ask for your support in recognition of what one recent user called “this amazing resource!” I’m talking about Living Room Conversations.
Below is my favorite recent story of how we are reaching our mission of connection through conversation–a world in which people who have fundamental differences of opinion and backgrounds learn to work together with respect–and even joy–through applying and adapting our conversational model.
About two weeks ago, we received the following lovely story/fantastic news about an impact our work was having in Appleton, Wisconsin. Dustin Mack, Chief Curator of the History Museum wrote a heartfelt thank-you:
This is a rather long was of saying thank you for the work that you have done. The format is fantastic and we’re putting it to good use.
The History Museum at the Castle in Appleton, Wisconsin recently developed an exhibit titled “Bridging the GAP Years, 1969-2019” that explores growing divisions in American society. Our idea is to bring people together in conversation about these “gaps” afterwards. We adopted several Living Room Conversations for the purposes of this exhibit.
In doing research for our exhibit I looked at a number of different platforms for having difficult conversations. The conversation agreements, topics, and overall structure of Living Room Conversations made your work stand out. We love that it’s an open-source project as well which has allowed us to make small modifications that fit the audience/exhibit.
After appearing at the History Museum, the exhibit, including the Living Room Conversations, will be available to travel the state by request for free. It’s already scheduled at the Appleton Public Library in April and the League of Women Voters state convention in June. Thanks to the work being done at Living Room Conversations we’re getting people talking.
We asked Dustin if we could tell you this story as a way of sharing our joy and of asking if you, too, would like to support the work we are doing? Day in, day out, we are here for you, helping you listen and speak more deeply with those around you–and across the country and around the world from you. As we say on our website: major disagreement on important issues is a fact of life, but it doesn’t have to create insurmountable divides. Living Room Conversations is a bridge across those divides.
Will you make a gift today to our Spring annual fund? Thank you so very much! Click here to donate by check or online.
Beth G. Raps, PhD
Development Partner