Bridging community differences will be the theme of an orientation session this month to help community members come to a broader understanding of divisive issues.
The session is scheduled for September 10, from 6:30 to 9:30 pm at Cranberry Seniors Centre, sponsored by the Westview Ratepayers Society education subcommittee.
Kate Sutherland is a founding partner of Emerge Collab, where she serves as an organizational development consultant, and will be facilitating the session. She said the impetus for starting the sessions stemmed from her concern about the amount of divisiveness and polarization in the qathet region.
“So, I’m hoping to help bridge community differences and have it be where we see each other’s humanity, so that we can talk to each other, and we can find common ground,” said Sutherland, adding that she heard about the program shortly after it was created in 2011.
“My work is as a community development consultant and organizational development consultant, and in the course of that, I hear about things through my networks. I have practiced all the elements a multitude of times. The core of it is having a really structured container for a conversation.”
Sutherland said the initiative uses what’s called a circle process, where everyone has the chance to speak, but there is no cross talk.
“Circle practice is ancient,” said Sutherland. “Humans have been doing it around fires for millennia.”
Sutherland said participants speak in turn and there are group agreements, which stress being curious and listening, and suspending judgment.
“We tend to listen and say, ‘oh, I don’t agree with that,’ and then you stop listening,” said Sutherland. “In this context, you are invited to listen and to try and understand, opening your mind.
“The process emphasizes people’s lived experiences and their values rather than their opinions. That tends to take us more into the heart and less into the head. You’re more likely to find common ground when you’re working in that way.”
Sutherland said there is a power that comes from really being heard. The invitation in the process is to speak what matters to the speaker, and not trying to convince somebody.
“You’re not shoving it down their throat, you’re just saying: ‘here’s what matters to me,’” said Sutherland.
She said in preparing for the coming session, she ran a pilot, and was paired with someone she wouldn’t have likely spoken with. She said there is lots in this person she doesn’t agree with, but she was able to see him as a human being.
“I’m fascinated by how powerful seeing each other’s humanity is and getting outside of our bubbles,” said Sutherland. “So, I can speak to that, personally,”
Initiative promotes systemic change
Sutherland said the process of what was called “living room conversations” was studied by the Fetzer Institute, an organization that has the mission of building the spiritual foundation for a loving world, which showed the process to be successful, in terms of individual and community impacts.
“They did an 18-month study with 37 interviews and focus groups and found really profound impacts,” said Sutherland.
She said the orientation session on September 10 will be an opportunity to experience the bridging community differences in microcosm. Westview Ratepayers Society’s membership and other ratepayers societies have been invited to participate, and Sutherland is inviting all other interested parties to become involved. The basic model for a living room session is having two people co-hosting the gathering, with each inviting two other people, for a total of six.
“What the living room conversations have found is that it’s hard for people to go straight to a really polarized topic, so the advice is to have a gentler topic at the beginning and build toward something stronger,” said Sutherland. “The possibility is a community where everyone feels they belong.”
Sutherland said at the orientation session, she will be endeavouring to transfer as much knowledge as she can about how to facilitate conversations.
Powell River residents are divided on issues such as the potential name change for the city, homelessness, mental health and other matters. Sutherland said it is not popular to say, but both sides of an issue are exacerbating the polarization. Her hope is that people will participate in the bridging community differences process to help promote systemic change in the community.
Sutherland said there is a tendency to go for quick fixes, but solutions can be worked toward by getting into deeper levels. According to her, the process takes time and she’s curious to see if changes in the city’s dynamic happen in the years to come.
“The emphasis should be on changing hearts and then opinions,” said Sutherland. “It will take time for opinions to manifest themselves in productive ways.”
To reserve a spot at the session, or to pose any questions, contact Sutherland at [email protected].
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