Can we enhance the quality of life in neighborhoods by increasing trust and civic vitality? Or is that silly?
Can we build community by doing actions to that support learning, relationship building, trust, and action? Or is that silly?
I propose we find out.
But, first, an interlude on visioning. I am a huge fan of community visioning. I love watching the dynamics of people in a room talking about what their preferred neighborhood looks like. I am thrilled when there is skilled facilitation that helps participants clarify and coordinate their sometimes competing visions. If done well the process can be transformative, but this is not what I am proposing. The silly workshops are focussed on the individual and their actions with neighbors, friends, and family. I recognize the role structures and systems play in shaping a neighborhood, but, again, this is not what I am proposing.
The silly workshops have a conceit. It focuses on “four cornerstones” of community - Learn | Connect | Trust | Act. It believes, as I do, that communities filled with active, knowledgeable, caring and connected citizens have high resiliency, strong protective factors, and are nice places to live. Based upon this conceit it assumes that we can identify actions we can do to be better informed, to get to know our neighbors, and so forth. Identifying these actions, clarifying them, then doing them is what the silly workshops are all about.
The workshop design is based upon classic facilitation. Brainstorm, clarify, organize or prioritize, commit, then do. Then come back a few months later to reflect, celebrate, adjust, and do again.
Ask the question, “What can we do to increase trust in our neighborhood?” List the ideas (brainstorm). Ask people to clarify and expand on their idea. Organize the ideas (affinity grouping) or prioritize them. Then ask the group to build a todo list. Make a commitment to do one or more of these actions then do them. Have a follow up workshop in a few months to track progress, adjust, and commit again.
Another interlude, this time reflecting on facilitation. The original idea was to develop the facilitation skills of a group of young people from the neighborhood. These young people would facilitate the silly workshops (backed up by a team of highly skilled facilitators) and be in charge of monitoring and tracking the completion of todo lists. They would also function as the local help desk/ombudsman (again backed up by skilled resource people) and be the convenor of ad hoc community building activities - such as flashmobbing the planning commission meeting.
As I am process-centric, I believe the most important part of the silly workshops is the monitoring and tracking of these actions. That is why the activity of creating todo lists, tracking completion of todo items (you know, The One Million Splotz of Glue Campaign). But, I am also an educator, that is why the youth development component.
Really cool thought - imagine how cool it would be to have teams of young people (facilitators of the silly workshops) talking, sharing stories, and challenging young people from other areas?
We should talk about the design of the workshops and its basic conceit. We should expand on the youth component. Okay, who wants to begin?
splotz of glue workshop kit
Posted on March 8th, 2007 by Lloyd Y. Asato
Filed under: Silly Workshops
[…] have initial commit from allies interested in convening silly workshops in their communities and we are looking for more. The workshops are open frameworks for building […]