Community Cafe at Senior Services for South Sound

Posted on Thursday, October 17th, 2013

Senior Services for South Sound (Olympia, WA) recently convened its second annual Community Café on what it means to live in our Age of Active Wisdom, including the continuing exploration of the relationship between the Senior Centers and the larger community. Our purpose last Saturday was 1) to continue to connect ourselves through meaningful conversations about what matters to us, and 2) to move forward in two specific areas: life-long learning and strengthening community. My purpose here is to share the intent and design in the hope that others might see the value of such a conversation in their community.

Here is the lovely space where we convened…the Lacey Senior Center.

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Participants included members of the Senior Center (Olympia and Lacey) as well as other interested community members.

Connection Conversations. As a way of bringing all voices into the room, I invited everyone to engage in two “connection conversations” for a total of 15 minutes. First, people paired up to talk about “What brought you here to day? Why was it important for you to be here?” Then, in groups of 4, participants talked about “a significant or powerful learning experience that you had recently. What was that experience like for you?”

 

I then briefly described the Café process we would follow. About half the people in the room had some experience with World Café conversations, which are becoming more common in our community. I reviewed the World Café Guidelines with help from a beautiful graphic by my friend, Claire Bronson; the flow of conversations; changing tables; and the harvest (including a ”prayer flag” harvest).

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Context for the first 20-minute conversation: “Many of us in this room would call ourselves life-long learners. We are curious about the world and each other and ourselves. What if, for a moment, we imagined that the Senior Center was some kind of very low-priced liberal arts college where we are all learners and we are all teachers? Yes, a bizarre thought, perhaps. And, in this imagined institution, what do you want to learn, and what would you like to teach?”

When 15 minutes had passed, I reminded each table about harvesting this conversation. Individuals recorded what they wished to learn and what they wanted to teach on pastel “flags”, pinned the flags along an arc of yarn on a long bulletin board, and then moved to new tables for the next conversation.

Context for the second 20-minute conversation. “I invite you now to think about the idea of the Senior Centers being a place for important community conversations. These are conversations that you think need to happen in our community. The Senior Centers might actually host and facilitate some of these conversations, perhaps in collaboration with another organization, or just provide a welcoming space for such conversations hosted by others. What are these conversations? Who should be there? Who are potential hosting partners? As you now talk at your tables, please use the big paper on the table to make notes about the “name” or “title” of a conversation, the people who need to be invited, and likely partners.”

Harvest from tablecloths. I invited participants to share their “conversation titles”. “The conversation I think is needed is titled ‘…..’” We went around the room for about 15 minutes.

Context for final harvest. “Now we want to expand our awareness to the collective wisdom that is emerging in the whole room about the role of Senior Services and seniors themselves in our community. Reflect for a moment on any insights that came to you during your conversations this morning. Perhaps you experienced a shift in your own thinking, perhaps your perspective changed in some way. What do you notice about yourself? How are we seeing the evolving role of Senior Services? What “next steps” seem possible? What opportunities for collaboration are we seeing?” Having spoken these questions, I recorded responses as my colleague Sara Thiessen ferried the microphone among the participants.

We closed the Café by passing the microphone and hearing every voice offer a word or phrase to describe what they were taking with them. One participant observed that we still had the room for another 30 minutes, “so why not keep talking?”

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Post-Café Thoughts. The hosting team felt this was a successful gathering, and questions arose about how to attract greater diversity to future cafes as well as to the Senior Centers. We noted that newcomers to the Café conversation structure appreciated that this was “a different kind of meeting”. When the various harvests have been compiled and reviewed, we’ll meet to see what was learned. Our hope is that the harvest will inform future programming, influence the direction of the ongoing Third Friday Conversation (meeting monthly since last year’s Café), and perhaps inspire additional conversations in the community.