LibGuides: Adult Services: Facilitating Community Conversations

YALSA Facilitation Resources

Program Models

We Belong Here/ Cultural Navigators - Hartford Public Library

Meeting Description

February 28, 2019

East Providence Public Library

Having strong facilitation skills are key component of running an engaging public program. In this workshop, participants will learn facilitation techniques that maximize the use of their skills and settings and learn strategies to help patrons stay motivated to learn. Participants will come up with facilitation strategies that will enhance the programs they are developing and practice a few strategies in front of their peers.

Workshop Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

Develop an understanding of effective strategies for engaging patrons in discussions and activities.
Use specific facilitation techniques that are effective for leading and managing group discussions.
Troubleshoot through potential challenges that may occur during group discussions.

Community Conversation Resources

ALA Center for Civic Life
The American Library Association ALA Center for Civic Life (CCL) promotes
engagement and fosters public deliberation through libraries. Launched in 2010 in
conjunction with the Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forum Institute, the
Center is building the capacity of libraries and librarians to help citizens get more engaged in the civic life of their communities.
Better Angels
Better Angels is a citizens’ organization uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to depolarize America. Better Angels' mission includes understanding the other side’s point of view, even if we don’t agree with it, engaging those we disagree with, looking for common ground and ways to work together, and supporting principles that bring us together rather than divide us.
Conversation Cafes
Conversation Cafés are open, hosted conversations in cafés as well as conferences and classrooms—anywhere people gather to make sense of our world. At a Conversation Café there is nothing to join, no homework, no agenda, just a simple process that helps to shift us from small talk to BIG talk, conversations that matter.
Everyday Democracy
Everyday Democracy is a project of The Paul J. Aicher Foundation, a private operating foundation dedicated to strengthening deliberative democracy and improving the quality of public life in the United States. Their mission is to help communities talk and work together to create communities that work for everyone.
Living Room Conversations
Living Room Conversations are a conversational bridge across issues that divide and separate us. They provide an easy structure for engaging in friendly yet meaningful conversation with those with whom we may not agree. These conversations increase understanding, reveal common ground, and sometimes even allow us to discuss possible solutions. No fancy event or skilled facilitator is needed.
National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation
The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation is a network of innovators who bring people together across divides to tackle today’s toughest challenges. NCDD serves as a gathering place, a resource clearinghouse, a news source, and a facilitation leader for this community.
National Issues Forum
The National Issues Forums is a US-based non partisan, nationwide network of civic, educational, and other organizations and individuals whose common interest is to promote public deliberation in America. NIF sponsors public forums and training institutions for public deliberation.
World Cafe
A World Café or Knowledge Café is a structured conversational process for knowledge sharing in which groups of people discuss a topic at several tables, with individuals switching tables periodically and getting introduced to the previous discussion at their new table by a "table host"