What does belonging mean to you?
I loved this project because it brought together several components that make it especially fun and rewarding: a really juicy policy
issue facing our country, an amazingly dedicated and caring staff, and a fabulous facilitator who I’ve always wanted to work with.
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), an organization that works on immigrant and refugee issues, held a series of meetings around the country to assess what kind of impact they are having in the communities where they work. I finally got a chance to team with Chris Corrigan, a wonderful facilitator from the Art of Hosting practice, who ran the World Café process for the day.
A tapestry of visual maps.
LIRS had held two meetings beforehand in Philadelphia and North Dakota using colleagues of mine as the graphic facilitators. Their visual maps were hung in the room serving as a rich tapestry of the conversations that had occurred in other communities.
Chris asked me if I was intimidated by my colleagues’ work. No, I said, I can only bring what I bring and trust that it’s good enough.
Ah, gorgeous tables.
The LIRS team/staff was over-the-top impressive. If you ever need pointers on how to prep a room for a World Café, they have
the definitive manual and have set the standard. A lot of effort goes into prepping the space for a World Café so that participants feel comfortable, relaxed and invited into the conversation. Imagine a café in Paris with a lovely table cloth, flowers, and a wonderful flowing conversation that enriches your life.
Their set-up included:
- Handmade tablecloths from bolts of beautiful fabric
- Gorgeous flowers on each table
- Candy
- Loads of markers
- A take-away branded puzzle for each participant (kind of like a Rubik’s Cube)
Hello in 25 languages.
The day-long process began with finding out how many languages we could say “Hello” in. I lost track but I think there were about 25 in the room.
The day was rich in storytelling as people from Venezuela, Italy, Thailand and about 25 other countries shared their experiences about their home country and their new county, America.
What amazed and surprised me was how proud they were to be US citizens. The love the schools and the opportunities even while missing parts of the culture they left behind which struck me as such a contrast to how I’m always hearing about how our schools are failing and the lack of opportunities that exist.
- What does it mean to belong?
- The conversation focused on questions like:
- What is belonging?
- What does it mean to belong?
- When do you know that you belong?
Participants clearly differentiated the difference between “Welcome” which happens first and is more superficial and “Belong” which someone explained as being able to put their feet up on the coffee table.
Exploding with color.
I don’t know if it was the blue of Tampa Bay seen thru the windows or the infectious excitement in the room, but I used more vibrant colors in a single map than I have in a long time. It’s positively exploding with color and accurately reflects the gorgeous blend of diverse backgrounds and cultures we strung together that day.
Wow. What a take-away. 
At the end of the Café, the LIRS team did something that was so over-the-top impressive my jaw dropped open for a full 20 seconds. After the first round of the harvest (World Café’s usually have three rounds of questions and conversations) I gave them a digital image of the visual map so far. They ran off to Kinko’s to make copies for everyone, which they inserted into a folio along with a certificate of participation. They wanted folks to walk out with a little reminder of the day and something to show their family and friends. Impressive!!