People's Supper Guidebooks
Racial Justice Journey: Looking in, looking out, & mapping a path to change
The series is intended for any established multiracial community — civic leaders within the same city or town, employees of a particular company or institution, or members of a school or a faith community — who wish to have an honest conversation about race, and to chart a collective path forward. This supper series is designed to help community leaders break down barriers and deepen trust and understanding of one another across lines of differences of race and identity. By tackling subjects we tend to avoid head-on, we aim to identify shared fears and the barriers that keep us from collaborative action, in order that we may overcome those fears and work toward solutions.
The People’s Supper in the Age of Physical Distancing
This guidebook contains everything you need to gather virtually, in response to COVID-19: suggestions on how to reach out to your community (and what to do if you’re feeling alone), facilitation tips and suggested conversation-starters, guidelines for successful online gatherings, and resources for how you can help those most in need right now.
People, Politics, & Reweaving the Social Fabric
This guidebook contains everything you need to know to host a supper of your own, whether you’re inviting friends and neighbors over for a casual night of conversation and a chance to meaningfully connect, or inviting people across identity or ideological difference to sit down around a shared table.
At Supper
A few Communal Agreements you can print off and leave on each plate, or do a read-aloud. In effect, they mean: 1.) If you wish to be fully welcomed, you have to agree to extend that same sense of welcome to others. 2.) We’re choosing to tune out the noise of the outside world, and to be present and able to fully listen to one another. 3.) Assume best intent.
Additional Guidebooks
As a special add-on to our primary Host Guidebook, this resource is intended for members and leaders of faith communities who would like to make the most of a People’s Supper.
You’ve heard of Cards Against Humanity: Consider these “Cards FOR Humanity”. Inspired by The People’s Supper and the book THE OPPOSITE OF HATE, these cards can help spark a conversation with family, friends, students, or co-workers about hate and the ways you can be a beacon for connection instead.
Additional Resources
Not an organization, but rather a set of tools for learning to listen & communicate more effectively.
A statewide initiative in California to activate public conversation about the meaning of democracy. The series concluded leading up to the 2012 election, but there are an array of materials online.
Services they provide:
Resources and recorded webinars from their Teaching Democracy series, which brought together a university professor & a primary school teacher to lead conversation about citizenship.
Book & exhibit Wherever There’s a Fight, about Civil Rights in California.
Committed to help people find their true purpose through deep, open conversation and then, through many programs, give people the courage and clarity to follow that purpose.
Services they provide:
The core of their programs is The Circle of Trust® approach which they use to facilitate the open conversations needed to find someone’s purpose.
The Center has created over 140 videos based on their resources and programs across all their work to watch online.
Promote and teach the art of powerful citizenship.
Services they provide:
Civic Saturday are monthly meetings to build community, learn skills, and feel inspired. It’s like a religious service for citizenship. You can also watch the past sermons online!
Educational videos made with TED-education on civic power, how to turn protest into powerful change, and a course from ITunesU on citizen power.
Annual conference bringing dozen of powerful change-makers to speak, and hundreds of attendees to learn about power, deepen their networks, and recharge their sense of purpose.
Research-based organization that teaches how to hold constructive, thoughtful and respectful conversations.
Services they provide:
A step-by-step guide to having difficult political conversations in a variety of settings.
An extensive resource library of free training guides, published articles, and dialogue resources.
Essential Partners (Formerly Public Conversations Project)
Helps people of different backgrounds and views talk and work together to solve problems and create communities that work for everyone.
Services they offer:
Guidebooks for conversations about racism, religious difference, poverty, community, and more.
Activities for getting hands-on with exploring questions of difference, democracy, and community.
Anchor partners around the country, to support changemakers.
Informational resources organized by issues, to learn more and figure out how to take action.
A collaborative documentary media project, photographing and interviewing people along the more than 10,000 streets called Main in the United States.
Services they provide:
View the documentation of Main Street America, and learn about everyday people across the country.
If you live near a Main Street, participate with the hashtage #mappingmainstreet
A network of dialogue and deliberation innovators.
Services they provide:
An extensive resource library built and updated with research, guides, and videos from the organizers within their network.
NCDD Beginners Resource Guide provides a starting point for any type of public engagement and dialogue building.
A conversation-based organization seeking to renew common life and civil dialogue.
Services they provide:
On Being & Becoming Wise podcasts, hosted by Krista Tippett of conversations on the big questions of meaning.
The Civil Conversations Project offers conversation guides for unsettling times, and for reaching across differences.
Articles about common life & civil dialogue.
The Poetry Radio Project shares audio recordings of poetry that can be a site of understanding.
Public Theology Reimagined offers podcasts & articles on religion, service, and spirituality.
Facilitates community dialogue, training, performances, and consultation to heal the wounds of difference.
Services they provide:
Reading & listening lists to learn about anti-oppression work & healing.
Community gatherings, education & support groups, and mediation gatherings.
Training to become facilitators, for individuals & organizations, and clergy.
National Network of trained facilitators, who receive resources and support.
An institute that helps people to transform conflictual relationships and design change processes. They define dialogue as “listening deeply enough to be changed by what you learn.”
Services they provide:
They use a 5 Point Sustained Dialogue Process to transform relationships mostly on university campuses but also internationally and in workplaces.
Their list of resources include of public peace building, politics and peace, and international peacebuilding research.
A grassroots action network inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of empathy, equity, and belonging.
Services they provide:
Local organizing field offices, college hubs, and tools for creating your own outpost, a local organizing group.
National creative actions that people across the country can participate in.
Published discoveries from their research into how citizen artists can support cultural democracy.
Great Reads & Listenings
TED Talks
The Clues to a Great Story, Andrew Stanton
10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation, Celeste Headlee
Articles
The art of storytelling, according to the founders of StoryCorps and Humans of New York, Amy S. Choi
How a great conversation is like a game of catch, Celeste Headlee
The Two Kinds of Stories We Tell About Ourselves, Emily Esfahani Smith
How to get power, Eric Liu
Telling Your Public Story, Marshall Ganz
Videos/Podcasts
Brené Brown on Empathy, Brené Brown
On Being's Krista Tippett On Civility And Having Better Conversations, Krista Tippett