Stoke Newington Community Listening Circles Project

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Summary

Aims

The Stoke Newington Community Listening Circles project was co-developed by people from Hackney XR and St Mary’s Church in Stoke Newington. We saw the need for action to be taken within our community following the first two years of the Covid pandemic and in the context of several other overlapping crises. We hoped to strengthen trust and resilience in our local community by identifying local people’s concerns and developing practical projects to address some of them, in the process empowering the community to tackle problems, build skills and create networks to support each other.

Methods

A core group, made up of individuals from the two organisations, met regularly on Zoom and in person to discuss the development of a community building project. We created a plan to run a series of weekly listening circles to identify the concerns of local people and work out what we as a community might do to address them. We worked consciously to increase racial diversity in the core group. We ran a pilot session to test out the process and then organised 6 evenings of listening circles culminating in a community meal on the final evening. We created a flier that was used to promote the program and set up a Facebook page. Before each session we created a detailed plan including enquiry questions for the listening circles and allocated tasks such as welcoming and facilitation. After each session we held a review meeting to reflect on the process and work on a plan for the following week.

Outcomes

We held nine sessions (one pilot; 5 evenings of listening circles and group discussions; a community meal; two follow up sessions to review progress). A total of 24 people attended the meetings (in addition to the core group), including several people who attended most of the sessions. During the 5 evenings of listening circles we moved from: identifying people’s concerns → prioritising those concerns → developing four practical projects to address them

The four projects are:

working to hold Hackney Council to account in relation to the climate crisis
running listening circles for young people
running a pop-up climate café
developing a community garden on church land Two of these projects are on-going and are being run independently. Those involved in the other two projects are exploring ways to continue. Another follow up session will be held in about 4 months’ time.

Introduction

The Stoke Newington Community Listening Circles project was co-developed by a group of us from Hackney XR and St Mary’s Church in Stoke Newington following the experience of Hackney XR running a People’s Assembly in August 2021. We saw the need for change and for action to be taken within our community following the first two years of the Covid pandemic and in the context of other overlapping crises including the destruction of the environment; the climate catastrophe; poverty for many; homelessness; race and class oppression and a sense that the established political & social systems were not working for the good of most people. We hoped to strengthen trust and resilience in our local community and empower ourselves to tackle problems, build skills and create networks to support each other.

How did we go about making the project happen?

After an initial meeting between XR Hackney and St Mary’s church in October 2021 a core group of us, made up of individuals from the two organisations, met regularly on Zoom and in person to discuss the development of a community building project. We set up a WhatsApp group for discussions in between meetings. We were alert to the different cultures of the two organisations; it was helpful to have a couple of people from the church who had previously been involved with XR who could help to navigate some of the more difficult conversations. To ensure shared ownership of the project, we alternated the facilitation of the meetings between the two organisations. We came up with a plan to run a series of listening circles to help identify the concerns of local people and what we as a community might be able to do to address them. We worked consciously to increase racial diversity in the core group by working with a woman of colour who was known to XR from Black Lives Matter (BLM). She introduced two other people of colour to the group, one of whom facilitated most of the listening circle sessions.

How do listening circles work?

Listening circles involve active listening which is different from having a conversation. The person speaking talks for a set amount of time in response to a designated enquiry question while the other person listens carefully without interrupting or commenting on what they are saying. The person listening should also minimize what they do (such as showing empathy with a smile or nod) in order to keep their response neutral and not influence what the speaker is saying. At the end of the set time, the speaker thanks their partner for listening and invites them to talk for the same length of time. After both partners have spoken they can feed back to each other or a larger group for about one minute what the other one has said. There is some evidence that the best length of time for such listening exercises is 4 minutes and 40 seconds. For the purposes of this project, we mostly used 4 minutes.

How did we prepare for the series of listening circles?

We practiced active listening amongst ourselves in pairs using a gong timer. To be as inclusive as possible, members of the core group with a hearing impairment advised on the use of a microphone during the sessions. We practiced using the microphone. On 1st March we piloted an evening of three rounds of listening circles to test out the process. There was a limited number of invited guests, specifically chosen to increase the diversity within the meeting in relation to age and race. This session was facilitated by the person from BLM in order to model leadership by people of colour and there were three other people of colour helping to co-facilitate. We highlighted some ground rules at the start.

Ground rules

To treat everyone with respect
To enter into conversation in good faith and in a spirit of co-operation
To listen attentively and patiently
To aim towards wanting to understand others rather than convincing them of your point of view
To hear people out
To make space for others to speak if you have been talking for a while
To try not to take any comments as personal attacks
To notice when our emotions are feeling stirred and to take a deep breath before we react
To assume that everyone else is also just trying their best!

We used the following enquiry questions for the listening exercises.

Round 1- check in:

• What has made you feel alive today? What has frustrated you today?

Round 2

• What is your experience of the pandemic?

Round 3

• What concerns do you have which you would like to explore?

We asked participants to feedback the concerns they would like to explore and we created a chart of these. The box below shows the proposed plan for the evening. We did not manage to stick to the time schedule and so the last part, when we would have discussed the concerns raised, did not take place as we ran out of time. However, despite this and the large number of troubling concerns that emerged, there was a real buzz in the room as people felt listened to and able to express those concerns with a hope that collectively we might be able to address some of them.

PILOT EVENT at St Mary’s Centre, 1st March 2022, 7.30-9pm - PLAN

Numbers – we are aiming for around 20 people. Scope or limit what are we piloting? We are mostly testing the process of a meeting. Refreshments will be provided in the centre.

7.30 – 7.40: (10 mins) Introduction to the evening from facilitators: two supporting facilitators also needed

7.40 – 7.55: (15 minutes) Check-in: those present introduce themselves and answer questions • What has made you feel alive today? • What has frustrated you today?

7.55 – 8.30: (35 minutes – allows 5 minutes for moving around and getting started) Go into break out rooms with 4 people in each group to participate in a listening exercise where we practice really listening to the other person without asking any questions.

8.00-8.15: (15 minutes) Divide into pairs. One person talks for 5 minutes about their experience of the pandemic while the other person listens without saying anything. The other person in the pair then talks about their experience of the pandemic. Get back into 4 and each person summarizes what their partner has told them for 1 minute.

8.15-8.30: (15 minutes) Divide into same pairs again. One person talks for 5 minutes about concerns they have which they would like to explore while the other person listens without saying anything. The other person in the pair then talks about concerns they have which they would like to explore. Get back into 4 and each person summarizes what their partner has told them for 1 minute.

8.30 – 8.45: (15 minutes) Go back into the bigger group and feedback from each group of 4 some concerns which those there would like to explore further which have been inspired by the listening exercise. This could be introduced by asking: What would you like this group to explore further? Or What concerns would you like to explore further?

8.45 – 9.00: (15 minutes) Discuss those concerns and round up

Reflection on the pilot

The core group met a few days after the pilot to reflect on what had gone well in the pilot and what needed to be changed for future sessions.

What went well

Overall, it was a very positive and moving experience; everyone pulled together; there was good and enabling facilitation leading to good energy, solidarity and comradeship in the room. There was a sense of profound connection (development of collective consciousness).

• Great to have diversity amongst those attending including young people

• Good to chat informally with refreshments at the start

• Check-in questions were important to get to know the other person before talking about deeper things

• Use of gong timer helped to keep things on track

• Recap after listening for 4-5 minutes was important to help keep focus during listening

• Having timed sessions gave time to those who are not used to being heard

• Feedback session to the whole group by capturing thoughts & ideas on paper at the end was good – asking representatives from each group to write their ideas on the big chart was a good way of people feeling included

What needed to change

• keep to time

• have welcomers at door with extra 15 minutes at start for tea & chat

• need a clearer introduction to the event including:-

scene setting
aims of the evening & project overall without being too prescriptive
practical guidance on how evening going to work
rough outline of timetable
clear explanation of active listening and how this differs from back & forth conversation

• consider practicalities of the space and how participants move around between being in main room as entire group in a big circle at the beginning and end; and in smaller groups spread out in the St Mary’s Centre during the times of listening

• paper & pens for people to write down key points for feeding back

• revise the enquiry questions

• better use of co-facilitators

Plan for the main project

After the pilot we agreed to run a six week programme starting on Tuesday 26th April. The overall aim was to identify challenges and issues of concern for people living in Stoke Newington and then co-develop some practical solutions. The first two weeks would be rounds of listening circles with a similar structure to the pilot. The exact structure of the remaining weeks was not decided at this stage but we hoped to generate a reservoir of community concerns and create a rolling structure where conversations would be picked up from week to week. This would allow for it to evolve organically, while staying true to our aim so that by the end of six weeks we would have a few small working groups with a clear sense of what they want to do. Selecting which concerns to be worked on would be done in a democratic way. The final week would include a community meal as a celebration of what we have done in the first 5 weeks and a launch for the on-going work.

Publicity

The youngest member of the group (a design student) designed the flier/poster that was used to promote the program and another person set up a Facebook page. The flier was used to promote the project by leafleting along Stoke Newington Church Street where information was handed out to local shops and restaurants, and posters were put up in prime locations outside Clissold Park and the church. We held two Circles of Silence in Clissold Park. In these several of us stood in a circle facing outwards holding handmade placards highlighting facts about the climate and environmental catastrophe. These were used as opportunities to hand out leaflets and talk about the project to passers-by. We announced the project at the end of several church services and left fliers for people to pick up in church and at the Second Chance Café attached to the church.

Other issues

• We booked St Mary’s Centre for six consecutive Tuesday evenings and hoped that not too many people turned up in relation to the capacity of the venue! We had use of the main room, kitchen from which we could serve refreshments and another small room.

• We bought sticky labels to use as name badges.

• We generated a registration sheet to collect names and email addresses of those attending and explored GDPR policies around information handling and confidentiality.

• We created an email account to use to communicate with participants.

• A few days after each session we held a meeting either in person or on Zoom to review how the session went and to plan the next one, clarifying the focus of the next session and deciding on roles and new enquiry questions. We created a tabulated plan for each session. We took turns to welcome and serve refreshments; sign-in those attending; facilitate; and time keep. The co-facilitators for the next session met separately to divide up tasks.

The first Listening Circle session

As we had done for the pilot, we developed a plan with several sub-sections (see below).

We started by welcoming all participants, aiming to create a sense of care, togetherness and gratitude to them for making the effort to come out to join us. We offered refreshments and asked people to wear a sticky label with their name on it.

We set out a large circle of chairs in the main room for the participants to use at the start.

There were three facilitators for this evening (two were people of colour) and they co-delivered a scripted introduction (covering scene setting; aims of the evening & project overall; practical guidance on how evening was going to work; rough timetable; clear explanation of active listening & ground rules). Another person acted as a timekeeper using a gong timer for the listening exercises (4 minutes) and keeping the facilitators to time for each sub-section.

We put up posters on the wall with an outline timetable for the evening and reminders of the enquiry questions.

We numbered round the room to divide the participants into groups of four and then asked each group to move to a specific place within the centre.

Each group had a piece of flip chart paper and pens. We asked each group of four to divide into pairs for the listening exercises using the enquiry questions and to stick with this pair for the rest of the evening.

For the check-in listening circle we had two well-being enquiry questions • What has made you feel alive today? • What has frustrated you today?

For the second listening circle the enquiry question was: How has life changed for you over the last 2 years? And for the third listening circle the enquiry question was: What concerns do you have that you would like to explore?

After each listening circle there was time to feedback what had been shared to the groups of four and then to discuss this in the fours. In particular, we asked participants to record (on a piece of flip chart paper) the concerns that were raised in the third sub-section to feedback to the whole group at the end.

During the last sub-section the whole group reconvened in a circle and representatives from each group of four fed back the concerns they had discussed using the flip chart sheets as an aide memoire.