National Conversation Project is partnering again this year with civic organizations around the world for the global Speak! campaign. The day before Speak! is the International Day of Listening; #ListenFirst indeed! Here in the United States, The Aspen Institute's Weave Project convened more than a dozen partners to co-create a conversation guide exploring our community's social fabric. The result of this broadly collaborative effort is Weaver Conversations that you can now host in your community!
Many people sense that something is broken in society. Surveys show about half of young adult Americans are lonely. Opioid addiction, suicide, gun violence, ethnic tension and depression have been rising. We face rapid change from a globalized economy, cell phones and social media, job-hopping, online dating, immigration, and uncertainty about our future health and wealth. Our social fabric seems to be shredding. Others observe that the social fabric of our communities and nation was never really woven to include everyone in the first place. Yet, there have been many times as a country when people looked past their surface differences and came together as neighbors to support each other – for example, after a storm or a shooting or a sports victory. Weaver Conversations bring us together to get to know each other and share our thoughts on why so many Americans feel isolated and how we might all work to build connections that can weave a strong social fabric where we all feel recognized, respected and valued. Our aim is to explore what might be behind today’s rising sense of isolation, loneliness and distrust and what each of us can do to weave a strong social fabric.
Check out the brand new Weaver Conversation Guide and gather people around this topic where you are. See all scheduled conversations on the right side of this page and add your own so we can recognize your efforts to strengthen the social fabric in your community!