WORLD CAFÉ INVITES CITIZENS TO SHAPE FUTURE OF ST. PETE!

“Have you told your neighbor what you want for 2022? Have you listened to what they want?” The local community development group, the Transformative Learning Community (TLC), invites people who live and work in St Petersburg and greater Tampa Bay to share their responses during CELEBRATE NEW BEGINNINGS: A World Café Community Gathering. The event, billed as a place for conversations that matter, will be held at Hammock Hall at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, 3010 31st Street South, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712 on December 7, 6:00-9:00 PM. Registration and a simple reception begin at 6:00. The World Café begins promptly at 6:30. Registration is through Eventbrite. https://tinyurl.com/4pd2nyu8

Open to the public, this free event invites everyone who cares about the St. Petersburg region to come together and share their desires for themselves and the city in 2022. They will participate in the World Café method of structured conversation hosted by locals trained as hosts in the technique.
Participants will be invited to share their hopes for the year ahead. Following elections which reflect the diversity in the city, the Celebration invites all perspectives and sparks actions that are meaningful to participants themselves.

“There’s no better place to come together in person for the first time in nearly two years,” said Sharon Joy Kleitsch, TLC member and long-time St. Petersburg resident. “Boyd Hill represents the diversity of people and connection to living systems that is the basis of World Café. It’s about life!”

The World Café method — grounded in its principles of mutuality, respect, and whole systems, helps to expand how conversationalists perceive issues — without requiring them to change their beliefs.
World Café participants often report that they have opened their hearts to one another and put their hands to work in new ways.

TLC member, Rev. Russell Meyer, said, “World Café contrasts with mainstream approaches to complex issues that take a top-down ‘expert’ perspective, which is often dismissive and disempowering. In a World Café, citizens listen and connect with each other through diverse perspectives. And the beauty is that new possibilities emerge when we each experience being heard as contributors to our shared future.”

TLC generates conversational leadership in St. Petersburg and greater Tampa Bay. Conversational leadership enhances the community’s collective capacity to live in meaningful relationship with one another, to repair ruptures in those relationships, and to imagine a widely shared future of wellbeing together.

Follow TLC on Facebook @ConversationalTLC

If you wish to support the Transformative Learning Community or the CELEBRATE NEW BEGINNINGS gathering, please contact Sharon Joy Kleitsch at kleitsch@verizon.net or call (727) 550-9660 (no text).
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