Over the last few months Civity has had the privilege of facilitating two civity workshops with climate-change-related practitioners. Working with the members of the Midwest Climate Collaborative in St. Louis, Missouri, and with Bluegrass Greensource in Lexington, Kentucky, the common thread was the awareness that building relationships across difference is the foundation for change.
Much of the work on climate change, like work on other important issues, takes place locally. Whether the work is about addressing the effects of climate change or about preventing them – or both – there are a lot of critical discussions, planning, and actions that take place at the community level.
We often call Civity practice “the conversation before the conversation.” We don’t dive into the topic of climate change in our workshops. Instead, we provide connection: the necessary (and often skipped-over) step of preparing people to engage in the conversation about climate change, particularly to understand and appreciate the differences between people in their communities. Encouraging people to share who they are, where they are from, and why they do the work that they do sets participants up to listen with empathy and truly see the individual in front of them.
One of the differences that kept emerging during these workshops was that of age. I heard various stories about a generation gap – of an older generation feeling unheard by the incoming generation of young people. On the other hand, the younger generation felt unseen or undervalued for the insight they bring to the table. How do you move forward without discrediting an entire generation of people who have devoted or are devoting their lives to their work, land, or neighborhood? The answer is to listen. When we listen to the stories behind the beliefs, we start to understand in a more meaningful way. The elder generation has wisdom and the new generation has fresh eyes. Both are equally important.
Bluegrass Greensource Watershed Coordinator Chris Howard speaks to that sentiment:
Civity’s work to open pathways of communication with people of different backgrounds and experience showed me that most folks can find a common ground on climate change. The fact that climate change is even being discussed in central Kentucky would have been almost impossible just a few years ago, but with recent weather events, it’s nice to see people coming together and discussing this real situation we face. Civity helped kick off these conversations and created a safe space to have them.
At the workshops, here are a few other things we heard:
“It was eye-opening to hear about my partner’s experience as an older citizen and their expectations of the rest of their life, wishes, hopes, fears, etc. We often assume older generations have it all figured out and the truth is they are still working it all out, too.”
“I’m going to be much more intentional in how I approach conversations, especially ones where middle ground MUST be met. I really want to focus on listening and finding out people’s WHY.”
“I loved the opportunity, especially, to have a deeper conversation with someone I was already acquainted with, but hadn’t been able to connect with on this deeper level. I also loved listening to someone who differed from me tell me about their life.”
Our workshops provide the space – and a little nudge – for participants to build civity themselves. But it’s when they leave the workshop that the important civity work begins. I am eager to see how these climate change practitioners integrate and seed Civity practices to help them – and their communities – move forward together!
Photo on Right taken by Carol Green/Washington University in St. Louis