What to Expect
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How to ParticipateRegistration for the 2019 series has closed.
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Reflections from 2018
"I joined the Medford Conversations this year as a facilitator with the main aims of getting more involved in the community, making friends and honing my facilitation skills. These goals, or at least the first two, were more or less shared by most people in our Circle. We were also quite the diverse group with two rising seniors from Medford High School, a few of us from West Medford and from Glenwood, life-long residents and relatively new ones, the young and not so young, with kids, without kids, racially and ethnically mixed with different stories, needs, issues.
But what made our circle very different was that we had one person who lived in an affordable housing unit. Our conversation circle started off and was informed throughout by what she shared at the kick-off event…from overcoming the shame and stigma of living in affordable housing to gathering the courage to show up and speak up about the myriad problems that was unique to them—people who were disadvantaged at the intersections of class, race, age and other parameters—for whom rising house prices and rent meant there was no way out of those units. Rising cable bills meant less budget for food if they chose to have cable, reliant on public transport meant many bus drivers less welcoming to the many bags of groceries.
Her story, her dignity, her presence was humbling in many respects. For one it put into perspective our own stories and made us reflect on the privileges we each take for granted. My circle conversations since were all the more richer, our circle evolved, we made friends, and we met up again recently to carry the conversation and friendships forward. I will be signing up again this year. Apart from the wonderful friendships made, I find invaluable the many perspectives I gained at the Conversations which has informed the way I think and the choices I make going forward." - A Volunteer Facilitator from 2018 Series
But what made our circle very different was that we had one person who lived in an affordable housing unit. Our conversation circle started off and was informed throughout by what she shared at the kick-off event…from overcoming the shame and stigma of living in affordable housing to gathering the courage to show up and speak up about the myriad problems that was unique to them—people who were disadvantaged at the intersections of class, race, age and other parameters—for whom rising house prices and rent meant there was no way out of those units. Rising cable bills meant less budget for food if they chose to have cable, reliant on public transport meant many bus drivers less welcoming to the many bags of groceries.
Her story, her dignity, her presence was humbling in many respects. For one it put into perspective our own stories and made us reflect on the privileges we each take for granted. My circle conversations since were all the more richer, our circle evolved, we made friends, and we met up again recently to carry the conversation and friendships forward. I will be signing up again this year. Apart from the wonderful friendships made, I find invaluable the many perspectives I gained at the Conversations which has informed the way I think and the choices I make going forward." - A Volunteer Facilitator from 2018 Series
