Listening Sessions
CCSJ held multiple listening sessions for community members to discuss community safety issues. Creating space for discussions allows community members to slow down and share their perspectives more deeply. In these in-depth discussions, nuances emerge that may not be represented in the media. For example, community members reflected on the importance of good schools and jobs to strengthen community safety. Listening sessions also allow people to connect with each other and feel less alone in how they feel while being open to new perspectives.
Our listening sessions revealed that on a deeper level, safety means familiarity, which includes knowing your neighbors and being able to communicate with one another. Community members were eager to connect across cultural and racial groups, but were hesitant given language and cultural barriers. Furthermore, community members shared nuanced views of police and community safety solutions. Some community members wanted immediate solutions, like more police presence, but acknowledged that this did not provide lasting security and police responses often felt unsatisfying. Overall, community members were ambivalent about police and were eager to explore longer-lasting and restorative solutions. These community insights motivate our community-building and advocacy work.
Main Components
In-language facilitation and notetaking
For Chinese-language listening sessions, facilitators who could fluently converse on complex topics, such as community safety, in the appropriate dialect were necessary to cultivate a comfortable and engaging conversation. Notetakers who were fluent in the dialect documented and interpreted people’s responses to ensure that those who were more comfortable with English could also understand the nuances of the discussion.
Questions to move beyond a fear-based and short-term framework
Discussions of community safety often center around fear, which may limit people’s vision of what could be possible. We purposefully included questions to ask about aspects of their neighborhoods that people liked and what made them feel safe and supported, so that people could imagine positive aspects of community safety to strive for, as opposed to only reducing incidents.
Small groups
We divided participants into small groups of about five participants each for the bulk of the listening session. This helped people feel more comfortable with sharing their honest thoughts and allowed more time for a fuller discussion.
Keys to Success
Non-judgmental listening
Our discussion facilitators were experienced in creating comfortable spaces for community members to discuss difficult and vulnerable issues. One helpful approach is to employ non-judgmental listening and to use follow-up questions to explore people’s perspectives. Setting a non-judgmental space also encourages people to disagree or share different opinions without creating tension.
Community agreements and anonymity
We promised that whatever people shared in the discussion would remain anonymous, so that community members could feel comfortable sharing honestly. We also asked each small group to set ground rules and community agreements before starting their discussion. We offered suggested rules, such as “sharing as you’re comfortable,” “there are no wrong answers,” and “respect and support one another.” Discussing community agreements in small groups meant that each group could adjust the agreements to the needs of the specific group.
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