Community Building Circles

Community-Building Circles:

"Some people think they are in a community, but they are only in proximity. True community requires commitment and openness. It is a willingness to extend yourself to encounter and know the other."

–David Spangler

These Circles are specifically focused on trust building. This a good way to get started with your team, group or employees to get a greater sense of who you are working with before moving on to problem solving, strategic planning or attempting to address harm through Circle Process.

Human beings feel connected to other people when we sense that they see us, know us, and care about us.  That’s what Community Buidling Circles are about: being seen, being heard, being known, and developing trust.  

Some people need permission to offer their full set of talents in any given setting. Community Building Circles are a great opportunity to offer the space for people share helpful perspectives, experiences, skills as well as boundaries that might never become evident in a traditional meeting context.

Therefore, the objectives for these Circles are that participants will feel:

They have been seen and have seen others,

They have been heard and heard others,

They have been understood and understood others,

They have been connected to others in a good way.

They have given and received respect—and perhaps affection—from others. 

Community Building Circles are a conflict prevention tool when utilized to establish clear communication between participants, healthy boundaries and plans for how to respond to violations of the above.