Community Listening Project
The Community Listening Project trains volunteer community members in the art of oral history and engages them in interviewing their neighbors. As communities become increasingly more diverse, it is important to develop a healthy and inclusive atmosphere for everyone. The process of interviewing people from different backgrounds helps to heal fractures and misunderstandings caused by socio-economic, racial, ethnic, generational, sexual, and religious diversity. The project brings together people from all backgrounds in an effort to build empathy, understanding, communication, and ultimately, forge a more cohesive community identity. As people meet new faces in their community and listen to different voices, the barriers of ignorance and intolerance begin to break down.
Through regularly held workshops, the Community Listening Project trains volunteers to conduct interviews with people from diverse backgrounds about their life stories and personal experiences. Each interviewer is encouraged to select neighbors, colleagues, or even strangers from backgrounds different from their own. Interviewers ask questions about the interviewee’s life as well as questions related to the interviewee’s experiences and perspectives on local issues, specifically related to acceptance and community.
Listening for a Change records all interviews, transcribes them, and archives them in our growing library of community voices. In the past, the Community Listening Project has also launched a public awareness campaign that was displayed in public places throughout Sonoma County that included posters containing photographs of interviewees and excerpts from their interviews.
We hold workshops every other month for community members to get involved. See the schedule of workshops above. If you are interested in attending a workshop, scheduling one for a community group, or getting involved in some other way, please contact us.
If you live outside of Sonoma County and are interested in having a workshop in your own community, please contact us and we will help you get started.
Sonoma County Museum’s
Art and Storytelling Workshops
A community art and oral history project encouraging Roseland residents to share their background and experiences.
Workshop Schedule
Listening for a Change holds free oral history workshops regularly. If you’re interested in interviewing community members of diverse backgrounds and you would like to attend one of the workshops listed below, please contact us to enroll.
| Date | Time |
|---|---|
** NO Workshops are booked at this time**
Due to other priorities, there will be no workshops scheduled for 2016. We may resume offering workshops in the future.
We Listen Report
Click the photo to read, print, and/or download the full report.
Like every community Sonoma County struggles with its share of tensions, economic problems, inter-group conflicts and misunderstandings.
This report seeks to deepen our understanding of social relations within Sonoma County. It also suggests solutions that can be made in neighborly ways to improve the quality of life for all.
