Our Family Services' Center for Community Dialogue has been busy with trainings, special events and facilitations. Here's a roundup of all we've been doing lately to help this community 

talk about challenging issues in a skilled, civil and respectful way:

• The Third Annual Gather the Elders conference on January 10 brought together more than 60 elders from around the community focused on life-affirming, positive aging.
• February was a busy month for training. We conducted two Circles Process Level 1  and two Circles Process Level 2 courses -- one in Phoenix for the Franciscan Renewal Center and one here in Tucson. We conducted an Elder Circle Facilitation Training and a Basic Facilitation Training for the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.
• We conducted two Mediation Roundtables. The first was by a Pima County Justice Court judge who came in to talk about mediating neighborhood disputes with injunctions against harassment in place. The other was on recognizing the signs and signals that other people are giving us.
• We provided Community Dialogue Circles for the International Center for Peace and Justice's discussion on "Alternative Jewish Voices on the Israeli-Palestinian Issue" on January 6. More than 60 community members participated in the three-hour event, with 16 Center facilitators providing neutral facilitation for the small-group discussions. We also conducted eight College Plan Forums for Pima Community College, helping them secure feedback from diverse staff at different campuses.

Upcoming events include:

Thanks for your support of the Center. Join us at our upcoming events, and help spread the word!