So much has happened since we last shared with you! Our team developed and created a 2-evening trainings for our Catalyst Dinner hosts. We trained 43 hosts, providing a background on race relations and some techniques to manage difficult and uncomfortable conversations.
Our hosts then went out to host 28 Catalyst Dinners in their homes, churches, and businesses. Each dinner was unique and participants walked away with different experiences. One dinner went so well, it lasted almost five hours! Our dinners culminated on Sunday, March 24 when we brought together over 200 guests to celebrate our dinners and engage in continued cross-racial conversation. At our event, we unveiled a painting commissioned by Bryant Benoit to commemorate the experience of our hosts and guests.
We are in the final phase of our project and working alongside our researcher, Dr. Danielle Fastring, to analyze the impact of the Catalyst dinners on hosts, guests, and the community. Our goal was not to have immediate solutions but to move people along the continuum from uninformed to informed, from informed to concerned, and from concerned to active. We can’t wait to dig into our data and see how our dinners were able to accomplish that.
Team Longest table hit the ground running after being awarded our funding at the 24-hour Citizen Project. We’ve been meeting weekly to develop our plan of work for 2019. We’re excited to share our timeline with you!
October 29-November 19: Applications to host a Catalyst Dinner are open! Community members that are interested in hosting or co-hosting a dinner can fill out this short application by November 19, 2018.
November 26: Hosts and co-hosts are notified
January-February 2019: Conversation Starters will equip hosts with the necessary tools and resources to navigate difficult conversations through a short training and simulation process.
March 10-16, 2019: Hosts from many facets of the community will host 25 Catalyst Dinners with ten to twelve guests each and engage in meaningful dialogue aimed at helping people overcome the challenge of having their first cross-racial conversation.
March 24: All of the participants from the dinners will gather along The Longest Table to share a meal and engage in meaningful dialogue, sharing their perspectives, meeting new friends, and listening to others’ lived experiences.
We are very excited about the upcoming year, and it will take all of us to “move people along the continuum from uninformed to informed, from informed to concerned, and from concerned to active.” From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your continued interest and support.
