Two listening parties down, eight to go! I believe that the best way to organize any sort of organization or project is to do so by listening to learn from the people involved so that you can build an organization that works with and for those people. So, when Allie reached out to me about being a facilitator for a series of listening parties, I was excited to be a part of the process. I got to have a sneak peak at DJJ's goal of reshaping it's process and structure to resource and empower leaders and learn more about how to facilitate this sort of listening party.
Our first party, graciously co-hosted by Allie, Gabe, and Barry, included about 10 people, joining to share their thoughts on the past, present, and future of DJJ. As someone who has been involved with DJJ for less than a year, hearing from a group that had more experience with DJJ was eye opening. We were able to collect important input about what these leaders find motivating and how they see DJJ's future.
Our second party - A.K.A. our first Listening Rager - was wonderfully hosted by Eleanor. We had some opportunities to adjust based on the learnings of our first party, and identified some more adjustments moving forward. This group, seemingly more mixed in how long they'd been involved with DJJ, focused in on different places where DJJ could adjust than our first listening party.
While my facilitating of listening parties and listening ragers is done for now, it was great to be a part of DJJ's work to hear from all of you in an open discussion about our future.