Reflect: Community Readings & Conversations is a statewide program available to nonprofits, government and community groups. The program aims to facilitate useful, lively discussion about personal and organizational values, and about how civic and service-oriented groups make choices and respond to the needs of their communities.

All Reflect sessions use short, though-provoking readings to coax discussion among participants. Those readings create constructive avenues for talking about subjects that might be challenging or divisive, or subjects that simply need a fresh approach.

More generally, Reflect sessions aim to lift participants out of a business-as-usual mindset; they aim to address real organizational concerns with unconventional modes of discussion. In a successful Reflect session:

• There's much laughter in the room
• Conversation is focused
• Silences feel like useful thinking time, not dead space
• Participants arrive at surprising new thoughts; they change their minds and see things from fresh perspectives
• Participants address one another; they don't funnel their ideas through the facilitator
• Conversation continues informally beyond the close of the session

If you're interested in bringing the Reflect program to your organization, contact one of the people on our Reflect Facilitators list (or call us for recommendations). Once the facilitator has confirmed, fill out this simple, one-page application, provide a venue for the discussion(s), and help publicize the event. Humanities Montana pays the honorarium and travel expenses for a facilitator who will consult with you on topics and approaches.