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, fill out this simple, one-page application, provide a venue for the discussion(s), and help publicize the event. Humanities Montana provides reading and publicity materials, as well as a facilitator who will consult with you on topics and approaches.