Climate Café - DeKalb County
What is a Climate Café?
A climate café is a shared listening space. Living as a human in a rapidly shifting and changing world is not always easy -- and sometimes we feel alone, or worry about saying the wrong thing. When you attend a climate café, you recognize that you actually aren't alone. And you don't need to say "the right thing" -- you just need to bring your openness to speak and listen.
Upcoming Events
- Climate Café - March 26Thu, Mar 26Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library, DeKa
- Climate Café - February 26Thu, Feb 26Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library, DeKa
What happens in a climate café?
Imagine: you walk into a public space. Maybe a library meeting room. There are a couple of other people there, or maybe you're the first to arrive. The café facilitator welcomes you.
You feel a little uncomfortable. It's a bit scary to do this. It takes some courage to show up. You probably thought about not going several times before something made your mind up to give it a try.
The facilitator offers some guidelines for how we treat each other in the café: with respect and intentional listening. Without an agenda to convince each other to believe or do any particular thing.
Everyone introduces themselves with a prompt and an invitation to share about their experience. Then the conversation flows, sometimes smoothly, sometimes not. You have the option to share your own thoughts and feelings in ways that feel right to you. There may be silence. Silence can feel uncomfortable, if part of you wants to fill it with words. Or it may feel nice to have some space to process and feel together without needing to speak.
After about an hour and fifteen minutes, the facilitator brings the conversation to an end, thanking you for coming and sharing a closing poem or breathing exercise. You say goodbye and head out. Maybe you feel better. Maybe you don't. The problems are still huge and we haven't fixed them. But as you head to your car, or head to the park for a quick hike in the woods, you notice that it does make a difference to know you're not alone.
How does it work?
A climate café is not therapy, although we do explore feelings and experiences. It is not an organizing space, although we may share things we are thinking about or working on.
It is a space for connecting with others and engaging with the experience of being alive in this moment.
Working with our emotions and what it feels like to be alive right now isn't frivolous or pointless. It actually helps us -- as acknowledging and being present with our feelings helps us connect more deeply with ourselves and others, which in turn allows us to show up differently in the world.
By attending the café, you agree to participate in a way that prioritizes safety, for yourself and others: using respectful language, speaking from your own experience, and caring for your own needs. The conditions of our changing world can evoke big feelings and responses in us, but if you find talking about it with others to be overwhelming, you should seek support from a therapist and refrain from attending a climate café until you can do so safely.