Help draft a definition of a 'Welcoming Community'.
On December 16, the WICR attempted to create a working definition of a Welcoming Community. We broke into five small groups of four or five, and each person responded to the question: "Thinking about a time you were in a new environment, such as a new community, school, workplace, team etc. what helped you to feel welcome? Consider ’who, what, when, how’ made you feel welcome?
From these stories, the groups identified themes which they shared with the whole group. The facilitator then grouped these themes into 3 common themes, and the small groups were given the task of writing a definition of a 'welcoming community'. The transcribed flipchart notes are attached.
The goal of the exercise was to listen to people's actual experiences of feeling welcome to identify the components of a welcoming community. I encourage you to review the original list of themes and try your hand and writing a definition. Please add your definition to the Forum, as we work towards coming to consensus.
A reminder that this is an excersice to help as think about what we mean when we talk about 'welcoming'. We are creating a definition for ourselves.
