One of the most exciting of the eight Dialogues held in 2001was our December 4 meeting in Central Falls at the Library and Cultural Center (a special thanks to Tom Shanahan for hosting this meeting).

Facilitators Jessica Gonzalez of Progreso Latino, Delia Rodriguez-Majuan, Dialogue Coordinator Deborah Kallmann, Ingrid Ahlgren, RICH's Program Officer, and about 20 Spanish and English speaking community members, including five high school students and two city councilors as well as John Monaghan of RICH's Board, worked together to define "community".

The predominant issue was "diversity": how a community can deal with different barriers and view them as a community resource. Some participants used the example of the generations of their families to explain what their ideal community would look like. This dynamic narrative--stories of immigration, extended family cooperation, political activism, religious devotion and respect for elders--provided excellent material for everyone to examine the past more closely and measure the present in Central Falls.

Some participants were interested in pursuing the question of history and its relation to the present. The high school students were extremely attentive and expressed a desire to have elders of their community play larger roles in their lives. But they also made the very important observation that television, the Internet and other technologies interfere with such community rituals as storytelling and sharing oral histories. One participant suggested that those who attended this Dialogue continue to meet and bring more people to the Central Falls Cultural Center on Tuesday evenings. RICH would love to see a proposal emanating from these meetings that takes the issue of diversity and investigates it as a community, whether through history, role-playing, story telling by elders, or simply by creating a larger Dialogue.

To learn more about Rhode Island Dialogues, please contact the Dialogues coordinator at ourtowns@etal.uri.edu or call RICH at 273-2250.