The second Dialogue was held in Coventry on May 21. The group was varied: A small group of high school students came with their teacher, a mother decided to come with her high school daughter, and a couple read about the dialogue in the local newspaper. After a general introduction and some personal thoughts on community from the discussion leader Marc Levitt, participants jumped right in and expressed their thoughts about their community.

There seemed to be consensus about reasons why people live or move to Coventry. It is a place that affords peace and quiet and allows people to focus on their families. This appeared to be the bond that most participants referred to when asked to think about those contexts within which they find themselves having the closest bonds. "Community", however, was not clearly defined. Some participants wished for a more centralized area for their town (and these tended to be folks from Eastern Coventry) while others liked the fact that their town has no formal center. This fact maintains the original character of the town, they argued. The question of development and urban sprawl seemed to be the issue most participants hoped to pursue with the grant we offer. Many expressed a desire to have a speaker's series on these issues. Other ideas included having the already existing youth center run a film series with discussions afterwards, or coordinate a youth theater to express issues that are important in the town, or run a book group with literature focussed on some of the topics teens think are important.

One young man proposed putting together a guided tour of the town through natural and historical monuments. We are still hoping to hear from participants of this meeting. We thought all of these ideas were promising. The Greene Library was a gracious host and already runs some impressive programming. It is an informal "center of town" for which we are grateful.

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


  • Aquidneck Island
  • Barrington
  • Block Island
  • Bristol
  • Burrillville
  • Central Falls
  • Chariho
  • Coventry
  • Cranston
  • East Providence
  • Jamestown
  • Lincoln/Cumberland
  • Pawtucket
  • Tiverton
  • Warren
  • Warwick
  • West Greenwich/Exeter
  • Woonsocket


Fund for Community Engagement
After each of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns participates in the Dialogues Program, The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (RICH) offers it a one-time Fund for Community Engagement (FCE) award of up to $1,000. The Fund for Community Engagement grant gives each community an opportunity to address--through a public humanities project--issues raised during the Dialogue meeting. Please use the highlighted link here to access the guidelines for Fund for Community Engagement grants.