For the past five months I’ve been a part of the Metro Denver Chamber Leadership Foundation’s Impact Denver program. The six-month program provides up-and-coming professionals the opportunity to learn more about issues affecting their community while developing leadership tools and directly connecting participants with Denver non-profits through small group projects.
Each month we gather as a cohort and dive deep into various community issues like homelessness, mental health, diversity and education. Our day on education was led by Savinay Chandrasekhar and Shawna Mounsey from Minds Matter, an organization that connects bright students from low-income backgrounds with resources and relationships necessary to achieve success. Savinay and Shawna provided opportunities for our class to interact with teachers, principals and stakeholders in the education system as well as led thoughtful discussions that pushed our group to think about the hurdles Denver faces and how each of us can make a difference in our community.
At the end of the day we were challenged to come up with one thing we could do to become more invested in education and in turn our community. As I contemplated what my answer would be I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the stories we had heard throughout the day. There is so much that needs to be done to improve education and build the trust we need in our community to allow for students to succeed. How could one thing I write down make any difference?
As I rifled through different ideas in my head I kept coming back to the importance of trust. How do you rebuild trust and give people the chance to come together to create a better community? Conversation. Listening. Compassion. Productive Dialogue. And then it hit me. What we had created with our Sunset Dinner Experience this past summer was an example of building a community based on discovering our commonality and establishing trust. Unfortunately, the Sunset Dinner Experience was not accessible to those that need it most. It is a beautiful experience and provides a platform to share the importance of purposeful conversation but financially is not a model for the masses. But, what if we took the same concept on the road and gave people the tools to create purposeful conversations within their own home, businesses and communities?
Better Together Dinners was created out of the desire to bring people together around a table and create the space for meaningful conversations that build trust and a sense of community. The concept is simple and involves the below elements.
Create Space – With events it’s important to recognize the power of creating a space that is inviting and allows for guests to feel safe and invested in the experience they are about to encounter. This can be done with décor, personalized elements or simply the environment you decide to host the dinner. The best part is you can create a meaningful space on any budget if you are thoughtful with the choices you make.
Gather with Intention – The dinners utilize purposeful conversation to create the connection between guests. This requires two things. One a topic and two a moderator. The topic can be anything you want. Gratitude. Legacy. Community. Trust. The list can go on for days. The important element is that your guests are prepared before the dinner to show up and discuss the selected topic. The second requirement is you have a designated moderator to help guide the conversation and give all guests the opportunity to participate in a safe and respectful way.
Food…Always Good Food – Food is good for the soul and a necessity in life that we all have in common. The dinner portion of this experience can come in many forms and create the desired benefits with any budget. Food brings us together and is a natural catalyst for conversation. Better Together Dinners start at the core of our humanity and that involves breaking bread with friends new and old.
Better Together Dinners provide a turn-key experience that can be used for family and friend gatherings, corporate team building, client appreciation events and so much more. Learn more about Better Together Dinner packages and how you can create connection within your community by visiting smedleyevents.com/better-together-dinners.
The Better Together Dinner concept was developed out of a desire to bring people together and create meaningful change in our community. To ensure that we can bring this experience to the communities and people that need it most 10% of profits generated from each Better Together Dinner package will go towards a fund that will bring dinners to a community through a school partnership. For more information on how school administrators or teachers can apply to receive a Better Together Community Dinner or to sponsor a dinner for a school near you, email lara@smedleyevents.com.