THE Northern Marianas Humanities Council began a three-day Community Talks training program on Monday, Feb. 24, at the Guma’ Hustisia assembly hall.
According to a media release, participants will “gain skills to lead structured, open-ended conversations about ideas and big picture questions.”
Participants will also learn how to “explore different beliefs and perspectives by listening to each other and building community.”
The program is being facilitated by Adam Davis, the executive director of Oregon Humanities, and Jennifer Alkezweeny, a program director at Oregon Humanities.
They said participants will learn best practices to help them speak openly and comfortably in spaces where people gather, including churches, town hall meetings, and other events.
They said the training program is intended to help island residents facilitate productive community conversations around “hard questions.”
“We’re trying to help people think about what…questions invite differences of perspective, especially,” Davis said. “Thinking about how you get people in a room, how you invite them, how you structure the way they are together. When things get difficult, how do you deal with conflict? How do you deal with quiet folks over loud folks? Everyone’s been in a room where someone’s dominating, where there’s a [group] of quiet people or there’s conflict and those are the kinds of things we’re going to be working on.”
Alkezweeny and Davis are on island upon the invitation of Northern Marianas Humanities Council Executive Director Leo Pangelinan, who completed the training program when Davis offered it on Guam in 2022.
Davis said the training can be a way to build trust instead of polarization.
“Think about all the divisions in different places of the country. We make assumptions about each other and point fingers. What we’re trying to do is, before conflict breaks out, to get people a little more trusting of each other, a little more ready to engage in conversations,” he said. “And that makes it easier to do work together. It makes it easier when things do get hard that there’s some trust.”
Alkezweeny said the training on Saipan will focus on “family and how it changes, the environment and nature. With the 50th anniversary of the Covenant coming up, we’re also discussing how we think about anniversaries and memorials. Next year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, so we’ve been doing work around that within our council and thinking about the future, facing what the next 250 years hold.”
Jennifer Alkezweeny, left, and Adam Davis are the guest facilitators of the Humanities Council’s Community Talks program.
Northern Marianas Humanities Council Executive Director Leo Pangelinan, standing, speaks at the start of the Community Talks training program on Feb. 24 at the Guma’ Hustisia.