Philanthropic group asks: Can we all get along?
Rhode Island Foundation will try to rebuild community connections, starting with dinner and conversation
In a world gone tribal on social media filled with rancorous, agenda-driven noise, he who beats a quiet drum of civility and common sense can be easily drowned out, get frustrated and, perhaps, withdraw.
“We see a lack of civic and civil dialogue,” says Neil Steinberg, president of the Rhode Island Foundation. “People are looking for a voice. They feel like they don’t have a voice.”
Now the state’s largest philanthropic or- ganization will take a stab at beating back the tide of polarization with an ambitious effort to lure Rhode Islanders out of their silos and get talking to each other, face-toface. Dubbed “TogetherRI,” the statewide effort involves a series of 20 open-to-thepublic gatherings where participants will enjoy a free dinner and some freewheeling chat about whatever they think needs to be said – about Little Rhody, or just their patch of it.
TogetherRI sessions will be held in the local area at Woonsocket Middle School, March 22; Ponaganset Middle School, Glocester, March 29; Pawtucket Family Branch YMCA, April 14; Cumberland Public Library, April 24; and East Providence Senior Center, April 26. All sessions begin at 6 p.m.
With an endowment of $950 million, RI Foundation doled out some 5 percent of it in grants to promote education, healthcare, economic security and more last year – all part of the organization’s mission to build stronger communities. In the same way, says Steinberg, TogetherRI is designed to
strengthen the state’s social fabric by bringing people together, finding out what’s on their minds and getting that information to influencers and policymakers who are in a position to advocate for change.
TogetherRI, Steinberg said, will “create a space for listening, reconnecting and inspiring civil dialogue at a time when people are more connected via social media, yet more disconnected from each other personally, than
ever before.”
Steinberg is hopeful that some positive ideas emerge from the dinner talks and that they will translate into tangible action. But the foundation president is unsure what the endgame will be and says he’d be pleased if the only result were for a few disconnected Rhode Islanders to make friends for the first time – and stay friends.
There’s no dearth of media analysts and critics who are now openly dubious that Facebook and its digital kin promote the public welfare. While Steinberg insists TogetherRI isn’t merely another example of Facebook backlash, he also suggests that the evolution of social media is a facet of a complex cultural climate that leaves people feeling generally disenfranchised – not politically so much, but from society itself.
“If you get sick it’s not your Twitter followers who are going to bring you soup,” he says. “If you go on vaca-
tion, it’s not your Facebook friend who’s going to water your flowers. It’s going to be one of your neighbors.”
The idea for TogetherRI sprang out of the efforts of other philanthropic groups who discovered that folks elsewhere – Milwaukee, Cleveland, Chicago – were feeling stifled in the prevailing social climate, according to Steinberg.
He said RIF is embarking on the project with a completely open mind, minus any agenda or expectations. Steinberg says he isn’t sure where it will lead, either, but RIF is taking steps to maintain a neutral political environment for the discussions, preserve the information that emerges from them and compile it into a detailed report.
RIF said that anyone and everyone is encouraged to participate in the gatherings, but partisans must “leave their stripes at the door.” For example, when he spoke to Warwick Mayor Scott Ave-
desian about participating in the inaugural installment of TogetherRI, on March 21, he told Avedesian he’d be welcomed with open arms, but “he’d be speaking as Warwick resident Scott Avedesian, not Mayor Avedesian.”
Nor are these sessions “town hall” style forums often favored by message-driven participants eager for a chance to hog a microphone and make a pitch to a captive audience. Participants will sit at tables of 10 persons each and everyone will have the same opportunity to voice an opinion or concern.
“You get to voice your opinion but not hijack the whole table,” Steinberg says.
A “facilitator” will be assigned to each table to guide the discussion toward conversation as opposed to “speechifying.” The discussions won’t be tape-recorded, since that would create an unwieldy mass of information for analysis, but someone will be assigned to take notes on the broad thematic strokes.
Dinner, by the way, includes pasta, meatballs, chicken and salad, courtesy of Central Falls-based Emery’s Catering.
RIF is working in collaboration with the University of Rhode Island’s Social Science Institute for Research, Education and Policy to collate the information that emerges from the TogetherRI food and chat sessions. The URI researchers will also admin-
ster and assemble data from a brief, anonymous participant survey that will be distributed during the sessions.
The last of the 20 sessions will be held in Providence on May 5. RIF plans to announce the “topline results” of the project during its annual meeting May 24 and distribute them “broadly and without bias,” according to Steinberg. A more detailed report will be distributed this summer.
Steinberg says RIF will also seek out policymakers, government officials and others who are in a position to act on the results of the report. Who is urged to evaluate what depends on exactly what emerges from TogetherRI, so it’s unclear yet where RIF will steer the data.
“Our job is to get the information out,” he said. “If we’re telling people here’s the opportunity to be heard, the flip side is somebody’s got to listen.”
The locations where TogetherRI sessions will be held were strategically chosen to be regional, so residents from multiple communities in the vicinity will be able to conveniently attend. Walk-ins are welcome, but to better enable RIF to prepare for each gathering, the organization recommends pre-registering online at TogetherRI.org.