Constructive Conversations About Challenging Times: A Guide to Family Dialogue

This Guide is for people who want to host and facilitate constructive conversations with family members, other loved ones and friends about what's going on in our unsettled world.

The Guide focuses on family groups and family settings and includes instructions for a two-hour structured dialogue about the September 11, 2001 attacks and all that has occurred in their wake. The framework can be updated or adapted to address other challenging or divisive issues simply by substituting other questions for your group to address.

The mission of PCP is to foster a more inclusive, empathic and collaborative society by promoting constructive conversations and relationships among those who have differing values, world views, and positions about divisive public issues.

Table of Contents

Introduction

• Why We Developed This Guide
• What We Mean by “Dialogue”
• Different Ways to Use This Guide

Planning the Dialogue: Questions and Answers

• Inviting Family Members
• Design and Preparation
• Facilitation Tips

The Plan

• The Flow of the Plan
• The Plan: Step by Step
• Welcome and Orientation
• Agreements
• Hopes
• First Question
• Second Question
• Facilitated Discussion
• Parting Words

Feedback Forms

Appendices

• Distinguishing Debate from Dialogue
• Self-Help Tools for Participants
• Two Sample Invitations
• Facilitator Worksheet
• A Tale of Two Grandmothers

Click here for the Guide to Family Dialogue in PDF format [136k].

Click here to read about the Guide to Community Dialogue.