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Welcome to Richmond Action Dialogues

We welcome you to join us in building a foundation of dialogue for our community of Richmond, Virginia, and beyond.

We all have the capacity to contribute and make a difference in our world. By providing easy access to a community of dialogue, people with common concerns, passions, and interests can come together, engage in dialogue, and take action. We invite you to partake in the upcoming dialogue events and training programs. We hope you will enjoy the variety of resources for deepening dialogue.

What Is Dialogue?

Dialogue, as we use the term, is not merely people talking--it is what they talk about and how they talk. Dialogue is a conversation that takes place in a facilitated, structured circle about a meaningful topic, question or shared experience. It requires mutually agreed upon guidelines such as, respect, deep listening, open mindedness, suspension of judgments and confidentiality. The process recognizes the equal value of all participants; it provides safety to question our own assumptions and those of others; it supports exploration of new insights; and it allows for uninterrupted speaking and reflective silence.

Greek: "dia-logos" -- to see through to meaning

Dialogue is NOT discussion, debate, deliberation, conflict resolution or decision making, however it can be a foundation for quality decisions and effective actions at a later time.

Dialogue CAN be an invitation to share what is meaningful, discover new insights, deepen understanding of ourselves and one another, express our higher nature of love and compassion, stimulate creative thinking, activate the imagination, evoke collective wisdom, build community, and inspire cooperative social action.

On Dialogue

Developing wisdom, which consists in the capacity to sustain a dialogue with people who hold different ethical or philosophical points of view from one's own, is the essential moral virtue without which no peace or balance is possible in the world.

--Yasuhiko Genky Kimura