Story-Driven Dialogue to Strengthen Communities
Each Novel Exchanges session is a professionally facilitated discussion of a short story that has been intentionally selected to align with your community’s mission. Whether you want to create space for personal reflection or foster connection around shared values, Novel Exchanges guides participants through a story and discussion designed to leave a lasting impact.
What Happens When We Talk Through a Story?
Story-driven dialogue…
- Fosters reflection about shared values
- Builds empathy and connection across diverse perspectives
- Strengthens communication and collaboration
- Encourages critical thinking and problem solving around differences of opinion
Who benefits from our work?
- senior living communities
- wellness centers
- community groups
- non-profit organizations
- youth programs
- corporate teams
- professional development cohorts
- schools
What I Bring:
- Skilled, inclusive facilitation
- Expertise in guiding meaningful, empathy-driven dialogue
- Ability to make literature accessible to all participants
- Experience with diverse groups and learning needs
- Trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices
What Do Novel Exchanges Sessions Look Like?
The facilitator selects the story, designs the discussion arc, and handles all materials and logistics. During the session:
1. The facilitator introduces the author, the text, and any important historical context.
2. Participants discuss their answers to an opening question that is thematically connected to the story.
3. Participants are provided with a physical copy of the text, as well as highlighters and pencils. The facilitator plays an audio recording of the text, and participants follow along.
4. The facilitator pauses the story at key moments to ask participants questions about the setting, characters, and plot. These questions lead to deeper discussion about why characters make their choices, whether we agree or disagree with them, and what these characters teach us about ourselves and others.
Having the story read during the group rather than prior to the group allowed for residents throughout our entire building to feel welcome. They found it particularly helpful to have both audio and words to follow along with. I was personally very impressed with Jesse’s ability to adjust questions in a way that allowed for all residents, regardless of cognitive abilities, to participate in a meaningful way…It truly was a nice change of pace and beautifully done version of a book club that the residents loved.
Do you like the idea of a Novel Exchanges session, but need to make some changes to best fit the needs of your community? I am happy to work with you to ensure that your participants are able to meaningfully engage in the Novel Exchanges experience.
Whether you are looking to…
- stay within a specific timeframe (45, 60, 90, 120 minutes)
- add an arts-integrated activity
- increase the rigor of the discussion with cooperative, team-building activities
- ensure that neurodiverse populations of mixed literacy levels will be included
My 6 years of “highly effective” classroom teaching and background in curriculum design give me the experience to adapt to your needs!