The following guidelines were developed to provide safety and trust, foster intimacy, and build meaningful connections among Circle participants:
All current CNS members are invited to participate in a Life Story Circle.
Basics
- Circles will be formed with a diverse group of members, randomly assigned based on preferences for meeting day and time, as well as for meeting in-person or online.
- Circles can meet in person (in homes or at shul) or online.
- Each session is 90-minutes.
- If possible, Circles will meet twice in the first 4-6 weeks after forming in order to establish connections and familiarity with the structure and process.
- Circles will meet 3 more times once monthly, for a total of 5 meetings.
- Circles can meet in person (in homes or at shul) or online.
- At the 5th meeting, members will determine their desire to commit to additional monthly sessions or to end the group. (If the group decides to end, the planning team can recommend ways to have positive closure.)
Facilitation
- A member of the planning team will facilitate the first 2 meetings in order to model the structure and process and help the group get off the ground.
- Circles will rotate peer-facilitation after the first 2 meetings.
- Participants will receive a packet of resources with guidance for peer facilitation and for participating in the Circle.
Membership
- Life Story Circles will be limited to 5-6 people to allow sufficient time for each participant to address the life story topic selected for the session.
- Participants may drop out during the first two weeks but are encouraged to remain for the next 3 sessions until the series of 5 is complete.
- To ensure safety and trust, Circles are ideally closed after the first 2 meetings if there are 5-6 participants.
- Circles can add new members from the waitlist at the groups’ discretion until 5-6 is reached.
The planning team will continue to form new Life Story Circles from the waitlist when 5-6 members are ready to start.