The Cooking Up Dialogue initiative forges connection, dialogue, interaction, collaboration, compassion and a deeper sense of community between the groups.
Whatever the setting or whomever the participants, people benefit from gathering around a shared meal and the act of sharing is a catalyst for emerging collective wisdom.
Cooking Up Dialogue
This project was designed to increase community resilience, social cohesion, ecological connection and life quality through dialogue and connection.
The project was designed to mitigate polarisation within communities.
Using food as a catalyst, the Circle Method and various dialogue techniques we bring together groups of women, each with their own story, their own heritage and their own recipe.
Creating space and reason for women to come together to have their stories heard, and to hear the stories of other women.
Our Concept
The potential to bridge gaps between all kinds of groups is huge when Circle method (or Way of Council) is used and food is the catalyst for our sessions.
The concept draws from and reintroduces the Turkish traditional concept of ‘imece’ (or potluck) in terms of bringing the women together over their cooking, food and stories.
All the participants source their own ingredients (funded by Cooking Up Dialogue) They are encouraged to prefer local and organic produce. In some cases the participants are already producers or small scale urban or rural gardeners and we love to see own produce used during our sessions.
Our Harvest
During our sessions we facilitate the Circle method and demonstrate dialogue skills while also sharing and learning the recipes that each participant has brought to the table (even during online sessions). With the sharing of the recipes comes the sharing of the stories about the food and the culture, memories surface and experiences are reflected upon, all the while deepening our understanding of the 'others' in the group.
Together we establish both individual cultural identities and the underlying power of the unity between us.
The recipes and the stories are collected and shared (presently on the Cooking Up Dialogue website)
The Circle Method
During Circle we ask Curated Questions to activate empathy and connection, we introduce the participants to the concept of Deep Listening and Speaking with Intention, we learn to not judge or impose our opinions.
We work with groups that will most benefit from our program and where we can use the Circle and our Dialogue Tools to best effect.
Curated Questions are specifically designed for each group to enable a flow of understanding and connection between the participants despite any differences and discord that may lie between them.
Curated Questions posed in a safe and conducive environment such as at Connected Conversations Gatherings or during Circle have been “life changing”, “bonding” “revealing” and “connecting”.
“These types of gatherings are something that we have lost over the years, so to reignite that communal flame is a very satisfying and heart-warming thing to be involved with.”
- words of one of the Cooking Up Dialogue participants
