The Welcome Table™

Our stories have the power to heal or to divide. We choose healing.

Our approach, called The Welcome Table™, is rooted in inclusion, trust, healing, and equity.  Its innovation lies in respecting the timeless wisdom of circles, deep listening, and authentic relationships.

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Deeply influenced by the work of civil rights activists, we ground our work on the principle that achieving justice begins with the inner work of individuals examining their own attitudes and biases.  That reflective practice, when combined with the outer work of building trusting and respectful relationships, leads toward advocacy and policies for equitable systemic change.  Our process promotes a deep sense of belonging and deep equity.

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Its successes include transformations in Mississippi sites most notorious for racial violence.  Examples include a historic conviction in a cold civil rights case, the passage and implementation of a statewide law requiring civil rights and human rights history curriculum in all Mississippi schools, and contributing to the successful effort to secure a new state flag, plus dozens of other local actions that have improved the quality of life for local citizens.

Since then, we have offered this community building process successfully in other locales, including New Orleans, Louisiana; Columbia, South Carolina; and over twenty other states and in collaboration with colleagues in Northern Ireland and South Africa. We have used it to help transform the climates and cultures of universities, communities, organizations, and corporate partners.

Our approach includes three phases of reflection, connection and transformation. We facilitate a variety of interactive exercises, carefully sequenced for growing understanding, in large circles and in small groups and pairs. This guided learning process is based on a growth or strengths-based model of learning rather than a compliance model.  In other words, we believe that all participants have their own wisdom and gifts that can be tapped into and called forth and that sharing those with others increases the collective wisdom of the group. 

Sessions can be created of varying lengths from one week to three weeks and for municipalities, universities and corporate partners, from half-day and full-day sessions to multiple days and weeks.

We begin with anti-racism and we guide you through heart, head and body work to interdependence and mutuality.

Our process is not a series of lectures meant to convey lessons for rote memory.  The facilitators and participants learn from each other.  We do not train you; we accompany you and guide you on a journey that you must begin from within. 

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Ultimately, the process cultivates a Beloved Community which understands that justice is what love looks like in public.