Wunnohteaonk (May peace be in our hearts): RI Civic Health Talking Circle

On Saturday, November 19 from 6:00 – 7:30pm, join RI Civic Health Index Community Partner Wanda Hopkins at the University of Rhode Island, Edwards Auditorium for a public Talking Circle reflecting on Rhode Island’s civic health, in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. Free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged, click here.

The inaugural 2022 RI Civic Health Index (RICHI) measures the overall social well-being of our state. This report outlines geographic and racial disparities among our communities, and more importantly, it suggests ways we can improve these disparities and strengthen the civic health of our communities and state.

Envisioned as a Talking Circle, this community event aims to generate ideas and gather suggestions on how to achieve these goals. Given that Thanksgiving and other upcoming holidays are times of diverse social gatherings, this event will equip participants with methods for productive dialogue with family, friends, and neighbors about our civic responsibilities.

We encourage attendees to read the report and come prepared to participate in the Talking Circle.

The RI Civic Health Talking Circle also celebrates Native American Heritage Month by foregrounding the talking circle as an indigenous method of participatory communication that validates each person as significant and essential to the whole community. Within a talking circle, each voice is vital to the collective project of problem-solving.

The Talking Circle will open with four Native Americans who work in the public sector and/or who have recently run for electoral office giving personal feedback on the Rhode Island Civic Index. They are:

• Mack H. Scott III (Narragansett)
• endawnis Spears (Diné/ Ojibwe/ Chickasaw/ Choctaw)
• Lisa Letang (Narragansett)
• Allen Hazard (Narragansett)

The RI Civic Health Talking Circle will be moderated by Vange Hopkins (Narragansett and a member of URI NASO), who will provide a land acknowledgment.

Free and Open to the Public. Registration encouraged but not required.

A small reception will be held immediately following the Talking Circle during which Narragansett vendors will be present and open for business.

Follow this link to read the 2022 Rhode Island Civic Index.

This program is supported in part by funding from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities as part of the Rhode Island Civic Health Index initiative.