{"id":164386,"date":"2024-05-27T11:34:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T18:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/?post_type=case_studies&p=164386"},"modified":"2025-10-23T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:41:00","slug":"responding-to-a-desire-for-connection","status":"publish","type":"case_studies","link":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/case_studies\/responding-to-a-desire-for-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Responding to A Desire for Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

East Hartford, Connecticut Public Library<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Written August 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most successful conversations have been those where participants have stuck around afterward and continued talking. That’s an indicator to me that it was a successful program\u2026 We find [it’s] very reassuring for people to know that it’s a structured environment and not one in which [the participants] would be attacked for their perspectives.” <\/span><\/i>Sarah Morgan, East Hartford Public Library Director<\/span><\/p>\n

A standard method to measure the racial diversity of a location is to use Esri\u2019s Diversity Index. This measure represents the likelihood that two randomly chosen people from the same area belong to different races or ethnic groups. The index provides a measure that ranges from zero (no diversity) to one hundred (complete diversity).<\/span> Diversity such as this is a strength, but it can also make it challenging for people to connect.<\/span><\/p>\n

East Hartford, Connecticut<\/b>, measures the second highest among Connecticut cities for Esri’s Diversity Index, meaning it is the second most diverse city in Connecticut. East Hartford is an urban community of 51,000 residents located directly across the river from the capital city of Hartford. Along with, and likely related to, its high diversity, East Hartford experiences low levels of civic engagement. An effort to increase civic engagement was the primary reason the East Hartford public library began hosting Living Room Conversations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The public library was an ideal location for these conversations because, as seen by a community needs assessment conducted in 2019, a significant desire of residents of East Hartford was to get to know their neighbors better and for the library to be a place of connection to get to know their neighbors. Libraries are well positioned as neutral public spaces where people from all walks of life, all ages, all backgrounds, and all demographics converge. Public libraries also have methods of advertising in place, including flyers, press releases, social media posts, and ads in the local newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n

The East Hartford library hosts conversations both in-person and in a virtual format. Both formats have seen great success, and the library plans to continue doing both. The virtual conversations have proven to help potential participants overcome the barrier to access of travel to the library. The virtual conversations allow participants, including stay-at-home parents and those with physical disabilities, to join the conversations. One example includes a resident of a group home who uses a wheelchair and who was able to participate from home because she couldn’t get to the library. Morgan noted, “She was a really powerful participant in talking about her perspective as a person with a disability, so she was amazing.” Morgan further stated, “The virtual programs are clearly important to reducing barriers to access.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of the high level of diversity, the most successful conversations have been around race and ethnicity. Additionally, when polled regarding which conversation topics they’d like, unsurprisingly, residents are most interested in issues concerning cultural identity. Race & Ethnicity, Weaving the Social Fabric, and Civic Engagement are conversation guides project organizers have chosen and found successful regarding this issue. An East Hartford guide was also created and used, which addressed specific local issues. When asked if Morgan has received feedback that connection and engagement are things participants get from the conversations, she said, “Yes, absolutely.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan shared that the most successful conversations they’ve had were ones where “participants have stuck around after the conversation and continued talking.” “That’s an indicator to me that it was a successful program.” One instance, in particular, stands out to Morgan when this occurred. The conversation was about Race and Ethnicity, and the group members were very diverse, with a wide range of ages and racial\/cultural backgrounds. She shared that the participants “connected on a very deep level in the conversation, and afterward [they] stuck around and people were talking. One of the participants, an elderly Japanese woman, mentioned that she was trying to get a group of people together to clean up litter along the river in the park. People shared their emails with her to be added to her list to pick up litter. I thought, ‘What a great outcome!'”<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan also noted that some of their most exciting conversations have been with English as a Second Language (ESL) students because \u201cit\u2019s a great way for them to practice English while they’re thinking through some of these questions and get to know their classmates.” The ESL teacher has requested that LRCs be involved in the curriculum every month because the students enjoy them. Morgan said, “It takes the depth of the conversation up a notch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the growth of the library LRCs from the first conversation about race & ethnicity, Morgan explained that \u201cProbably the most exciting development is that we had Living Room Conversations provide training for our staff and community partners, including a few community members who had participated in our first round of conversations [that] were interested in learning more about becoming hosts and being more engaged. Out of that training, our East Hartford Works Resident Advisory Committee partner started hosting their own conversations. They began to offer conversations in various locations, so we weren’t the only game in town anymore. It [has] become a more diffuse project. We\u2019ve also developed a partnership; one of the community members who attended the training is a member of our Board of Education and is active in the East Hartford Black Caucus. They co-sponsored our subsequent conversations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One challenge the East Hartford Public Library has recruiting participants for Living Room Conversations, which is common, is participants being nervous about potentially talking in a group of strangers about the weighty topics. To reduce these nerves and encourage participation, Morgan mentioned that they usually describe the conversation environment to a potential participant as an opportunity to share their own lived experiences and to listen to the lived experiences of others in a way that’s open, accepting, non-judgmental, and emphasizing. Further, it\u2019s not an environment where there\u2019s debate on the topic, but rather speaking and listening. She stated, “We find that’s very reassuring for people to know that it’s a structured environment and not one in which [the participants] would be attacked for their perspectives.”<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked what she thinks the future would look like if more people participated in Living Room Conversations, Morgan mentioned, \u201cI would hope that we would have more respect and understanding and civility in public life and here in East Hartford in particular, that we’d have more active engagement in community life.” And as such, the East Hartford Public Library plans to continue including LRCs in its library program rotation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Esri Data Development. (2023, February 15). <\/span>How to use and interpret Esri’s diversity index data<\/span><\/i>. ArcGIS StoryMaps. Retrieved April 12, 2023, from <\/span>https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/stories\/a6066c9c757b49908961253754b01676<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Photo Credit: <\/span>East Hartford Public Library<\/span><\/i>. Facebook. (n.d.). https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/easthartfordpubliclibrary\/\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0Written by Cassidy Weaver, <\/span>Living Room Conversations Community Engagement Partner<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    East Hartford, Connecticut, measures the second highest among Connecticut cities for Esri’s Diversity Index, meaning it is the second most diverse city in Connecticut. East Hartford is an urban community of 51,000 residents located directly across the river from the capital city of Hartford. Along with, and likely related to, its high diversity, East Hartford experiences low levels of civic engagement. An effort to increase civic engagement was the primary reason the East Hartford public library began hosting Living Room Conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":164387,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[153,132,130],"class_list":["post-164386","case_studies","type-case_studies","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-study","tag-connecticut","tag-culture-and-society","tag-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case_studies\/164386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case_studies"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/case_studies"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case_studies\/164386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}