The Six Conversations Skill Building Cohort

The 6 Conversations Skill Building cohort forms the practical backbone of Project 2045—simple practices that help people talk across race, culture, politics, and lived experience with honesty rather than performance or debate. Each cohort opens a distinct doorway into deeper understanding: sharing personal stories, listening for someone else’s experience, naming values, exploring fears, imagining the future, and identifying shared commitments. They offer a grounded, relational way for people to practice the kind of dialogue our changing country requires.

Many people already have some familiarity with the six conversation topics. What this cohort offers is something different: the chance to build the skills, confidence, and relational capacity to engage these conversations honestly and well.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to name and share a piece of their own story with clarity and courage. They learn to locate themselves racially, culturally, and historically without defensiveness or performance.
Participants will deepen their capacity for grounded presence to remain engaged in hard conversations rather than shutting down or speeding past discomfort. A psychosocial skill tied to adaptive leadership and emotional resilience.
Participants will be able to identify the values, hopes, and fears that shape their reactions in cross-difference conversations. They gain language for what’s happening beneath the surface.
Participants will learn to listen to someone else’s experience without centering themselves or shifting into debate. They practice listening for meaning, not rebuttal.
4. Participants will practice asking curiosity-based questions that open space rather than shut it down. They develop invitational, non-threatening ways of engaging difference.
Participants will be able to recognize common conversation traps (ie. performative allyship, fragility responses, argument spirals) and choose alternative responses. They increase self-awareness and emotional regulation.
Participants will grow confident, competent, and fluent in using the six important conversation topics. They understand each conversation’s purpose, can name the skills it develops, and can apply the framework in real-life situations.
Participants will gain tools for imagining a shared future rather than re-fighting the past. They learn to engage conflict and difference with forward-looking creativity.
Participants will cultivate the ability to name small, practical commitments that align with repair, power-sharing, and relational courage. They learn that meaningful action begins with concrete, faithful steps.
Participants will build relational trust within the cohort and learn how that trust becomes a resource for conversations outside the cohort. They experience “belonging as formation,” not simply content mastery.

Logistics:

· 8 two-hour sessions over 6 months

· 3 smaller meetings with facilitator and conversation partners

· Less than 5 hours “homework” of required reading/viewing and conversations between sessions

· No prior DEI or other training required

· Must join with a conversation partner. Both parties must apply at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWkh_SWjP9yXojZyC_B9-x8SzkEgk0x37smDWI32j3ls1S9g/viewform?usp=dialog

The 6 Conversations

Race as a Social Construct

We are committed to factual history. White was created by the US government with the Naturalization Act of 1790, which restricted naturalized citizenship to “free white persons.” There is no biological difference within the human family. Everyone is worthy of dignity and respect.

Overt vs. Structural Racism
Overt racism involves explicit, intentional acts of prejudice or discrimination. Structural racism is the systemic policies, practices, and norms that perpetuate racial inequality even without individual intent. Both are present in a society and need to be addressed.

What is Privilege? How does it work

Privilege refers to unearned advantages or benefits granted to individuals or groups based on characteristics like race, gender, socioeconomic status, or ability, rather than merit or effort. Privilege is given to one group at the expense of others.

Implicit Bias

The unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that influence decisions and actions, often perpetuating inequities without deliberate intent. Everyone has them and they impact more than conversations about race and culture.

Equality vs. Equity
Equality means providing everyone with the same resources or opportunities, while equity recognizes individual needs and circumstances, aiming to distribute resources and opportunities to achieve fair outcomes for all.

Dr. King’s idea of a “web of mutuality”

All individuals are interconnected, and injustice anywhere affects justice everywhere, highlighting the interdependence of human existence and the collective responsibility to address inequality. One group of people cannot truly thrive at the expense of others