2023 was an amazing year for The Missing Piece: Creating Healing Listening Spaces project! Our celebrations were many and our learning deepened our commitment to authentic community connections. The Community Living Room is a non-clinical, person-centered environment for people seeking social connection and emotional support. The primary objective of the Community Living Room is to utilize the concept of connection as a framework for prevention in a no-cost, community-based supportive space. The outcome of the Community Living Room is connection. 

In 2023, we held 39 Community Living Rooms including in person pop up spaces and virtual offerings. Collaborating partners included Pillars, Building for Kids, ESTHER, Menasha Public Library, Mile of Music, Thompson Center on Lourdes, LEAVEN, Alpha Mentoring, Family Connections, Menasha Block Party, WI Recovery Walk & Lights of Hope. At each Community Living Room, we voluntarily asked participants to share if they felt connected, and if they would invite a friend. Of the folks who responded, 100% felt connected after Community Living Room and 100% said they would invite a friend to Community Living Room. 

One of the biggest learnings from the pilot year of Community Living Room was around building trust and overcoming the "transactional" nature of many community services. Much of the work in this first year was sharing with folks what Community Living Room is (and what it isn't). The work of trust building included that sharing that Community Living Room is for connection and just listening. Many times in community folks are required to "do" things to receive services. We often received questions like "what are you doing here" or "what do you mean you just listen." In demonstrating what that looks like, we built trust wih participants and by the end of our time together people usually asked when we were coming back. This demonstrated the important place for Community Living Room in community to provide a space where folks could find a listening presence without having to jump through any hoops (i.e. filling out forms, making appointments, arranging payment, etc.). In pop environments with community partners, we also learned about the essential role Community Living Room played for organizational staff. Community Living Room created a space for staff to receive much needed support. 

We definitely learned that folks are feeling isolated and disconnected in community. This was especially true for folks coming from already marginalized populations. The recognition of the prevalance of social disconnection is important for our community to recognize and take action. When we do community training, we talk about emphasizing the connection first and providing space for really deep listening. We envision a community where this is a priority for all service providers and whatever "door" folks enter in community they would find connection first. Many of the folks who joined us in Community Living Room said this is the first time they really felt seen, heard, and valued right where they were. Emphasizing the outcome of connection allows for deeper relationships and really making help feel helpful. 

In survey collection, we also asked what elsed participants would like to share with us. Here are some comments shared: 

- I LOVE THIS! The connection is so amazing. I want to see this keep growing and growing. Can we expand this to Oshkosh? 

- Great team who can uplift people's spririts. Please come back! 

- This is a great opportunity to stay connected to my community. Thank you for holding space for us! 

- This is such a great way to feel like a part of a loving community. 

- Feels so connected and real. It's easy to get lost in yourself, but we truly can connect with others. 

- I learned a lot from people different than me. 

- Thank you for great listening that helped my stress of a difficult day. 

 We also captured qualitative data from the impact Community Living Room had on our listeners. Here are some of the things our listeners shared: 

- “Attending a Community Living Room always strengthens my faith in the power of connection. Very often attendees do not know each other well (or perhaps at all) yet given the opportunity to share in a safe space with experienced listeners, relationships are created and fostered. An authentic sense of peace that comes from feeling heard and believed is always present in the Community Living Room space and I think it is common for people to leave feeling uplifted and affirmed. What could be more important?” 

- "For me, Community Living Room is a space where I feel like I can be my authentic self. I've never been in a work environment where I felt like I could bring my whole self and share that with others. The power of vulnerability and authenticity opens the door for deeper connection both with myself and others. The experience of being a Community Living Room Listener has definitely enhanced my life and connection to community. I can definitely identify that I have felt some isolation and loneliness, especially through and after the Covid pandemic. Community Living Room has created a space where I feel really connected to my fellow listeners and the people we're serving." 

- "We use the phrase 'giving people space' and that's done in many ways but the experience of Community Living Room facilitates the safe and welcoming gift of space and time perfectly. Providing the opportunity to share grief and loss communally in a gently guided atmosphere gave people a touchstone upon which to base their healing and nothing could be more important. We know that connection is essential to healing and peace, and Community Living Room is a lovely way to guide those experiences. I feel honored to have been part of these gatherings." 

Financial Overview 

The money was spent to continuing building capacity of people trained in Emotional CPR and the Missing Piece. Both training frameworks emphasize the importance of connection and emotions. Facilitators were compensated for their time and partner organizations received stipends. Compensation was provided for those facilitating the Community Living Room Pop-Up Spaces, and food and refreshments in every space. We are working with a research partner at the Medical College of Wisconsin to tell the story of the impact of the Community Living Room during our pilot year. Other expenses included administrative costs, communications, technology and software, marketing and promotion, and miscellaneous supplies and printing. 

We're looking forward to expanding in 2024 and are excited to share that we received funding from Advancing Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) to expand our work into Oshkosh/Winnebago County in 2024. We are continuing our work with our research partner at the Medical College of Wisconsin. We have applied for funding to continue working through Open Collective and hope to hear early in January on those outcomes.