"Community Conversations" will return July 13 to coffee houses all over Sacramento. The conversations are put on by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, Capital Public Radio and The Sacramento Bee with the goal of bringing neighborhood residents together for civil discussion, learning each other's different perspectives on local issues.

Community Conversations began last month offering residents the chance to speak with fellow neighbors in coffee houses in areas such as Natomas, North Sacramento, Midtown, Land Park, Oak Park, College/Glen, Pocket Area and South Sacramento. Each location has one facilitator who keeps the dialogue flowing all while ensuring the house rules are followed and gives an outline of potential topics for discussion.

"It's a great civic model," said Ruth Blank, chief executive officer of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. "It's not anonymous or online, it's not political. (Participants are) open-minded. They come to hear others' thinking."

The Sacramento Community Conversations follow the model of the University of the Streets Cafe in Montreal, Blank said. She added the motivation is to get people engaged with one another.

"The conversations are about creating civil discourse, to counter the trend of interactions online," said Joe Barr, director of news and information for Capital Public Radio.

Currently there are no plans for how often the Community Conversations will occur. However, Barr said the pilot conversation was well received judging by the amount of positive feedback.

Dustin Littrell, who attended the May 11 conversation at Temple Coffee in Oak Park, said he was "shocked at the number of people from the community."

"It was a great success of bringing a diverse group together," Littrell said. "It's a cool way to get a pulse of where people are, in different financial situations, directly affected (by the same issues). There were perspectives I've never thought of."

The May 11 conversations touched on education, transportation, the economy, local business, employment and local communities. Participants from the first event were invited to partake in an online survey to develop the July 13 topic, which is scheduled to discuss the city's budget cuts.

While Littrell and Barr both thought the first Community Conversation was successful, they also hope there will be a more diverse voice the next time around.

"The goal is to see if we could get people out to the coffee shops," Barr said. "To see how various communities feel about the same particular topic."

Littrell suggested holding the next event in a larger space, with seating in a circle to bring participants face to face with one another, and a longer run time. Currently the format is scheduled to run for one hour, though the May 11 conversations lasted around two.

All Community Conversations begin at 7 p.m. To read recaps from the May 11 conversations or to find locations for the July 13 event, visit the Sacramento Region Community Foundation website.

Images courtesy of Ruth Blank, Sacramento Region Community Foundation