#71 – Fostering Connection & Community with Purpose (In this Current Crisis and Beyond)

Jenn Graham was recently named a “2020 World-Changing Woman in Conscious Business” by Conscious Company Media and Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “2019 Small Business Person of the Year – Rising Star.”

She is also a Civic Innovation Fellow and Startup Runway winner. With a 15-year track record in combining her business and design-thinking background with her personal passion for community engagement—her goal is and always has been to help communities build empathy and raise awareness, understanding, and collective action around critical issues. This is what led her to found and become the CEO of Civic Dinners, a social enterprise dedicated to helping people transform dinner tables into forums for positive global impact.

We are currently living a new COVID-19 reality, where in-person communication is discouraged, and a phrase that no one had ever heard before, “social distancing,” is now commonplace. However, meaningful conversations can be had in any format, and that is what Civic Dinners is striving to communicate to the world.

Once the conversation topic is established, it’s up to the host to determine the style of the dinner, be it a potluck (we are all excited to be able to attend those again), or in times like these, a happy hour held around a virtual dinner table (find out more about hosting your own virtual happy hour with civic dinners).

Learning more about what it truly takes to connect and have discussions with others around important issues and questions is a crucial step in understanding what it will take to influence meaningful change.

If you are currently struggling to build engagement around challenges that are important to you, then this episode will be perfect for you, as getting connected with Civic Dinners may provide you with valuable guidance. 

In this episode, we chat with Jenn about how she & Civic Dinners have pivoted their approach during this crisis, what has led to the Civic Dinners’ worldwide success, and Jenn’s evolving understanding of what is needed in order to increase civic engagement and foster community.

Want more episodes on companies with innovative ideas to create change? Listen to:

• #63 – Visual Arts as a Force for Good: Highlighting the Worldwide Refugee Crisis through Visual Storytelling with Francisco & Alejandra Alcala of Home Storytellers
• #66 – The Fight for Carbon Neutrality: Reducing the Global Carbon Footprint One Company at a Time with Austin Whitman, Founder & CEO of Climate Neutral
• #35 – Digital Carbon Footprints, Passion Projects, and Purposeful Work with James Christie, Co-Creator of Sustainable UX
• #68 – Planet-Friendly Profit: Insights into Funding a Better World with Mike Winterfield, Founder of Active Impact Investments