In this episode we speak with Angel Mortel and Aleena Gonzalez. Angel is a lead organizer with LA Voice, which is a multi-racial and multi-faith community organization that awakens people to their own power and trains them to organize together. LA Voice has been implementing the Belong Circles with their partner network, including at Dolores Mission Church. Aleena Gonzalez is a high school student that is part of the Dolores Mission community who has participated in Belong Circles and is now leading circles with other young people.
In the last episode we spoke with Ashlin Maluuf-Gashaw from PICO California about the design and intention of the Belong Circles. Angel and Aleena will both share with us what the Belong circles have meant to them as organizers and participants.
This episode of Who Belongs? is part of a new series of podcasts focused on telling bridging stories. Throughout the series we’ll talk to leaders implementing bridging work and individuals who have experienced the bridging transformation. This project is led by OBI’s Blueprint for Belonging project (B4B), and hosted by program researcher Miriam Magaña Lopez. This project is funded by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Inc.
Transcript
Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Welcome to today's episode of a new sub series of the podcast, Who Belongs? The Othering and Belonging Institute with financial support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is developing a series of podcasts to capture examples of bridging to belonging. We want a world where everyone belongs. So how do we get there? The answer, bridging. Throughout the series, we will talk to leaders implementing bridging work and individuals who have experienced a bridging transformation. My name is Miriam Magana Lopez, and I will be hosting today's episode.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Today we will be interviewing Angel Mortel and Aleena Gonzalez. Angel is a leading organizer with LA Voice, which is a multi-racial and multi-faith community organization that awakens people to their own power and trains them to organize together. LA Voice has been implementing the Belong Circles with their partner network including at the Dolores Mission Church.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Aleena Gonzalez is a high school student that is part of the Dolores Mission community who has participated in Belong Circles and is now leading them. Their Belong Circles aim to build community in a true sense of belonging among the young people of the Dolores Mission community. In the last episode, we spoke with Ashlin Malouf-Gashaw from PICO California, about the design intention of the Belong Circles. Today, Angel and Aleena will both share with us what the Belong Circles have meant to them as organizers and participants. Can you introduce yourself, your work with LA Voice and how you've utilized Belong Circles in your work?Angel Mortel:
Sure. So my name is Angel Mortel and I'm an organizer with LA Voice. I've been organizing with LA Voice for about three years now, and I'm actively organizing in about three congregations. And one of them is Dolores Mission Church, where Aleena is a parishioner. And Belong Circles, previous to LA Voice, I worked in Brazil for many years and part of my work there was facilitating conversation circles with folks and I saw the power of those conversation circles to really deeply bond people in community. When PICO introduced Belong Circle to the PICO network, I saw it a similar, great opportunity to bring people together to build community. And so that's what we started to do at Dolores Mission Church.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you so much. Aleena, I would love for you to introduce yourself. I know you're a high school student, so can you tell us how old you are and what is your connection to the Dolores Mission Church?Aleena Gonzalez:
So I am 17 years old. I go to Sacred Heart and I go there because I got a scholarship through Dolores Mission School and I went to Dolores Mission School, all of my elementary and middle school years. Overall, I can remember it's been a really big part of my life and I'm happy for it because it's opened up so many opportunities like joining the Belong Circles.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I know that in addition to being a community member, you're also a youth leader of the Belong Circles in your community, in your church community. Can you talk a little bit about your role and your responsibilities?Aleena Gonzalez:
When I was first asked to be in the Belong Circle by Julia, who was the Jesuit volunteer. At first before I was a youth leader, I was just a participant in the Belong Circles and we had board sessions and during that time I was basically completing all the activities and all the encounters and stuff. But now as a youth leader, we each have different parts like I can do the group agreements, which just basically we tell agreements of the things we understand to be in this Belong Circle and not out. And all the participants say they agree, or we do encounters, which help us interact with the meaning of belonging. And we do activities that helps the youth get involved with being more comfortable in the Belong Circle.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Angel, when we last spoke you mentioned that a huge part of your job is to foster relationships with your network partners and that this relationship building component is critical for when communities need to come together to advocate for each other. One of the ways that that you're building relationships within and across congregations is through Belong Circles. Can you tell us how you introduce the Belong Circle project to Dolores Mission Church and why are you focused on the youth as opposed to other people in the congregation?Angel Mortel:
So when PICO propose the idea of Belong Circles, of course, all of us organizers running out and saying, let's do Belong Circles everywhere. And so I ran to Dolores mission and I said, "Hey, this is a great opportunity to build community." So, you know, if you were to look at your community and I've talked to several people in the community that I said, if you were to look at Dolores mission, what other places in the community where bridging needs to happen in order for the community to come together more strongly as a unified community. And the two areas that kept coming up were a bridge between English and Spanish speaking communities, because there's a one o'clock mass it's just English speakers. And then the other one was youth and older generations, right? So we did do of a Belong Circle that bridged the English and Spanish speaking masses.Angel Mortel:
But then we also, at the same time wanted to start bridging between youth and older generations. But as I was talking to the adult youth ministers in the parish, they were saying, well, first we need to start bridge among the youth before we can start bridging with the older generations in the parish. So that's where we started, three of the adult youth ministers and two folks, me and another woman who went through the adult Belong Circle together we worked on inviting youth to the first youth Belong Circle. So that's how we brought it in and that's why we chose youth in that situation.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Aleena, you briefly mentioned that you were invited by someone to be part of the circle. Can you talk a little bit about how you were connected to this person that then led you to be part of this Belong Circle?Aleena Gonzalez:
So, yeah, as I said, I was invited by Julia who was a Jesuit volunteer and at the time I was doing confirmation with Dolores Mission Church and she was my leader and I guess she invited me and my sister because we're all very like playful and we had a lot to say during like the confirmation sessions.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
And so it seems like you got recruited by taking this confirmation class and being involved in your church community in that way. How were the other youth recruited to be part of this Belong Circle? Were they also part of this class or were they involved in the church in a different way?Aleena Gonzalez:
Yeah, I think some of them were involved in the church in a different way. I think it was only me, and my sister got invited from confirmation and others got invited by the youth minister and different people involved in church.Angel Mortel:
Personal invitations were central. So, you know the three adult ministers they made up a list of youth that they thought would be interested in this kind of process that would really gain something from the process. And then they individually, they called them up, had a conversation about Belong Circles and did a personal invite. It wasn't like we took a flyer and threw it out to the whole parish and said, if you want to do this, do it. No, we made personal invitations and that made a huge difference I think.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I understand that you've moved through a few iterations of the Belong Circles. First, you focused on bridging the youth of the Dolores Mission community. Next, you invited other youth who are not part of the community, but have a connection through a friend or a family member. And I believe that this week you are facilitating Belong Circles with young people in the greater LA Voice network, which includes youth members from other churches and synagogues. It seems like the young people of the Dolores Mission community have become invested in the bridging process. Can you tell us the initial reaction of the young people in the community and when they were first introduced to bridging and Belong Circles?Angel Mortel:
So I think that when the first group that Aleena was a part of the first group of youth that when we started the Belong Circle were a little... I mean they were invited by trusted adults and so they were there and they were invested, but they were a little, I mean, this is my impression. I'd love to hear Aleena's impression, but they were a little like: What is this? What are we going to be doing here? Who are we going to be connecting with here? You know, I'm not sure. So the young folks came in with a guard, you know guarded a bit. But I mean, through the process of the activities and the invitations that we offered folks into deeper, deeper conversation, I feel like slowly they started opening up and relaxing much more that when we got to the end of the first round, it's like four sessions is a first round, the youth were like, "Let's keep doing this. We want to get to know each other more. We just have started to get to know each other, so we want to go deeper."Angel Mortel:
So then we organized another round with the same group and then another round after that. So in total, that same group did about eight, nine, 10, 11 sessions together before then we said, "Okay, what's going to happen next?" And we said, "What we see is you all are stepping up as leaders in a lot of different ways, and you're very comfortable with each other. How about you all lead in circles?" And that's how that kind of ended up developing is after many sessions of really deeply connecting and bridging with each other, they felt like as a team, we all had each other's back and could step into unknown territory together.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Aleena, I'm curious to hear your own personal reaction. And then if you have any reflections about what you were seeing in your peers when you were first introduced to this idea?Aleena Gonzalez:
In the first Belong Circle I wasn't like familiar with the idea of belonging or what it means to be a leader or anything like that. But by like going to all the four sessions, it's made me understand how important it is to feel belonging in your own community and what can lead to feeling belonging and feeling comfortable throughout with people you know. And like, I remember the first session I was sitting in the table. It was the only one we had in person before COVID. So the first session was the only one and it was funny because I knew everyone that was there besides one person, but it was like reconnecting again.Aleena Gonzalez:
And like I remember Angel explaining like what the circle is and what we will talk about. And I remember just saying like, I don't understand anything because I don't even know what belonging is myself. And I wasn't like saying this out loud I was just thinking in my head and through, we did an activity like a family calendar or something, and it helped me recognize myself and my family and like what I can do and what I can feel like belonging throughout this four sessions. So I think that's really helped. It was really shocking the first session.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I'm curious, because you mentioned that you knew some of the people prior to the Belong Circle and so I imagine that maybe after you left the sessions, you would like talk to each other and be like, what do you think about that? Can you share if you had those conversations and I'm curious to hear what those conversations were about?Aleena Gonzalez:
Well, the people that I knew have graduated like a year before, so I haven't really seen them that much around. And I was like really surprised when I saw who was doing it. But I went to school with them for like eight years throughout and I was just like my God, I didn't think anyone was going to be here because I didn't know who was invited. And I thought it was going to be more people, but I loved just having like the five of us, youth. It was really comfortable and I wasn't really an outspoken person or anything. So by the end of this, I was like really shy just to talk to people I already know and it was just really fun.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
You've talked about how being part of these Belong Circles has created change within yourself because you were in an uncomfortable position where you were sharing a lot of personal things about yourself and then also hearing personal things about other people. And through that process you've learned to acknowledge similarities and differences and begin to see each other as part of something bigger. I wonder if you can share what your relationship was with these people now that it has been deeply personal. It has been a process that has happened for a while now. How do you see yourself within this group of people that you've shared this experience with?Aleena Gonzalez:
So throughout these Belong Circles and different ones the first time we became leaders, we had other people invite others. And like we've had a couple Belong Circles since and I think seeing like these new people, I have really connected with them and something that's different than any other group also is that I get to connect with these people on like a personal level and something that you don't really get to in other circles is like have a connection as strong as you have in this one. I think like we kind of like we get out of our comfort zone and I think that's helping us connect with each other. And I've seen myself grown with all these people and becoming like very strong like friends. And I feel like I can tell Angel or anyone in the Belong Circle, anything about me now.Aleena Gonzalez:
And I feel like they can help me and lead me and help me with different kinds of things that I need. And it's really important to see that in yourself and see how that can also affect other people's because like someone needs help or sees like struggles in themselves being in this circle can help you feel connected, can help you talk to someone if you need to and can help you more get in a comfortable position with yourself that you don't see like how worthy or you don't see any self worth in your community. So I think it's important for that.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I wonder if you can think of a time or an instance in the Belong Circles when maybe you were listening to someone else speak, and then you feeling like, wow, we have a similar experience or wow, our experience is so different? And what that has done for you and your thinking and your own personal growth.Aleena Gonzalez:
One thing I guess can be is when... So we have a couple of like Loyola kids in our Belong Circle and you know it's an all-guy school and I go to an all-girls school. So I think it's like one thing like hearing some stories is explain like it's two completely different things. And like, oh, it's kind of like all the same similar because like we all connect in as a family through our schools, but don't really, and I think hearing about their stories and how they connected with themselves at their schools can like help me, I guess, relate because I've gone to an all-girl school and it's like I have not talked to anyone from my school and like over a year. And I think being in this Belong Circle has helped me talk to someone and talk to these girls and make friends because of COVID, I wasn't actually able to go outside or be in any in person meetings. And this is one thing that I looked forward to every week or every session.Angel Mortel:
An interesting thing that happened actually just related to what Aleena was saying is that a lot of the kids in the Belong Circles they have ended up in like Loyola High School or Sacred Heart that are kind of schools that are out of their neighborhood, like in different places. The folks that go to those schools are generally of a different economic class and interestingly, I had the same experience as a teenager. I grew up in public schools and then went to a private school for my high school time. And so I found that as we were sharing in our Belong Circles, that was a challenge like that experience of going from your local public school or even school that's based in your community to a kind of a upper class middle school, elite or not middle school, elite high school like Loyola High School is one of very elite high school in Los Angeles. And that experience of going into another world and sharing that in the Belong Circle was really interesting because I'm much older than all of them, but have had a very similar experience and we connected on that experience. So I thought that was an interesting moment.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Angel, you talked about training young people to facilitate these circles after you've done about 11 sessions and you all felt really comfortable with each other and it seemed like then it was time for the circle to expand and to grow. Can you talk a little bit about how you've facilitated those trainings and what the intention behind the trainings were?Angel Mortel:
Yes. So the idea of the youth facilitating Belong Circles was a happy surprise. It wasn't something that when we went into it was the intention, but as we saw like I said, as we saw their own leadership skills develop their own self-confidence develop over the process where the adult facilitators were like, wow, well is a great opportunity for the young people to step into this facilitation process. Right? So the way we did it was we shadowed the youth so an adult facilitator or adult leader paired up with the youth leader and together they planned each of the sessions and then facilitated each of the sessions. So there was a mentor kind of adult support role that was happening, a relationship mentor, youth relationship going on. So then the student or the youth like Aleena were able to both plan and also facilitate sessions together or facilitate sessions, right?Angel Mortel:
So the planning a lot of times has happened in a large group of us, but the actual facilitation has happened in pairs. Well, at first was happening in pairs. And then as we went through, several other Belongs as we're moving through like kind of phases of the Belong Circle, eventually the adults have stepped back more from the facilitation and have had the youth facilitate in the big chunks of the Belong Circle. Like there's a part of the Belong Circle kind of template that's the Encounter, which is the center theme of the particular session. And now the youth are the ones that are both helping to plan, but also lead those Encounter sections in the sessions. And so the actual training or whatever, the preparation for that has just been mentoring and coaching, but also just throwing folks into it and getting the practice of facilitating.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Aleena, have you had a chance to facilitate a whole Belong Circle or part of a Belong Circle? And can you talk a little bit about that experience?Aleena Gonzalez:
Yes. So the first time I actually facilitated a prep meeting, so it was a meeting that we all prep for the Belong Circle. And that was like the first moment I felt so proud of myself after, because it was like a huge compliment. Like I didn't know what to do, but as I went through the whole meeting, I like found myself connecting well and saying all the right things. We each do different parts of the Belong Circle so like all the youths have done a big part and it like switches each time each session. And this upcoming week, I have like a lot of things that I'm going to be doing because we're focusing on the youth being leaders this time, especially. So I'm going to be facilitating most of the meeting in the new sessions coming up.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Can you tell me more about that? What are you going to be taking leadership over for the Belong Circles that is expanding to include people from other churches and other synagogues?Aleena Gonzalez:
Well, like I'm going to be helping with the meaning of Belong Circles and finding the purpose, the welcoming too, and a lot of like activities to do with connecting. All because I feel like one of the most important things to feeling you belong in your own community or with people is finding like a worth and having fun in yourself and seeing how those things can connect. And I think like icebreakers and activities are a great way to show that and connect well and be out of your comfort zone.Angel Mortel:
All of our sessions follow kind of a template. We start with a welcoming, and then a grounding and an ice breaker, and introductions and group agreements. And then we go into the meat of it, which is the Encounter and then we end with an invitation to action. So when Aleena's talking about they switch off parts, each youth will take a different section depending on the week. When we're planning it out, people say what they feel moved to facilitate in that next session.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Angel, you've been working with young people on the Belong Circle movement for quite some time. Can you tell me what changes you were seeing in the young people who are participating in the circles?Angel Mortel:
Oh yeah. It's beautiful. I mean, Aleena is a perfect example. So like I said, when she started and she will even admit it, when she gives her testimony about how Belong Circles have impacted her. When she first came into the first Belong Circle, she was very shy, timid didn't have a lot to say or contribute, but slowly, I mean over the course of this like year and a half, I mean, right now like Aleena said, next week she's going to be the one leading the Belong Circles, which a year and a half ago when she started, if you would've asked me do I see Aleena leading a Belong Circle? I might have said, No. I don't know. I would've said, yeah, I believe it's in her, but now I'm absolutely positive that she's going to be an awesome, I mean, she has been so far, but she's going to be a main leader in the Belong Circle coming up.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Aleena, what have Belong Circles meant to you and what changes have you seen in yourself?Aleena Gonzalez:
Belong Circles have like meant everything to me from start. Like I said I didn't really understand the meaning of belonging, but I know that I was connecting with people which was very important to me. And yes, I have seen like a dramatic change to me from like start to now. I am like a leader and I am very proud of myself for that. Like I was very introverted when we first started and I couldn't lead or talk or answer any questions like this. And by like slowly learning more about the meaning of belonging and connecting with each other I have found myself being able to lead and facilitate all these meetings. And it just makes me so healthy because now I have the self-confidence to do it and I hope I can make other people have self-confidence in the Belong Circles and feeling belong.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you so much for sharing that. It sounds like one of the ways that changes are showing up is in the way that young people are seeing themselves as more confident and as leaders. Angel, I wonder if there's any other changes that you've seen in other people. So maybe for some people it is stepping up and taking leadership, but maybe that change looks differently for other participants.Angel Mortel:
Sure. I also think there's a sense, I mean, not just in the youth, but and I've seen it show up in the youth Belong Circles, but there's a sense that we're part of a larger community and a larger society, right? That we do, you know, part of belonging is having the sense that we are connected to this larger society, this larger community. And that we have a responsibility to each other, right? When you enter into a relationship of care for your neighbor, for the other, who's very different than you, then there's the sense that, wow, I need to... I have a responsibility to the rest of my community. And I see that showing up in the youth. And I see that showing up with other participants in Belong Circles that once, you know, they see that connection to another person and realize that being in relationship to that other person is also a responsibility that requires often action then I feel like people are moved to take that action.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you so much for sharing about the outcomes. It sounds like a lot of positive things are coming out of the Belong Circles in your community. Aleena I want to talk to you a little bit more about what you said about feeling more confident and how you said in the beginning, you were shy and maybe not as confident stepping into a leadership role. And it seems like these Belong Circles have allowed you to find your own belonging in your community, which has allowed to feel more confident and have leadership skills to now facilitate these circles yourself. I wonder if you can think about the curriculum of the Belong Circles and all the steps that each of the sessions had and like the different activities that you did. Is there a particular part or section that you can point to that made you have this transition, or maybe it was this slower transition throughout the sessions? I guess my question is I want you to reflect on the curriculum and what it was about it that has made you see this change in yourself?Aleena Gonzalez:
I think about being out of my comfort zone, I think it has really helped with showing, seeing myself learn now and like sustaining actions that influences the thoughts of my behavior to others. So I think it's like mindful to learn and hear about what others have to say and what yourself has to say. So I think if like I put those things together, it can like be like a very supported claim. And like, I think accepting criticism from others as you lead too, is very important because it helps you get better and it helps you like feel more confident in when you actually do facilitate or lead things that can make you more stronger.Aleena Gonzalez:
Well, I've seen myself get more stronger than from when I started a year ago, because I've been helped and all the people in the Belong Circle, like everyone like Angel she's helped me so much grow as a person and grow... And by doing that, she's like criticized my work and like make me like speak louder and like answer these questions and like called me out. And I think that's so important because it's helped me get out of my comfort zone and feel more connected with all these people and I love it.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you so much for sharing that. You mentioned that being in an uncomfortable position has sort of forced you to reflect and rethink and have the way that you do things. Can you talk a little bit about what made you uncomfortable or what made it an uncomfortable experience at first?Aleena Gonzalez:
Well, at first feels like by like answering the questions out loud and doing that and like it makes... It's different. The Belong Circles makes it different than other circles or other groups that I've been in because they like call you out and for answering these questions and things and like I actually get to answer and I'm not wrong in anything I say like all the things I answer to, I'm not wrong. And if they see something like that's like that I need help with or anything, they'll help me with it and that's important because it's different than any other group than I've ever been.Aleena Gonzalez:
And I remember this one time we talked about like community and what other people see me in this community because I live in Boyle Heights and I lived in Boyle Heights all my life. I live in Pico Gardens, which is like this basically like the projects and it's really hard. I remember walking home from school so many times and there would be tourists like literally next to my house because of the past that's happened in there. And I think it was like kind of hard talking about it because I would just be like, oh, people just see us just like as bad thing. And I think by helping this community we can change that. And a lot of people have helped and I think it's helping this community stay alive. And because everyone in this community, well I've seen is a family and we're all just together. And I think the Belong Circles can help that in making people in the community feel like belong together.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you so much for sharing that and you know, to our listeners, the questions that are being asked in the Belong Circles are meant for people to have the opportunity to share their whole selves, who they are, where they come from and hear and listen to other people who are also come from maybe similar or different backgrounds. So that we began to create a shared identity and a shared understanding of who we are as humans. And I appreciate Aleena you sharing that example. Angel, did you want to add anything?Angel Mortel:
Sure. I was just going to say kind of the flow of the four sessions answer our four questions. Who am I in the first session? Who are we in the second session? How are we different and who do we want to become together? And then the fourth is how are we going to do that?Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I'm curious to ask, what have you been able to do as a group that might have not been possible without the Belong Circles?Aleena Gonzalez:
I think like finding the meaning of belonging because in the first Belong Circle in our session, we each found a belonging meeting, each of us and then we like decided to put one together at the end of it. And so I think like building a sense of belonging is about being inclusive and sensitive to those people who feel out and belonging and also celebrating the good in others and feeling confident about yourself and connecting with vision is like a very way to just overall enjoy and be happy in your community.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Angel, I'm curious to hear what you're seeing as you've been an organizer, so you've been working with different community groups. And I wonder if you can talk a little bit about how the Belong Circles have maybe facilitated change or changed the possibilities that the group can do together after they've taken time to really get to know each other?Angel Mortel:
Yeah. So I was just pulling kind of building on what Aleena said that building that sense of belonging and community is like an important step before you start moving into action in organizing. So the key place to start and organizing is just building those relationships, right? Because you can't move as an align around a shared purpose until you're like in relationship with each other, right? That's a basic of the kind of organizing we do with PICO's relational organizing, right? So the belong circles have facilitated those relationships, but also that sense of community and that sense of like, who are we together and who do we want to be together? And how important is this to us that we will... What kind of action will we take together to maintain this identity as this community that cares for each other.Angel Mortel:
But until you get, I mean, that's a point that's like the ideal, but there's a lot of steps before you can get to that point. And those steps involve like really opening up to each other in vulnerable conversations because there's so much division right now. And until you like take the time to encounter each other across these divisions, that'll take a long time. Until you do that take that first step of coming together then you can start working towards what's our shared vision.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
From what I'm hearing from others, bridging work can be quite difficult. It's not always linear and sometimes emotional. Can you share any lessons that you've learned through this process that could help others who are committed to bridging?Aleena Gonzalez:
I think a lesson that I've learned is having power and strength in yourself can help you lead to feeling belonging in your circle and yourself, which can lead to being more confident, improving yourself overall and I guess maturing in the way you see and treat people. So I think your strength and power has a lot to do with feeling you belong.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you Aleena, for sharing what as an individual, you sort of have to commit when doing this type of work. Angel, I'm curious to ask you what are some lessons organizing these Belong Circles and what are people, listeners who might be interested in facilitating this in their community what are some lessons that you have to share with them?Angel Mortel:
So one thing that we implemented that I think was really important is starting every circle with a group agreements. So conscious relationship agreements, like this is how we are going to be in this next hour and a half. These are the agreements we have as far as like how we're going to contribute, how we're going to listen, how we're going to be open. So setting those at the beginning of the circle and then reminding folks over the course of the sessions, these are the agreements that we made is really important just for the group dynamics.Angel Mortel:
Second thing I would say and I said this before like the personal invitations are really important to that intentionality in building the circle is really important. So personal invitations is key. Your follow up has to be strong so at the end of the four sessions, we all did like the team broke up and did one-to-ones with the participants to ask them, how are you feeling? What do you feel like the next step could be? Are you interested in continuing? So there was a whole process for us at the end of the Belong session to do kind of a mini debrief with each of the participants, but also to like ask what's next for us? Is there anything next? I mean, I'm being open to the possibility that people didn't want to continue.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
What is the future that you envision at the Dolores Mission Church and beyond?Aleena Gonzalez:
A future that I envision is seeing more people like me gain self-confidence and be a leader like I love to see many more youth or young teenagers or young adults being more confident and feel belonging. Like I would like to see more introverted people that I was in the beginning and showing growth in themselves by going to Belong Circles and going to different groups at their church and feeling connected overall.Angel Mortel:
And building on that, I would say I'd love to see those same youths that Aleena is talking about start organizing the larger community at Dolores Mission and be the leaders of that organizing at Dolores Mission.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
That was Angel Mortel and Aleena Gonzalez. Thank you so much for your time. And to our listeners please check out our other podcasts, where we discuss belonging and bridging in more detail. For more resources and curriculums on belonging and bridging please go to belonging.berkeley.edu/b4b. That is slash letter b, number four, letter b. Until next time.