Community Peacemaking Circles - Listen, Learn and Develop Empathy

Hampton Roads lies at the epicenter of slavery in the United States. The first enslaved people brought to the Americas arrived at Point Comfort in Hampton.

Discussions around race and ethnicity and the history and continuance of racism require bravery, honesty and vulnerability. The region’s first Peacemaking Circles, hosted by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, the YWCA South Hampton Roads, and Freemason Street Baptist Church, provided a safe space for sometimes difficult conversations.

“I think to heal it’s important to get down to the root cause of it, the roots of racism and xenophobia and hate,” said Courtney Pierce, a circle keeper for one of the groups. The circles began in February and continued for five additional gatherings through August.

Each circle included about 20 people who agreed to participate according to the circle process first established by indigenous communities. Participants sit in a circle to face each other in a space that includes a focal point to remind them of their purpose.

Those who desire to speak must hold a “speaking piece,” and others must listen attentively without interruption. Circle discussions remain confidential.

Trained circle keepers such as Pierce help to honor the guidelines of the circle and shape the conversations.

“The folks who came were brave and open and honest,” Pierce said. “They challenged each other by choice, calling people into the circle and not out of it.”

Maleah Amos, a circle participant, said the stories shared in her group were vulnerable and impactful.

“It gave us the practice to pause and to find the things that we had in common with folks, which is something that we don’t tend to do very often,” Amos said. “We spend a lot of time processing the politics in the space, or paying attention to what we need to say… In the peacemakingcircles we were disarmed of that in a really beautiful way, and we were able to really hear one another.”

She plans to take the experience with her into her community.

“I’m taking the fact that I need to ask people about themselves and really get curious and hear what they are saying from their perspective,” Amos said, “not through my own lens of life. Allow folks to define themselves. That’s what I am going to take out of this. And a bunch of new friends.”

Freemason Street Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Bob Guffey Jr. participated in the circles as well as hosting them at the church. Each week the building serves 300 to 400 people through church ministries.

“It’s all part of the community,” Guffey said. “That whole sense of the peacemaking and wholeness was all part of ‘how do we reach out to the community?’ We don’t expect people to come inside if they don’t want to, but how do we say: we care for you, no strings attached?”

He called the experience “invigorating and enlightening,” and said he has become better at really listening to what someone is saying.

“I feel like as a person who has spent their time in the majority race in our nation, it’s important to listen. You don’t know what you don’t know… The process has really helped that.”

Michelle Ellis Young, CEO of the YWCA South Hampton Roads, said both she and Foundation Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Vivian Oden realized that peacemaking circles could support the missions of their organizations. The YWCA strives to eliminate racism and empower women. The Foundation believes that advancing a more equitable and inclusive community is core to its mission.

“I think we both are embodying our missions of what living justice looks like,” Ellis Young said. “If we want a society of ‘We the People’ then all people have to be included.”

Peacemaking circles provided an opportunity for participants to engage, to see people together working through unknowns, in a space without judgment, bias or ill intent.

Ellis Young, Guffey, Amos and Pierce all said they look forward to another round of circles in Hampton Roads.

“We are building a blueprint for what it means for people to live justly, wholly, and freely,” Ellis Young said, “and what it means for people to live civilly right here in Hampton Roads.”