World Cafés
Facilitating conversations that matter with people who don’t engage.
The use of World Cafés as a method of understanding complex issues is growing. They are often the start of a wider engagement process and provide an opportunity to discuss, listen and exchange views about specific community issues. The World Café is a process that enables you to ‘harvest’ the thoughts of people who sometimes have a different reality, or different experiences – perfect to use in diverse communities.
There are two options we offer in world cafes:
Option 1: To train frontline teams to deliver their own World Cafes (one day knowledge training), and support them with our expertise of delivering hundreds of World Café experiences (applied knowledge).
Option 2: If your organisation does not have the teams and/or capacity/expertise to deliver a high-quality world café, we can deliver it for you.
Who is the product for?
Option 1: Front line teams
Option 2: Service Providers/Consultors
The Process
Option 1
Six days of learning and support, resulting in the delivery of an effective world café. This includes programme management and our attendance at your event to provide independent feedback.
Option 2
- Full programme design and delivery of a World Café in your area
- We can train your teams in facilitation for the Café to reduce costs or we can use our expert facilitators
- We can recruit for you or we can run a recruitment workshop with partners to strengthen your existing your recruitment
- We design and print all the Café materials, and provide all the table cloth, pens, etc
- We undertake all the data input, coding and analysis
- We produce the final report
- We co design the follow up activity (if the Café is not a one off dialogue for consultation purposes)
Outputs/Outcomes Expected
- Community sharing issues that matter to them or talking about an issue that is affecting them but not being formally discussed anywhere
- Insight into the things that matter to specific communiities
- Creation of community energy to take the conversation into action (if required)
- 20 participants (staff and/or community) trained in World Café essentials (option 1)
- 20 participants supported to deliver their first World Cafe (Option 1)
- Sample of local materials created (Café menus, guides etc) to be used with other teams, where relevant (both options)
- Team experience of coding and analysing data from a World Café (option 1)
- First report from your Café process is reviewed by us as your critical friend to ensure authenticity and voice is captured effectively (option 1) or production of a report (option 2)
- Organisational team of practitioners able to help with future Café delivery, or to be critical friends of peers in future (option 1)
- Shared learning experience across a partnership (option 1)
- Full oversight of the process and liaison with commissioning partner/board (both options)
Case Studies
Thames Valley Police (pdf download)
Tipton (video)
BEAN case study – from World Café to Participatory Budgeting
Request a call or visit
If you would like a no charge, no obligation call or visit to your teams, please submit your details through the form below:
See Our Other Services
Click on one of the images below to view more about that service.