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Daemen Announces Additional Listening Circles for Military Veterans and their Families
Daemen Announces Additional Listening Circles for Military Veterans and their Families
September 7, 2011
Media
Contact: Patrick W. Welch, PhD
Sgt USMC (Ret) / VAVE
Director-The Center for Veterans &
Veteran Family Services
716.566.7855
Mobile: 716.544.4318
patrick.welch@daemen.edu
Mike Andrei
Director-College Relations
716.839.8472
mandrei@daemen.edu
The Daemen College Social Work Department and the Daemen Center for Veterans and Veteran Family Services is pleased to announce the next meeting of "The Listening Circle."
"The Listening Circle" will take place on the second Wednesday of each month; the next meeting is September 14, 2011, at 5:30 p.m., in Oddy Lounge, Wick Center, on the Daemen campus, 4380 Main Street, in Amherst.
Why a Listening Circle for Military Veterans and their Families?
When upsetting events happen in the world (such as war and terrorism), they arouse strong feelings in many of us--sadness, anger, fear, confusion, worry. We tend to carry these feelings around with us through the day. Such can be the case with many of our military warriors and their families who have known little more than the hectic, banal, adversarial, or repressed communication modes typical of our mainstream culture.
The goal of the Listening Circle is to develop a safe space for all voices and cultivate understanding. The spirit of a Listening Circle is to acknowledge and honor the worth of all present. The Listening Circle can help participants to: develop and enhance relationships; rebuild trust person to person and member to the community; develop and strengthen skills needed to discuss deeply held beliefs and values while staying committed to the group, and as stated in the Listening Circle Report prepared for the Casey Foundation:
Listening Circles give people the courage to drag the ugly into the open so that it may be made into something more beautiful. Listening Circles reflect the belief that we never are alone in our world. The world no matter how it may treat us can be enhanced or overcome by the unity of many people in whose love and commitment we abide.
The Listening Circle gives people a chance to say what they are thinking and feeling and helps engender mutual understanding and support among people. Please mark your calendars and share with your military families. For more information please contact Renee Bowman Daniel, Chair, Department of Social Work & Sociology, at 839-8515 or rdaniel@daemen.edu or Patrick W. Welch, Director, The Center for Veterans and Veteran Family Services at 566.7855 or patrick.welch@daemen.edu.