Roving Listening is the art and practice of listening for the gifts and talents in the life of a
community. Intentionally and deeply listening to our neighbors to discover their gifts and the
ways in which those gifts might be given in community. Roving Listening is based on the principles of Asset Based Community Development. Roving is, at its core, the ability to seeinto the heart and soul of others. It is about making the invisible visible. It is about connectingpeople based on our gifts rather than our needs. It is respectful. Roving is a quiet and thoughtful pursuit that requires patience, an open mind and an open heart.
The common purpose of the project is to listen and invest in the good of the people in the
community so that they can better give their gifts in ways that build community, economy and
mutual delight. It will find where people are having trauma in their lives and connect them to
places of healing. It will support and invest in neighborly acts which builds inclusive welcoming
communities.
We hire our neighbors that we are discovering to participate in the project. We will go neighborhood by neighborhood in the United North West Area district. Lots of things that are neighbor focused often times get turned into very institutional, though well intentioned, can turn disastrous because there needs to be a proper structure to support it. On the next page you will find listed the roles we need to fill and a description of what each will do.