LISTENING WELL

Key Takeaways

• The discipline of listening: When communicating cross-culturally, the goal is to really see and hear the people you're serving and try to understand their experiences and points of view. Watching for verbal and nonverbal cues while listening is important. It’s also important to ask how we can better serve them, know them, and allow their input to influence the program.
• Systematic listening: We need to stop and listen to make sure that people are being heard and that we are taking the time to pay attention to what they’re trying to say. For OneChild, this means intentional and frequent engagement with the children, partners, and people who serve the children in OneChild’s programs.
• Practical examples of listening: Kids at Hope Centers are given a survey of questions so that they have a chance to think intentionally about their experience in the program. More important, those questions create conversations between the kids and those who care for them and allow the kids to be heard. A child must feel empowered to share what’s going on with him or her. After listening, it’s important to follow up with action to ensure that the child was heard.
• Listening as an intervention: The action of listening -- that time we spend in conversation with children -- empowers them, gives them dignity, and helps them understand that they can be leaders. In OneChild’s Hope Centers, children are seen and heard.