citizen education
“The tyranny of a prince is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” —Montesquieu, 1748
how local government works
Civil Discourse
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause
for withdrawing from a friend.” – Thomas Jefferson
Candidates forums
Each year in October, TALK has sponsored a public forum where the candidates running for office in that season can introduce themselves to the public and answer questions about issues which they would be expected to have an influence.
Ostober 2023
Candidates forum
April 2022
This year, in collaboration with Welles-Turner Memorial Library, TALK launched a program called Sustainable Community Conversations. The first project in this program was called Conversations That Work. Its purpose – to help participants build skills that are the foundation for mutually beneficial conversations.
Conversations That Work was based on a book called Beyond Your Bubble. The author is Tania Israel, PhD, who can be viewed giving a short presentation about political arguments at https://youtu.be/HlS9vADGU7M. The book takes a stepwise approach to bursting out of your bubble and connecting with other people.
Conversations That Work was held in four consecutive weekly sessions from 6:00 to 7:00 pm, beginning on Monday, April 4, and ending on Monday, April 25. All sessions were held on Zoom. Each participant was asked to obtain a copy of Beyond Your Bubble. TALK purchased and donated several copies to the library.
June 29, 2022
Virtual Screening of the documentary “Purple: America, We Need to Talk”
The documentary can be found on YouTube.
July 25, 2022
Registrants for the April and June events were invited to a group discussion about what influenced them in their political beliefs growing up and what brought them to the meeting.
Oct. 10, 2022
Annual Candidates Forum featuring candidates for the 3 State House seats and 1 State Senate seat.
Moderators were Julie Serkosky, Assistant Professor-in Residence in the Department of Journalism at the University of Connecticut and Albert Kim, Professor of Communication at Manchester Community College.
social media
Social media has had a profound impact on every aspect of our lives. Has technology gone too far? What steps can we take both as individuals and as a society to combat its negative effects?
In May 2021, TALK featured excerpts from Jeff Orlowski’s docudrama Social Dilemma, a film which considers these questions as it advances the idea that social networking controls what we buy, how we see the world, ourselves, and each other.
Our guest speaker was Adam Chiara, Applied Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at the University of Hartford. Adam followed his lecture with a question and answer period.
Domestic abuse
There are physical and emotional abuse victims of every age, every sexual orientation, and every psychological make-up. Some victims stay, some leave; some victims fight, others cannot. It is a life-threatening crime that affects people in all our communities regardless of social status, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, race, or political orientation.
On March 29th, TALK hosted Mary-Jane Foster, CEO of Interval House and Glastonbury Chief of Police, Marshall Porter at a Zoom event to discuss the problem of domestic abuse. The video of this meeting is below.