Mining Your Memories

On February 27, Rita Benn facilitated a workshop through Zoom to 15 participants from the East Midwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn who wished to begin to explore their life through writing. While this workshop was originally developed by Rita and her training partner Ruth Wade for 2Gs, it was easily adapted for this group who were largely non-2Gs. No matter the family of origin background, the participants described how much they valued the experience. It was not just the remembering and writing stimulated through the prompts that were appreciated, but the sharing of these memories with one another. The workshop activities spurred interactions that invited participants to connect more deeply to one another. As one participant expressed, "I made a new friend". Another remarked that they may have known each other from other events but never felt really like they knew each other. "We grew up in the same area but I was amazed to see how our experiences were so totally different. I never would have thought that".  Mining memories through writing and sharing is a powerful way to build community. We hope other organizations will take advantage to offer this type of workshop.