Caryn Leventhal teaches community buddies a technique called conversation scoops to handle uncomfortable topics. When a subject makes someone uneasy, you identify what's triggering it, remove it from the discussion, and ask a neutral question to redirect. It keeps both people comfortable while staying engaged.
Chapters
I would say the challenges which we've trained our buddies on is really when someone, when one of our buddies may feel uncomfortable with the conversation. And it's not so much that someone has said something that's insulting or offensive. It's just a conversation they may not be comfortable with. Like maybe it's a story on the news and they just don't want to talk about that specific story. So we've trained our buddies to have conversation scoops. That's what we try to, that's what we call them. So with it, it's like, hey, maybe it was the fact that this happened in a particular neighborhood, whatever the situation was. Then that buddy can scoop that part of the conversation out and say, hey, what is it about this neighborhood that, that's so important to you? Something to help push the conversation along to a different direction so that both parties are comfortable.