Start with the Heart: Ten Practices for Relationship Building

Start with the Heart is a practical guide to building genuine multicultural relationships and community networks to increase belonging, mutual support, and shared action, where you live and work.

- Are you searching for new friends, ones who bring out the best in you?

- Are you challenged by getting to know people who are different than you?

- Do you need to do a better job connecting with people at work?

- Does your job require you to build diverse and trusting relationships in the community?

Many people acknowledge how difficult it has become to make friends or to forge new relationships of any kind, but especially those which can open our minds and hearts to new perspectives and experiences.

Frankie Blackburn, a longtime community organizer in neighborhoods, apartment complexes and local schools, interviewed over 50 diverse colleagues, each of whom brings direct experience building relationships across race and class in a wide range of settings, both personal and professional.

Out of these in-depth conversations and 40 years of her own personal practice, she developed ten specific practices to support both the cultivation of new relationships and the nurturing of lasting relationships. She believes that networks of diverse and trusting relationships are the only way to thrive personally and transform our world collectively.

This self-help handbook, and the real stories used to illustrate each practice, will

- Inspire you to find activities and spaces to meet new people.

- Support you in initiating conversation and following up afterward.

- Motivate you to be more creative and intentional in how you deepen a new connection.

- Offer you concrete tips and tools for navigating the ups and downs of relating to people.

- Provide you a framework for sharing gifts and talents to effect change.