Finding Embers in Your Community
A conversation can begin almost anywhere.
Finding Embers can be used by schools, libraries, community groups, retirement communities, family history groups and others who want to create a little space for people to become curious about one another.
It doesn't require a program, an Ember account or special equipment.
Sometimes all you need is a question.
Invite
Bring people together, or simply give them a reason to begin a conversation.
Ask
Offer one thoughtful question. One is enough.
Listen
Let the story go where it goes. There is nothing to complete.
Carry
If something worth preserving is discovered, help people consider how they might carry it forward.
A simple way to begin
Invite. Ask. Listen. Carry.
The purpose isn't to collect stories for Ember.
It is to help people discover the stories already around them.
Where can Finding Embers happen?
Schools
Help students discover that the people around them have lives and stories they may never have thought to ask about.
Libraries
Create a simple invitation to conversation alongside the library's role as a place of learning, memory and community.
Retirement & Active-Living Communities
Create opportunities for people to share memories, knowledge and experiences in ways that preserve dignity and choice.
Genealogy & Family History Groups
Look beyond records to the knowledge still carried by living people.
Service & Community Organizations
Create simple opportunities for people to listen to one another and help preserve stories that might otherwise remain untold.
Finding Embers doesn't need to look the same everywhere.
A teacher might give students one question to take home over a holiday.
A librarian might place a question beside a collection of old photographs.
A retirement community might invite residents to share something younger generations would never think to ask.
A family history group might encourage members to find the person who still knows.
A service club might simply create space for two people to have a conversation.
The setting can change. The invitation remains simple:
One question. One conversation. One ember.
Need a question to begin?
Explore Questions That Open a Story →
A conversation belongs to the people having it.
Participation should always be voluntary. Nobody has to answer a question. Ask permission before recording. Stories do not need to be shared publicly, and Finding Embers never requires someone to submit their story to Ember.
You don't need to preserve every story.
You don't need to interview everyone you know.
Sometimes it is enough to create the moment in which one person becomes curious about another.
That is where an ember can begin.