Gathering Family, Friends, and Neighbors

Many different kinds of social gatherings can be used to break the silence surrounding difficult issues our families face. Even if you have not started a Project Sakinah Team yet, you can still get a couple of friends or family members to help you organize a gathering. Here are a few ideas.

Family outings/picnics. You may use such a gathering to strengthen your bonds with all present. You may also use it to initiate a conversation about family issues, domestic violence, etc. This would be your first step toward building a family and friends team for stronger and healthier Muslim families. 

Organize an Activity: Whether it is a sewing circle or a quilting bee, a soccer game or a block party, you can strengthen your community by making use of a social gathering to break the silence and spend some time talking about violence within families.

Organize a Community Cook Out or a Potluck Dinner: Initiate the talk before the dinner is served and use the time during dinner to talk further about creating a community team working to end domestic violence and promote stable, healthy families. Project Sakinah Chicago Team organized their first “Family Stability Potluck Event” on March 31st, 2012. See their photographs and feedback here.

Organize a Family Stability Day at Your Mosque: The purpose of this event would be to talk about Family Stability, violence at home and its consequences and other related issues. You may organize a full day or half day program including workshops and lectures for entire families depending upon the demand or need of your community. Check our page for Host A Program for possibilities.

Tips for a Successful Event:

• Make sure to have speakers from all age groups.
• Be thoughtful about the ethnic diversity in your community. Make sure to have a representative panel for all.
• Keep enough time for the discussion.
• Check Project Sakinah Tools for publicity material and other campaign tools that we have already created for you.