Many social scientists, journalists and other observers view American society as highly polarized because of political, racial, and economic divisions.  While there are merits for judgemental listening, this listening style tends to be overused.   A series of Extension workshops has been provided to Extension educators and other community leaders that focuses on various dimensions of non-judgmental listening and providing structures for people to listen to each other.  It includes listening to one's inner core and listening during conflict.  These workshops have received high reviews from the participants because this topic is seldom or never explored in most educational settings.  Most of the participants indicated that they are going to employ the knowledge and skills they learned from this initiative into their work settings to listen deeper to those who are often marginalized or silenced. While deep listening has the potential to influence public policy and culture, the  intermediate and long-term impacts of this exploratory initiative cannot be measured at this time.

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