The Listening Blueprint is your foundational guide to launching a meaningful conversation project with Cortico. It helps you clarify your purpose, identify the right voices to engage, and determine who should listen — so that your project has the greatest chance to spark real impact.
This article will walk you through how to use the Listening Blueprint template, offer sample responses, and provide a ready-to-use sentence frame to kickstart your project plan.
What is a Listening Blueprint?
The Listening Blueprint is a simple yet powerful tool used at the start of your project planning. It invites you to reflect on three essential components:
- Participants – Whose voices are most important to include, especially those often left out?
- Audience – Who needs to hear these conversations to take meaningful action?
- Impact – What do you hope will change as a result of this listening effort?
You can access the blueprint worksheet here, make a copy of it to fill it out or adapt it into your own format. The key is to use the guiding questions below to build out your plan.
How to Fill Out Your Listening Blueprint
1. Participants
Reflect on who you want to include in the conversation space:
- Whose voices are not typically part of the conversation?
- Why is it important to hear from them?
- How will you invite them to take part?
- Who from your team or community will help design, facilitate, and analyze the conversations?
Example:
I want to hear from young people connected to the Newark school system. Our youth leaders will invite peers and classmates. The OYN youth cohort will design, facilitate, and analyze conversations with support from OYN and Cortico.
2. Audience
Consider who you want to share these conversations with:
- How do you imagine sharing what you learn with your target audience?
- Who should listen to these conversations?
- Whose buy-in will be important for this project to succeed?
Example:
We want teachers, school administrators, students, and policymakers in Newark to hear these stories. Their support is crucial to taking informed action.
3. Impact
Think about your long-term vision:
- Why is it important to gather community input for this project?
- How might you define success or the desired impact?
Example:
We want to understand what students need to feel connected to and want to attend school. Success would mean that student voices shape decisions and influence policy.
Your Project Planning Sentence
To synthesize your blueprint into a single statement, try using this frame:
I want to collect conversations with [Participants] to share their stories with [Audience] in order to [Impact] through a [describe your conversation campaign].
Example:
I want to collect conversations with young people from the Newark School system to share their stories with each other, the school district, and policymakers in order to address chronic absenteeism in Newark through a youth-led conversation campaign.
See It in Action
Take a look at this Sample Listening Blueprint from our partners at the Newark Opportunity Youth Network to see how others have completed theirs.
Next Step: Design Your Conversation Prompts
Once you've completed your Listening Blueprint, you're ready to begin designing your conversation prompts. Your blueprint helps you focus your curiosity and ensures your questions are grounded in your community's lived experiences.