What does your house do when someone shows up to a program who doesn't know anyone? What processes do you have for integrating newcomers into your community and making them feel welcome?
I wouldn't say we have a general process for integrating newcomers into our community. Each person that visits our house is unique in their own way and because of this we take different routes to integrating newcomers into our home/community. What I mean by this is some people are extremly shy while others may be really outgoing. With some of the more outgoing people we really don't have a lot to do to integrate them with are other guests. They will walk in and start up a conversation with a person and make a new friend without the slighest challenge. People that are more timid do require more time to feel like they belong in the community. They may come in and go sit in an area on their own or just stand around a group of people who are conversing but not join the conversation. Me and my roomates do our best to welcome everyone into our house and we spend a little extra time with people that do not feel as comfortable around strangers. We do simple but effective things that make this "new person" feel more comfortable. Sometimes we go up to this person one at a time and strike up a conversation. Other times we will bring them over to a group of people if we feel they don't need a one on one conversation to feel more at ease. Something many sales people learn is to ask "open ended questions". This translates perfectly to starting a conversation with a new person. When you can engage them to talk more they will slowly feel more comfortable and will then hopefully wonder off on there own and start conversations with other guests in the house.
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