Becoming an Antiracist Facilitator 201: Holding and Sharing Space in Meeting Facilitation – 03/10 2:00 pm

The word facilitation comes from the french word Facile, which means to make things easy for others. The role of the facilitator is to enable, empower and inspire a group to meet its goals. Dominant culture thrives on individualism, an urgent pace driven by paternalistic assignment of tasks, and the stifling of conflict, so transformative culture rests on collaboration, big picture context setting, authentic grapplic and debate to arrive at collectively held decisions, and transparent implementation plans that allow for accountability. Inclusive facilitation is the key to this type of power-sharing for collective impact.

In this session, participants will:

• Explore the art of facilitation as a tool to shift a groups’ experience of themselves, lift their belief of their capacity to act, and leverage group dynamics to reinforce the idea that two are better than one, and 10 are better than two!
• Learn strategies to deepen relational trust amongst your team members
• Visibilize how to support various learning styles, and design meeting agreements that will allow for more transparency and inclusion

The word facilitation comes from the french word Facile, which means to make things easy for others. The role of the facilitator is to enable, empower and inspire a group to meet its goals. Dominant culture thrives on individualism, an urgent pace driven by paternalistic assignment of tasks, and the stifling of conflict, so transformative culture rests on collaboration, big picture context setting, authentic grapplic and debate to arrive at collectively held decisions, and transparent implementation plans that allow for accountability. Inclusive facilitation is the key to this type of power-sharing for collective impact.

In this session, participants will:

• Explore the art of facilitation as a tool to shift a groups’ experience of themselves, lift their belief of their capacity to act, and leverage group dynamics to reinforce the idea that two are better than one, and 10 are better than two!
• Learn strategies to deepen relational trust amongst your team members
• Visibilize how to support various learning styles, and design meeting agreements that will allow for more transparency and inclusion

The best facilitators can design learning conditions that make every participant feel like a brilliant member of a learning community. Some of the greatest violence in our systems is initiated when we send some people the message that they are not smart enough, equipped enough, or worthy of being part of a team. Our facilitation methodology is built on the principles of equity and inclusion – that every person has something uniquely valuable to contribute, and that the facilitator unpacks and constructs learning with the group, rather than as a lecturer or instructor.

In this session, participants will:

• Layer a social justice analysis onto your facilitation skills to amplify the appreciation of diversity and inclusion in your work.
• Unpack the many places strong facilitation skills can help make better learning experiences
• Learn strategies to design an interactive agenda that supports diverse learning styles.
• Learn how to work with conflict in a session to invite dialogue and debate
• Practice holding space for differing voices and needs in a room.