Raise Your Voice Blog | Nicole Clark Consulting

21 Aug, 2013

Planning & Facilitating Valuable Workshops (Part One): Things to Consider Before You Begin

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2023-02-08T22:09:29-05:00August 21st, 2013|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: Facilitation, Meetings, Workshops|0 Comments

Are you facilitating a workshop for the first time? Do you have experience with facilitating workshops but want learn other ways to hone your development or facilitation skills? There’s a lot that goes into a workshop, including logistics, anticipating what questions or insights may come up during your workshop, and how you will measure the workshop’s effectiveness based on participant feedback. This is Part One in a four part series on planning, facilitating, and evaluating a workshop, designed to assist you if you’re new to the world of workshop facilitation or want to find more ways to improve what you’re already doing. This week, let’s discuss some things to consider when planning your workshop.

Why workshops?

Workshops are a great way to share information with others in a short amount of time. They can be hands-on, full of discussion, an ideas generator, connects like-minded and open-minded people, and what participants learn can be sent back to their offices, homes, campuses, or communities. The best part of facilitating workshops is seeing the “a-ha” moments participants can get, and most of the time these insights come from the participants themselves, rather than from the facilitator. I’ve been developing workshops and facilitating them for a while, and one thing is always constant:

Things probably won’t go as planned

There’s going to be some type of hiccup during your workshop. 35 participants are signed up, and only 6 are in attendance. Your workshop is tailored to participants who have a working knowledge of the topic, but when the workshop begins you see that most participants are being introduced to the topic for the first time. You were informed when you signed up that you’re allotted 90 minutes for your workshop, but on arrival to your venue, you discover that that it’s been shortened to 45 minutes. Things happen, and you need to be prepared. Here are some important things to consider: (more…)

2 Aug, 2013

Self Care Corner: Create Your Self Care Policies & Procedures Manual

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:15:52-04:00August 2nd, 2013|Categories: Self & Community Care|Tags: self care, Self Care Corner|0 Comments

In order to raise your voice for others, you have to take care of yourself first. That’s where self care comes in. If you like this tip, be sure to sign up for the Raise Your Voice newsletter to receive your copy of The Revolution Starts with Me! self care zine for more tips and self care resources.

Being comfortable with saying NO is a great to practice self care, but it’s often easier said than done. When we say NO to someone or to an opportunity, we can feel guilty, and it can also make us feel as though we’re be missing out on something if we say NO.

Singer-songwriter and entrepreneur Christine Kane says, “One of the reasons saying NO can be so challenging to us is that we force ourselves to make decisions in the moment. We wait until we’re put on the spot…we often end up making a Reactive Decision, rather than a Proactive Decision. Reactive Decisions often involve listening to our emotional self, or our guilt, or our old patterns of wanting approval.”

To fix this, Christine developed a great exercise called the Proactive NO.

What is a Proactive NO? Think of it this way: Most businesses have what’s called a policies & procedures manual, listing how the business runs and what employees should do in the event that something happens and a swift decision needs to be made.

Here’s your task: Create your own self care policies & procedures manual. Your manual should be clear and concise, and let’s you know exactly want to do if faced with making a decision. You can write them out on sheets of paper, or type them up. Remember, we want to decrease as many Reactive Decisions as possible. Here are some of my own self care policies:

*I require a least one week’s notice if a friend or relative wants to stay with me while they are in town. (It may sound harsh, but in this way, I can decide if I want to open my space to anyone, as well as to prepare for their arrival).

*I will only consider consulting projects and speaking engagements that are in alignment with the mission of my business. (This one can be a challenge. When the urge to get recognition or to make some quick cash rears its head, I ask myself if what I’m about to sign on to actually matches the values of my consulting business. I also consider the time it would take to prepare and execute the project, especially if my work schedule is already swamped).

Take some time during the upcoming days to develop your own self care policies & procedures manual. You can come up with as many policies as you want, and when you’re faced with making a decision, “run” the request through your polices & procedures manual and come up with a solution that works for you.

RAISE YOUR VOICE: What you think about this week’s exercise? Share insights below in the comments. Do you have a self care resource or exercise you want to share? Contact me to have it featured in an upcoming Self Care Corner post.

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31 Jul, 2013

Once You Decide to Become an Activist, You Never Leave It. It’s What You Do.

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:15:24-04:00July 31st, 2013|Categories: Equity & Justice|Tags: activism, Reflections|0 Comments

(Top row: Left- Presenting a workshop at the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists Conference in June 2013; Right- Being interviewed on Let Your Voice Be Heard Radio in March 2013. Bottom row: Left- Panelist on the Pro Choice & Millennials panel in February 2013; Right: Acceptance speech for the Excellence in Leadership award during the Choice USA Generation 2 Generation Awards in July 2013)

July 2013 marks 2 years since I began blogging my perspectives on sexual health reproductive justice and how various social justice issues (age, gender, race, safety, poverty, etc.) impact Black, Latina, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native/Indigenous women & girls. In fact, 2013 marks 10 years since I became involved in the reproductive justice and feminist movements, and throughout this year I’ve thought a lot about the various roles I serve in and how I’ve combined them to create a consulting business that’s in alignment with my vision and values.

This year has been a year of various transitions for me, both personally and professionally. Part of the transition has been recognizing the fact that I’m more comfortable labeling myself as an activist. It wasn’t until a year ago that I became comfortable with calling myself a social worker, and even recently I began referring to myself a program evaluator and a consultant. For a long time, I viewed my various roles as separate entities. However, they progressively build upon each other. My activism guided my decision to become a social worker. My social work studies led me to consider a career as a consultant, speaker, and program evaluator. My consulting business allows me to rely on the skills I developed as an activist and social worker to be as effective and engaging as possible.

However, if it weren’t for being an activist, I wouldn’t have been successful as a social worker, speaker, program evaluator and consultant. (more…)

26 Jul, 2013

Self Care Corner: Take the Self Care Assessment

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:15:08-04:00July 26th, 2013|Categories: Self & Community Care|Tags: self care, Self Care Corner|0 Comments

(image source)

In order to raise your voice for others, you have to take care of yourself first. That’s where self care comes in. If you like this tip, be sure to sign up for the Raise Your Voice newsletter to receive your copy of The Revolution Starts with Me! self care zine for more tips and self care resources.

We know how important self care really is, but how often are we actually incorporating it in our lives? A better question is this: If you are incorporating self care in your life, which area is receiving the most (and the least) attention?

Here’s another great resource from The University of Buffalo School of Social Work, at the State University of New York, called the Self Care Assessment. Adapted by Saakvitne, Pearlman, & Staff of TSI/CAAP (1996), the Self Care Assessment touches upon 6 areas: physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, relationship, and professional.

Use this as a tool to think more about what areas of your life you pay more attention to, and which areas need more attention.

Take the Self Care Assessment

RAISE YOUR VOICE:What you think about this week’s exercise? Share your results and insights with this exercise below in the comments. Also, do you have a self care resource or exercise you want to share? Contact me to have it featured in an upcoming Self Care Corner post.

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24 Jul, 2013

Try This: Including Pleasure in Youth Sex Education

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:13:59-04:00July 24th, 2013|Categories: Program, Service, & Campaign Design|Tags: Try This, Youth|0 Comments

When we talk with young people about sex and sexuality, pleasure is often the last thing we want to focus on, especially because we often correlate discussions of pleasure with a higher increase in risky behavior. Whether you’re a service provider, a parent, or a young person, it’s always helpful to know that, while discussions on unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are important, talking about pleasure is also a great way to help build a healthy mindset around sex and sexuality.

I recently attended a training at Planned Parenthood of New York City called “Don’t Forget the ‘Pleasure’ in Sex Education”. The focus of the training was 1) how pleasure plays a role in how we view sexuality within a variety of lenses, including society/culture, sexual behaviors, sexual/reproductive health, and sexualization/objectification; and 2) how to effectively incorporate pleasure with sex education (which often focuses more on avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections). It was a really great training, and I invite you to check out PPNYC’s Training Institute calendar for future trainings.

During the training, we were given an exercise: create a one-on-one role play or a group activity that generates discussion on making sex education more fun and appealing. I decided to create an activity for an adolescent co-ed group between the ages of 15-18. My activity focused on what could enhance pleasure and what could decrease pleasure, making sure that the answer choices had the potential to encourage discussion with participants.

Here’s how to set up this activity: (more…)

Planning & Facilitating Valuable Workshops (Part One): Things to Consider Before You Begin

Self Care Corner: Create Your Self Care Policies & Procedures Manual

RAISE YOUR VOICE: What you think about this week’s exercise? Share insights below in the comments. Do you have a self care resource or exercise you want to share? Contact me to have it featured in an upcoming Self Care Corner post.

Once You Decide to Become an Activist, You Never Leave It. It’s What You Do.

Self Care Corner: Take the Self Care Assessment

RAISE YOUR VOICE:What you think about this week’s exercise? Share your results and insights with this exercise below in the comments. Also, do you have a self care resource or exercise you want to share? Contact me to have it featured in an upcoming Self Care Corner post.

Try This: Including Pleasure in Youth Sex Education

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