13 Oct, 2017

Try This: The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T19:57:47-04:00October 13th, 2017|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: reproductive justice, Try This|0 Comments

“The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now” is a reflective call to action process that frames our experiences, highlights the commonalities of our lived experiences, and connects our stories to the current social climate to promote action. I first learned of this process from Jamia Wilson. Jamia shared it with me as I was preparing to speech related to young women of color several years ago.

Here’s what you need:

Sheets of paper
Something to write with

The steps:

This process connects your personal story to current problems our communities are facing, and to the larger vision of a world we want.

Using the topic of Reproductive Justice:

The Story of Me: Share your story of how Reproductive Justice connects with your identities. Use a personal story that brought your attention to various reproductive oppressions and injustices.
The Story of Us: Share the current state of how reproductive injustices are impacting your communities. Use prompts such as “We live in a world where…” or “When I look around my community, I see…”. This can be related to policies that do more harm than good, lack of sex education in your school, or historical or current events such as the shackling of pregnant prisoners during labor and delivery or involuntary sterilization of women of color
The Story of Now: Share your vision for reproductive freedom. Use prompts such as “We will have reproductive justice when…” What would be the end game to have Reproductive Justice? What would that look like in your community?

You can do this process alone or in a group. If in a group, have participants identify the commonalities in their stories and develop a strong call to action (CTA). Try this exercise and let me know how it goes.

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RAISE YOUR VOICE: Share one way you can use The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now process below in the comments section.

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28 Jun, 2017

Common Workshop Terminology

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T19:43:14-04:00June 28th, 2017|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: Facilitation, Speaking|0 Comments

Many workshop facilitators have their own style of facilitating, including using their own words or phrases to convey key concepts across to workshop participants. Or sometimes, you may have been in a workshop and have heard terms that you weren’t familiar with and may not have been comfortable asking about them.

Here are some terms I’ve either used for a long time or recently came across that made a lot of sense for me, and resonated with the participants I’ve used them with. Feel free to use the terminology that resonates most with you, or try all of them and see how they resonate with your participants:

Download

I discovered this term from one of my clients. To “download” means to share information you’ve learned. For example, if one goes to a training or workshop or decides to do more research on a topic on their own to share with others, they share what they’ve learned in the hopes that others will absorb the information. Think of downloading a new program on your laptop or desktop and saving it for future use.

Parking Lot/Bike Rack

Sometimes a participant will ask a question that you’re unsure how to answer. Or maybe you and the participants are so engrossed in an activity that asking a question might disrupt the flow of engagement. Saving the question for later in a “parking lot” or “bike rack” allows the facilitator to come back to the question or comment at a later time. You can create a parking lot/bike rack by dedicating a section of the room for participants to write questions or comments on post-it notes to place in that area. Towards the end of the workshop or if there’s a break in activity, go back read some of the questions or comments to share with the rest of the participants.

Modeling

“Modeling” is demonstrating something to your participants. If there is an activity that may be very intricate that it may take participants some time to understand, you show them what to do. Whether it’s showing a movement or performing a writing activity, modeling allows participants to see what they need to do.

Unpack

Sometimes a participant may make a comment or ask a question that receives a level of reaction from participants, and it may be something you’re interested in exploring further. So you’ll respond, “Let’s unpack this.” Unpacking means to take a deeper dive into a topic as a means to uncover more information. It’s important to do this in a way that doesn’t make a participant feel put on the spot, so do this in a way that honors the perspective of the participant while also allowing everyone to add their own insights.

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14 Jun, 2017

Try This: The A & B Conversation

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T19:43:28-04:00June 14th, 2017|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: Facilitation, Try This, Workshops|0 Comments

(Image Source)

The A & B Conversation is a communication activity that focuses on healthy communication, conflict resolution, and gaining a different perspective on a situation. This activity can be used in a variety of settings, and today we’re going to focus on facilitating this activity in a workshop setting with adults and young people. This is even better if the participants consist of parents/guardians and their children.

Here’s what you need:

An even number of participants (for consistency, have the adult be Partner A and the young person be Partner B)
A timer
A list of scenarios ranging from conversations perceived to be easy to ones that may be more difficult, including:
- Asking for money to buy an item
- Failing a driver’s test
- Sneaking out past curfew
- Argument over discovery of a social media profile
- Choosing not to go to college
- Meeting with the school principal to discuss allegations of online bullying
- Asking for the meaning of song filled with sexually suggestive lyrics
- Finding condoms in jeans pockets while doing laundry
- Asking if one was a virgin on her/his wedding night
- Disclosing a pregnancy and having questions about terminating the pregnancy
- Disclosing one’s sexuality
- Being caught putting the date rape drug in a person’s drink

The steps:

As the facilitator, choose the scenario the partners will act out. Next, using the timer, have the partners act out the scenario for 2 minutes.

When the timer stops, reset it to 2 minutes, and have the partners switch roles. Have the partners improvise the same scenario, this time with the young person (Partner B) becoming the parent/guardian and the adult (Partner A) becoming the young person.

The follow-up:

After the final 2 minutes is up, have the partners process what took place using the following discussion questions:

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1 Feb, 2017

Ask Nicole: How Can I Get Hired for Workshops & Speaking Engagements?

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T19:04:37-04:00February 1st, 2017|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: Ask Nicole, Facilitation, Speaking|0 Comments

Do you have a question to share with the Raise Your Voice community? Let me know.

Michelle, a social worker in Pennsylvania, writes:

I have been researching other options to become involved in within the [social work] field and came across your website. I was wondering if you [could] discuss how to get involved in facilitating workshops/speaking engagements. This is an area I’m very interested in pursuing and am eager to build resources and network with other professionals.

I’m always excited to hear fellow social workers eager to show their expertise in a variety of ways.

I’ve been facilitating workshops in some capacity since 2003-ish. I started co-facilitating workshops as a student, with other youth activists around the country, then as a Reproductive Justice activist and professional social worker. Because I was so new to it, I leaned a lot on my peers to guide the workshop facilitation. I also sought out people who have a delivery style you like or who speak on topics that interests you. The goal isn’t to imitate them, but observe how they engage their audience. Whenever I co-faciliate a workshop or training with someone, I focus on how they engage the audience, how they interject personal experiences that tie into their content, or how they tie in real-world examples to illustrate their content. I eventually found a facilitation style that worked for me.

First, determine what your interests are and what you want to share your expertise in. Next, brainstorm how you want to deliver your information. I’ve written a series on preparing and facilitating workshops (Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four). We tend to think of workshops as being in person, but you can also deliver great content via online formats such as GoToMeeting or Zoom. In my Blog Archives, there’s a section on workshops where I share my own experiences with workshop facilitating as well as exercises I’ve facilitated in workshops.

Secondly (and probably most important), let people know that you’re available for workshops and speaking engagements! Word of mouth has been a driving force for my business and for lots of people interested in professional speaking and workshop facilitation.

Next, find ways to show your expertise before going into a conference or workshop space. My preferred method to show my interests and expertise has been through blogging, and in using my social media platforms to promote my thoughts. Blogging has been a good way for me to show my expertise, gain clients, and have folks invite me to speak. (I view it as an online business card). Blogging has also given me a platform to share my perspective AND has allowed me to revisit my stance to either strengthen my voice or to share a new perspective. Blogging may be that for you as well. Or it may be podcasting or sharing your perspective via YouTube. You can also engage with folks via live feeds on Instagram, Facebook, or Periscope. You can curate the topics you like to talk about and it aids in developing your personal approach and what you’re known for (aka, your brand), which then helps people associate you with certain speaking topics. I recently updated my Speaking page to show what my interests are as well as what I’m most requested to speak on.

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30 Jul, 2014

Advice for the Introverted Facilitator

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2023-02-08T22:08:31-05:00July 30th, 2014|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: Facilitation, Workshop|0 Comments

In a few weeks, I will be in Washington, DC, to facilitate my workshop “ ’Good Girls Don’t Have Sex’: How Do Religion and the Media Influence Young Women’s Sexuality?” during the annual Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit. I’ve facilitated this workshop several times in the past, and as I started to prep for Summit this week (completely out of character for someone who loves to procrastinate), I began thinking of the usual: workshop flow and how to improve my workshop based on past feedback. But I also started to think about me as a workshop facilitator, how I relate to my workshop participants, and my personality in general.

I’m an introvert, and workshop facilitation (and other forms of public speaking) seems like an odd choice for someone who is more inclined to draw energy from within. Though I’m not really one to be in the spotlight when it comes to my personal life, when it’s time to raise my voice for women and girls of color in a professional or activist setting, I’m “on”.

“On” for me doesn’t mean I get this sudden burst of extroverted flair. It means that I’m well prepared and I know what I’m talking about. I utilize my ability to engage my participants while also knowing when to stop talking and get out of the way.

If you’re just starting out in workshop facilitation, or if you’ve facilitated before but feel your introversion hinders your ability to engage your participants, let me tell you this: With over 10 years of workshop facilitation experience behind me, I’ve discovered along the way that you can be an engaging facilitator, have fun while doing it, and keep your introversion in tact. Here is my advice on being an engaging, fun, and introverted workshop facilitator:

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Try This: The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now

Here’s what you need:

The steps:

RAISE YOUR VOICE: Share one way you can use The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now process below in the comments section.

Like this post? Subscribe to the Raise Your Voice newsletter to receive resources, advice, and tips to help you raise your voice for women and girls of color.

Common Workshop Terminology

Download

Parking Lot/Bike Rack

Modeling

Unpack

Try This: The A & B Conversation

Here’s what you need:

The steps:

The follow-up:

Ask Nicole: How Can I Get Hired for Workshops & Speaking Engagements?

Advice for the Introverted Facilitator

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