Work with Nicole: Speaking

Nicole Clark Consulting leads full-day, half-day, and multi-day customizable workshops and participates in panels and keynote presentations in a variety of settings for an array of audiences. Trainings and workshops and are open to all but are typically designed for women, girls and gender expansive youth of color, and organizations that provide programs and services for these demographics.

Booking Nicole Clark Consulting to speak at your next event guarantees your audience will walk away with practical and actionable tools and a call to action, utilizing their expertise and lived experiences to raise their voices.

Choose from three customizable formats

In-person: Face-to-face (conferences, staff trainings, classroom, community group events, panels, keynotes, etc.); day(s)-long or several hours
Online: Live or pre-recorded (webinars, online retreats, teleconferences, etc.)
Blended: In-person and online; flexible and cost-effective

Nicole’s speaking interests:

Reproductive Justice: History and core principles; practical applications to current work, stakeholder buy-in and support
Design Thinking: Curriculum/workshop/program development, applying to social work and social justice frameworks
Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation: Evaluation theories (Culturally Responsiveness, Youth, Feminist, Empowerment, Community Collaborative & Participatory), outcomes and impact evaluation, evaluative thinking & capacity building

Community Participatory Research: Principles, building meaningful relationships between research institutions and communities, shared decision-making, capacity building
Movement Building and Intersectional Approaches: How social justice movements intersect, youth-adult partnerships, stakeholder engagement, strengths-based thinking for communities of color
Self, Organizational, and Community Care: Designing a self care plan, organizational self care, and self care as a tool for community empowerment and resistance

Nicole’s Most Requested Speaking Topics

From Clearing Ambiguity to Addressing Power Dynamics: Getting Your Staff on board with Reproductive Justice

The reproductive justice framework has become the solution in navigating intersecting social justice issues that move beyond pro-choice/pro-life rhetoric. While there is excitement surrounding how RJ can be incorporated into the emerging work of grassroots groups, community organizations, nonprofits, social services, philanthropy, and hospital/clinics, going from theory to practice can become a challenge. Staff with a grounding expertise in navigating intersecting issues from a health and rights perspective may come across ambiguity on differentiating the purpose of RJ and how the framework can be incorporated into their individual and collective roles. Also, when entities operate from a top-down leadership model, introducing the RJ framework to organizational leadership can be met with issues surrounding power dynamics. How can staff clearly articulate the RJ framework and how it can be incorporated into their role (from executive director to administrative staff)? Also, how can staff introduce the RJ framework as an organizational strategy that incorporates “RJ-thinking” and empowers staff buy-in across organizational roles? Through interactive discussion and activity, participants in this workshop with: 1) learn about health and rights issues through a RJ lens as a tool for articulating RJ to staff 2) identify potential barriers to navigating power dynamics with generating buy-in to RJ, and 3) receive resources that identify how to incorporate RJ into their organizational role.

The Revolution Starts with Me!: Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, and Resources for Self Care

“The Revolution Starts with Me: Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, and Resources” workshop brings together individuals and communities who are dedicated to making community and societal change, but are faced with the too-real task of balancing the demands of families, peers, and communities. In a perfect world, we can strike a balance between advocating for others and taking care of ourselves. But how can we prioritize self care when we’re being pulled in multiple directions, and what can we do when self care doesn’t feel like an option? By using interactive activities, storytelling, and skill-sharing, this training/workshop identifies how burnout effects us at multiple levels (including individual, community, institutional, systemic, and generational), and develop personalized “Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, and Resources” for self care. As a participant, you will also receive the “The Revolution Starts with Me: Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, and Resources for Self Care” zine.

Reproductive Justice as a Social Work Value

In order to assert the value, worth, and inherent dignity of clients and communities we serve, social workers must affirm the right of client self-determination in matters of reproduction, parenting and sexuality. With the rise of the Reproductive Justice framework in the mid 1990s, and its sudden emergence in recent times, the social work field, along with the NASW Code of Ethics, positions social workers in integrating an intersectional analysis to reproductive health options, including abortion care, contraception, sexual education, prenatal care, maternity care and care after birth. While social workers may be limited by employment and government policies in discussing abortion, safer sex practices, and positive sexuality, some social workers are either limited in their own professional knowledge on these topics or by their discomfort in discussing those issues with clients, communities, and organizations. This training/workshop 1) introduces the Reproductive Justice framework and how it connects to the NASW Code of Ethics; 2) provides strategies in applying intersectional analysis in reproductive health education, counseling, and advocacy; 3) provides techniques for advocating for Reproductive Justice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels; and 4) introduces Social Workers for Reproductive Justice as a vehicle for social workers and students who want to advance the Reproductive Justice framework in the field.

Using Design Thinking, Research & Evaluation as Collaborative Tools for Change

When you want to make the world a better place, you develop a plan of action. That’s where research, evaluation, and program evaluation–three seemingly separate areas–intersect to create a process that is collaborative, engaging, and results-driven. When you combine design (using relevant and appropriate behavioral theories that can be implemented consistently in varied settings with minimal tweaking) participatory research methods, and evaluation (a systematic way of understanding a program’s impact) with intentional collaboration (through staff, community members, and program participants), you create the synergy needed to deliver programs and services that speak to the needs of the people you serve. Through this training, you are taken through the design thinking process to identify relevant behavioral theories that serve as the foundation of your program; you’ll assess your staff’s readiness to implement a culture of evaluation and participatory research and identify collaborative theories that fit best with your program goals, and you’ll learn interactive data collection and analysis techniques to develop a game plan for success.

Placing Reproductive Justice at the Forefront of Comprehensive Sex Education

With the rise of the Reproductive Justice framework in the last 20 years, intersectionality has been at the forefront of sex education and reproductive freedom. How can sex educators integrate intersectionality and the Reproductive Justice framework in their educational development, teaching, inclusion, and advocacy for comprehensive sex education? This workshop 1) introduces the RJ framework and how sex education from an intersectional analysis leads to more inclusiveness in sexual health advocacy; 2) provides strategies in applying the RJ framework in comprehensive sex education, counseling, and advocacy; and 3) introduce professional organizations that serve as educational and advocacy vehicles in advancing the RJ framework in sex education.