Tag Archives: social inclusion

Feminist Facilitation – Facilitation Week free webinar

Monday, 11 September 2023 – 1.00-2:30pm UK time

Thank you again to the 95 who shared their experience and insights so generously at this free facilitation webinar, and to all the 247 who expressed an interest by registering for the session – as for our May session, we are excited  again that the topic and the session generated so much interest! 

Thanks also for the fabulous co-facilitation this time of Monica Atim and producer support of Megan Evans & Dawn Williams, and to International Association of Facilitators (IAF) for hosting and ICA:UK, We Are Feminist Leaders & The Collective for partnering.

Scroll down for the recording, and the slides and other outputs…

What does feminism bring to facilitation, and what does feminist facilitation look like? How can I ensure that my own practice as a professional facilitator is more effectively and explicitly feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive?

Exploring feminist facilitationThese are the questions that have guided my exploration of feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive facilitation this past couple of years. For more on that, see Exploring feminist facilitation.

As Social Inclusion facilitators, we share the same school of thought and continue to seek understanding and practicality due to the awareness that genuine participation is an essential means to effective group, community, organisational and societal leadership and development. Feminism offers a more realistic and practical application to inclusive facilitation.

Are you practicing or exploring feminist facilitation yourself, or are you interested to do so?  

Join us on a journey from a conceptual understanding of feminism, leadership and facilitation to how we can apply these in practice as professional facilitators and as leaders more broadly.

To inform our conversation, please read in advance if you can the SessionLab State of Facilitation survey report and workshop recording & resources Is facilitation a woman’s world?, and Martin’s blog post Exploring feminist facilitation.

This online session is free and open to everyone. It is convened by IAF Social Inclusion Facilitators in partnership with ICA:UK, We Are Feminist Leaders and the Collective. It is a repeat of a session delivered in May, somewhat adapted for Facilitation Week in September by Monica Atim, Martin Gilbraith, Megan Evans & Dawn Williams. Whether or not you joined us May, do join us to further the conversation in September!

Registrations are not limited, but the room capacity will be limited to 100 this time. The May session attracted 700 registrations and 200 attendees, so to secure your place in September please arrive early for the session and join the waiting room until start time.

 

For recordings and other outputs of previous sessions, see free facilitation webinars.

See also about me, how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.

Feminist Facilitation – in-depth free facilitation webinar

IAF Feminist FacilitationFriday, 12 May 2023 – 4.00-5:30pm UK time

Thank you again to the 208 who shared their experience and insights so generously at this free facilitation webinar, and to all the 717 who expressed an interest by registering for the session – we are very excited that the topic and the session generated so much interest! 

Thanks also of course for the fabulous co-facilitation of Monica Atim, Natalie Brook & Julia Makin, producer support of Orla Cronin, Megan Evans & Dawn Williams, and to International Association of Facilitators (IAF) for hosting and ICA:UK & We Are Feminist Leaders for partnering.

Scroll down for the recording, and the slides and other outputs…

Following my earlier free facilitation webinar on Feminist Facilitation, as part of the ICA:UK Online Focused Conversation Series in January, I am pleased to offer this longer and more in-depth session hosted by IAF Social Inclusion Facilitators in May.

Join us to connect, share & learn – register now.

What does feminism bring to facilitation, and what does feminist facilitation look like? How can I ensure that my own practice as a professional facilitator is more effectively and explicitly feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive?

Exploring feminist facilitationThese are the questions that have guided Martin Gilbraith’s exploration of feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive facilitation this past couple of years. For more on that, see Exploring feminist facilitation.

As Social Inclusion facilitators, we share the same school of thought and continue to seek understanding and practicality due to the awareness that genuine participation is an essential means to effective group, community, organizational and societal leadership and development. Feminism offers a more realistic and practical application to inclusive facilitation.

Are you practicing or exploring feminist facilitation yourself, or are you interested to do so?

Join us on a journey from a conceptual understanding of feminism, leadership and facilitation to how we can apply these in practice as professional facilitators and as leaders more broadly.

To inform our conversation, please read in advance if you can the SessionLab State of Facilitation survey report and workshop recording & resources Is facilitation a woman’s world?, and Martin’s blog post Exploring feminist facilitation.

This online session is convened by the IAF Social Inclusion Facilitators, and it is free and open to everyone. It has been designed and will be co-facilitated by Monica Atim of the IAF SIF, Natalie Brook of We Are Feminist Leaders and Juia Makin and Martin Gilbraith of ICA:UK.

Join us to connect, share & learn – register now.

For recordings and other outputs of previous sessions, see free facilitation webinars.

See also about me, how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.

Promoting inclusion in online facilitation – free facilitation webinar recording & outputs

Thank you again to everyone who participated in yesterday’s free facilitation webinar, and especially to Judy Rees for inviting me to co-facilitate with her and to Bhavana Nissima for inspiring the topic – and to Bhavana for her gratifying feedback on the session, below.  Here below also you will find the session recording and other outputs.

We took a slightly different approach to my previous free facilitation webinars this time – not least in that this free, 90-minute, interactive online session offered an experience of virtual facilitation in Zoom rather than in Adobe Connect.

Our approach was largely inspired by a 3-day online European Regional Forum of Amnesty International, originally conceived as a 3-day hybrid event in Brussels, that Judy, Orla Cronin & I had just designed and prepared in three fast-moving weeks and facilitated together this past weekend. It involved over 100 delegates from around 25 member organisations across Europe, asynchronous collaboration over 10 days in Basecamp, and five Zoom sessions of around 2 hours each in which we also used Mentimeter, Googlesheets and Jamboards. That experience merits a post of its own – see Judy’s Online Events: Preparation That Drives Participation – suffice to say here that participant feedback included:

  • “The tech and facilitators were amazing, it felt super inclusive”
  • “Technology facilitated a more inclusive meeting than is usually possible in person.”
  • “Technology! Great to have breakout sessions with so many different people. It makes everything very inclusive.”
  • “Great facilitation. Great diversity and inclusion.”
  • “Best facilitation ever (thanks Martin, Orla, Judy), more equal interaction than at any other meeting, no flights (climate thanks us). Virtuality rules!”

“Promoting inclusion should be the business of all facilitators” write the IAF Social Inclusion Facilitators. But how does that work online? In these circumstances our groups are often more diverse than in-the-room gatherings. Power differentials abound, but they may be less apparent.

Online meetings are shaped by the technologies in use, which place constraints on how we can recognise diversity and promote inclusion:

  • With audio-only groups, non-native speakers of the call’s language are at an automatic disadvantage.
  • When we encourage the use of video to build personal connection, we reveal differences in skin colour, clothing and calling location.
  • With most conferencing systems, online breakout groups can’t easily be seen or overheard by the facilitator: what difference will that make?
  • Text chat perhaps gives away the least about who is making each comment – which brings its own challenges.

All of these technologies have advantages and disadvantages for facilitators seeking to promote inclusion.

In these environments, how might we challenge or learn from prejudice and intolerance as appropriate? As experienced online facilitators we have our own tried and tested tactics – but we know we still have lots to learn. This event brought together a wide range of perspectives to develop our practice.

The recording and other outputs follow, from Mentimeter & Jamboard in Slideshare and the Zoom chat in pdf. Thanks also to Noel Warnell for the sketchnote!

Promoting inclusion in online facilitation - sketchnote

See also about me, how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.

EU-funded places available on ToP facilitation training next week!

Facilitative Leadership and Group Facilitation Methods for Social Cohesion and Gender Equality

Two places have become available at short notice on an EU-funded facilitation training to be held next week, December 9-14, in English & Spanish in Madrid, Spain.

The course is titled “Facilitative Leadership & Group Facilitation Methods for Social Inclusion and Gender Equality“, and is organised and delivered by ICA Spain with ICA:UK.

For full details, please download the course information and practicalities (pdf), and for enquiries and bookings please email catalina@iac-es.org or info@iac-es.org.

The course starts Monday 9th at 17.00 and finishes Saturday 14th, at 13.30. ICA Spain will be glad to cover the 750 Euros course fee. Participants are asked to cover their own accommodation, meals and travel (round trip). If interested they could discuss these expenses.

The course is designed for people responsible for facilitating multicultural and interdisciplinary groups more effectively within educational, social, political, cultural sectors; for team leaders and managers dealing with social inclusion and gender equality policy making; and for youth and community workers and social development agents responsible for implementing social cohesion and gender equality policies.

Comments from the evaluations of last year’s course include:

“…. a solid and intelligent combination of professional competence and personal drive and engagement. Great attention to detail was evident from the logistical organization to the high quality of delivery.” (Participant from Switzerland).

“Excellent course, excellent facilitation, truly an opportunity to learn valuable skills. Highly recommend it.” (Participant from Spain).

“It was an excellent course both on providing knowledge and skills on the topic.” (Participant from Greece).

“What stood out especially was the trainers’ attention to each particpants’ professional development and the strong participatory elements.” (Participant from Germany).

“The approach was very successful because we had moments of theory, demonstration and practice of the new methodologies. We had the opportunity to participate in some cultural and study visits which make us connect with the contents of the course and know more about the host country.” (Participant from Portugal).