Fundamentals of Facilitation for Racial Justice Work

Design and facilitate the challenging conversations that catalyze breakthrough thinking and lasting agreements

Are you looking for new ways to facilitate dialogue and action to deal with racism and pursue racial justice? Do you find it challenging to work with folks who have different understandings of the issues, different lived experiences and different notions about what to do? Have you ever been stopped in your tracks by a meeting participant’s comment? You ask yourself, “What’s the best way to handle this?! Should I answer the question? Get the person to talk more? Get the group to handle the issue? Something else entirely?”

In this two day learning laboratory, we will explore a variety of collaborative methods that will enable you to foster engagement, participation and authentic connections that yield productive conversations and solid agreements.

This workshop is designed for participants who have a strong working familiarity with racial justice concepts such as institutional and structural racism, racial justice framing and privilege. The workshop assumes this working knowledge and is not an appropriate learning environment for individuals for whom this is new material.

In this two‐day learning laboratory, you will learn the “how,” “what” and “who” of facilitation for racial justice work:

HOW – Collaborative process skills to design and facilitate productive discussions that build understanding and agreement

• Designing and facilitating conversations and meetings about racial justice work that build understanding and agreement
• Intervening to deal with hot button issues and challenging situations in meetings about racial justice work

WHAT - Racial justice concepts and content that can guide meeting design and facilitation

• Using racial justice concepts and knowledge in your role as facilitator
• Making strategic choices about when to use process facilitation tools and when to use racial justice concepts to address challenging situations

WHO - Ways to maintain our center and use our identities to advance the work

• Facilitating with presence, grace and authority
• Exploring the impact of how we “show up” as facilitators on the effectiveness of discussions and meetings about race