Session 2 - Feb 3rd, 2008

Leadership Institute
Meeting Notes

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The second meeting of the CCIII Leadership Institute was attended by youth leaders Roshelle Wickham, Jahmala Cornelius, Chloe Green, Erica Johnson, Brittany Anderson and we were also joined for the first time by China Leak. This workshop's focus was to build the participants knowledge of and skill in facilitation of a group or workshop. After playing a quick icebreaker, the group brainstormed the topic of facilitation. While the participants equated facilitation to leadership at first, as the discussion progressed they were able to bring out some of the qualities that distinguish a facilitator from a leader. While a leader can serve many different roles, a facilitator serves a specific role of guiding a group through a discussion or activity. We also spoke about the qualities of a good facilitator, and many participants highlighted that a good facilitator was someone who listened well and did not judge the group members.

After brainstorming the role of the facilitator, we did an activity where we each wrote ads for our perfect co-facilitator. We talked briefly about the fact that as we moved on and began to do the confronting concerns workshops with other youth, we would be facilitating as teams, so it was important to think about what you needed from a team member in order for you to be successful. Some of the ads expressed that they wanted a co facilitator that was trust-worthy, that wouldn't make fun of others, who could be silly and fun to be around and who was knowledgeable about the topic being discussed.

Next the youth leaders got to explore some of the negative tendencies of facilitators and public speakers. They were each given a character trait such as someone who spoke too loudly or too quickly or someone who avoids eye contact with the group for example. After being given the trait they were paired up with another group member and asked to give a presentation on a specific topic. The group then had to guest their character flaw. The exercise enabled the group to think about some of their own negative tendencies when in front of a group and realize that as a facilitator, it is necessary to be aware of how you are speaking and interacting with the group so that you can gain their confidence and keep them interested in the topic you are presenting.

Finally, two of the group members got the chance to practice facilitating a brief activity. The rest of the group was instructed not to give them an easy time to see how they could deal with a difficult group. The first time the activity was done the facilitators found it difficult to get the group to pay attention and buy in to the activity. We debriefed after a few minutes, and the group gave the facilitators constructive criticism to help them to improve their skills. They then tried it once again, and were able to use the constructive criticism to improve their facilitation. Though the rest of the group did not get a chance to practice as well, we all spoke about the importance of being open to constructive criticism in order to improve our skills and get better at facilitating.

Finally we ended with our dance icebreaker, which we decided to do each workshop in order to get our energy up and have fun with one another. We agreed to all write a couple sentences about what keeps us coming to the Leadership Institute and send it in so that we could make an informational sheet about the institute for funders and other interested people. We agreed to meet again on February 17th to continue the Institute.

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Last updated March 12, 2008