PCP offers Boston Training for Facilitators this April
The Public Conversations Project is offering a brand new workshop, called ?“Staying Grounded While on the Spot,?” in Boston, Massachusetts, April 20-21, 2004. This skill-building workshop will help facilitators prepare for and negotiate the unexpected challenges that inevitably surface when facilitating dialogues among diverse groups. PCP is known for its high-quality trainings. www.publicconversations.org/pcp/index.asp?page_id=239
Workshop Description:
No matter how much practitioners have done to design a dialogue that is responsive to the hopes of the participants, and no matter how well-prepared the participants are to enter into that dialogue, practitioners have to be prepared for the unexpected. The unexpected may come in the form of drifts away from the stated purpose of the meeting, worrisome dynamics of engagement among the participants, or logistical snafus related to time, attendance and space. During such often tense and pivotal moments, facilitators cannot review an extensive catalogue of theories, tools and methods. They have to respond - even if their decision is to do nothing. At those moments it is important to be grounded in a principled approach to serving the participants and their shared purposes. With such grounding, tools and methods can be chosen quickly - or perhaps invented and used for the first time.
Through presentations, exercises, case examples and discussion, participants in this workshop will develop skills in designing constructive, purposeful responses to the unforeseen and often unforeseeable. This training will include opportunities for participants to reflect on how the personal, social and cultural attributes they bring to the facilitator role may help or hinder them in "staying grounded" when working with people whose identity, world view and communication style differs from their own. It also will address issues related to forming mutually supportive co-facilitation partnerships that help practitioners anchor one another when they are "on the spot."
To register, visit www.publicconversations.org/pcp/index.asp?page_id=239 or call Manda Bohannon at 617-923-1216 x13.
Note: Continuing education credits for Staying Grounded on the Spot are available through the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).
