GLSEN s Safe Space Kit Professional Development Training Model Half-Day Agenda TIMED ONLY Three Hours Opening and Introductions Warm-Up Group Agreements Safe Space Kit Overview Know the Issues: What Does it Mean to be an Ally Check Yourself: Understanding Your Own Beliefs Know the Issues: Statistics Review and Discussion Know the Issues: Terminology Match-Up Break Support: Intervening to Anti-LGBT Name-Calling and Harassment Challenging Case Studies Educate: LGBT-Inclusive School Checklist Advocate: Make Your Action Plan Additional Resources Wrap-Up and Closing Feedback Forms 10 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes 15 minutes 25 minutes 10 minutes 40 minutes 20 minutes 20 minutes 10 minutes
GLSEN s Safe Space Kit Professional Development Follow-up Training Model Half-Day Agenda TIMED ONLY Three Hours Goal Using the Safe Space Kit as a framework for action, school staff will develop an understanding of the importance of adult allies to LGBT students and explore the specific ways in which they can educate, advocate and support LGBT students and promote safe environments for all students. Objectives Participants will reflect on the importance of adult allies to LGBT students. Participants will assess their own attitudes and beliefs related to LGBT bias. Participants will learn about the prevalence of anti-lgbt bullying in schools and its impact on students social, emotional and academic success. Participants will increase knowledge of LGBT terminology. Participants will explore strategies and develop skills to respond to anti-lgbt bullying and harassment situations that might occur in schools. Participants will create an action plan that will assist them in creating safer schools for all. Participants will gain knowledge about resources available to support LGBT students. Materials Needed Safe Space Kits for all participants (unless previously distributed) LCD Projector/Screen (as appropriate) Flip chart paper and Marker Agenda for all participants Opening and Introductions 10 minutes Facilitators and Participants (with school position) Introduction of GLSEN: GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established nationally in 1995, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN s Safe Space Campaign is an ambitious effort to provide Safe Space kits to every middle and high school in the country. The impetus for this campaign was the recognition that we cannot delay in creating a broad network of adult allies in our schools to support LGBT students and to counter the persistent harassment and bullying that so many students face each and every day. For many students, simply knowing
that allies exist can be a source of support. Research shows that LGBT students with many supportive educators feel safer at school, skip fewer classes, and earn higher grades than students without supportive educators. Being a supportive ally to LGBT students can create a safe space for them in school. Goal (as above) Agenda Review Warm-Up Group Agreements 5 minutes Purpose: to establish a set of group agreements and hopefully develop a safe environment in which the program can be conducted. Working together to create the group agreements not only gets the group working together, but also helps participants to feel ownership of the agreed-upon rules. Additionally, if conflict erupts later in the workshop, the agreements can serve as a reminder of the need for respect, patience and sensitivity. Space Kit Overview 10 minutes Purpose: to explain the national campaign and its goals; to review the kit s contents and to explain that the remainder of the workshop will use the framework of the kit knowing the issues, support, educate and advocate to increase participants knowledge and ability to serve as allies to LGBT students and promote inclusive school environments. Know the Issues: What Does It Mean To Be An Ally 5 minutes Purpose: to provide an understanding of the role and behaviors of adult allies in combating LGBT bias and supporting LGBT students Check Yourself: Understanding Your Own Beliefs 15 minutes Purpose: to encourage participants to assess their own beliefs and attitudes related to LGBT bias Statistics Review and Discussion 15 minutes Purpose: to present research findings that highlights the prevalence of anti-lgbt bias in schools and its negative impact on students educational outcomes, in order to motivate 5participants to take action to interrupt anti-lgbt bias and actively engage in efforts to create safer schools for all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Terminology Match-Up 25 minutes Purpose: to provide participants with a language for discussing LGBT issues; to clarify their understanding of various terms and concepts regarding gender and sexuality. Support: 40 minutes Intervening in Ant-LGBT Name-Calling, Bullying and Harassment/Challenging Case Studies Purpose: to provide participants with an opportunity to explore ways of addressing incidents of anti-lgbt name-calling, bullying and harassment, and to build confidence in responding to these incidents. Educate: 20 minutes
LGBT-Inclusive Checklist Purpose: to review the aspects of the school environment that can promote or undermine a sense of inclusion of and for all students, families and staff; to provide a framework for assessing schools with regard to LGBT safety and inclusion. Advocate: 20 minutes Make Your Action Plan Purpose: to provide a framework that will help participants commit to and accomplish specific objectives to serve as allies to students AND Additional Resources Purpose: to review the additional GLSEN and other resources outlined in the Safe Space kit. Wrap-Up and Closing 5 minutes Feedback Forms
WARM-UP: Group Agreements Purpose: to establish a set of group agreements and hopefully develop a safe environment in which the program can be conducted. Establishing group agreements not only gets the group working together, but also helps participants to feel ownership of the agreed-upon rules. Additionally, if conflict erupts later in the workshop, the agreements can serve as a reminder of the need for respect, patience and sensitivity. Materials: Flip chart paper and markers Time: 5 minutes 1. Prepare in advance a piece of chart paper on which the heading Group Agreements is written across the top of the paper. On the left side of the paper, write the word P-R-O-C-E-S-S going down the left-hand side of the paper. Write a word or two for each letter, as highlighted below. 2. Discuss some of the reasons the word process was chosen such as: change is a process, learning is a process, skill building is a process, etc. 3. Share that the words given for each letter reflect many of the commonly identified words to create ground rules for GLSEN programs. Explain that only due to limited time have you pre-selected these words. 4. Ask for any words that anyone wants to add that may or may not begin with the letters P.R.O.C.E.S.S. 5. Ask for agreement to honor the ground rules with a head nod or hand raise. 6. Post the ground rules in the room where they are visible to most everyone. Examples: P - Participate, Patience, Possibilities, Pass, Positive, Punctuality R - Respect, Responsibility, Risk, Reflection, Reasonable, Real, Rights O - Oops/Ouch, Open, Open-minded, Opinions, Opportunity, Optimistic C - Confidentiality, Courage, Communication, Caring E - Escuchar, Empathy, Educate, Experiment, Ears (for listening) S - Step forward/step back, Safety, Silence S - Sensitive, Share, Sense of humor Additional Ones: -No Cell Phones / Text Messaging -Have Fun!
SAFE SPACE KIT OVERVIEW Purpose: to explain the Safe Space national campaign and its goals; to review the kit s contents and to explain that the workshop will use the framework of the kit knowing the issues, support, educate and advocate to increase participants knowledge and ability to serve as allies to LGBT students and promote inclusive school environments. Materials: Safe Space Kits for participants Time: 10 minutes 1. Provide an overview of the kit using the following as a guide: The Safe Space campaign was launched by GLSEN in the fall of 2010 with a goal to place a Safe Space Kit in every middle and high school in the United States over the next three years. GLSEN is working to create a national network of visible allies for LGBT students. As we will continue to explore through this workshop, LGBT students need allies in their schools and the Safe Space Kit provides school staff with the guidance to be that ally. The kit is designed to provide a program for action to create a positive learning environment for every child. So, in each kit you will find 10 Safe Space Stickers, two posters and a 42-page Guide to Being an Ally to LGBT Students. The Safe Space sticker is one of GLSEN's most popular resources. By placing a sticker or a poster in your classroom or office, you can let students know that they have support and are in a safe space with respect to anti-lgbt bullying and harassment. These are powerful steps you can take tomorrow! The core content is embedded in the Guide to Being An Ally to LGBT Students and we will be using the framework of the Guide as the frame for our workshop today. Our hope is you will leave here feeling familiar with the contents of the Kit and empowered to take the next step to use it and other resources in your classrooms and schools to work as allies to LGBT students. 2. Direct participants to the Table of Contents to familiarize them with the components and the purpose they serve. o o o o Questions about the Safe Space Kit: This section answers most questions raised about the Safe Space Kit. It explains the purpose of the kit, the meaning of the Safe Space Symbol and what is inside the kit. Know the Issues: This section provides background information about the importance of being an ally to LGBT students and takes you through activities to help you understand your knowledge or assumptions about the LGBT community. Support: This section will show you how you can be a supportive ally to LGBT students. It will give you concrete ways you support LGBT students who may come out to you, intervene when anti-lgbt bias occurs and how you can support student clubs such as a Gay, Straight Alliance (GSA). Educate: This show you how to educate your students and other school staff about anti-lgbt bias and how you can make your curriculum LGBT-inclusive.
o o Advocate: This section walks you through assessing your school and highlight how to make simple yet effective changes in your school. Additional Resources: This section gives you additional resources that will help in your efforts to be a supportive ally and create a safe space in your school. 3. Encourage participants to please take a minute to register their kits after the workshop, refer to postcard in kit. This will allow GLSEN to provide additional resources to them. 4. Conclude by sharing again that the remainder of the workshop will take us through aspects of each of these sections to work together to increasing their knowledge and ability to support and advocate for LGBT students going forward.
KNOW THE ISSUES: What Does it Mean to be an Ally Purpose: to provide an understanding of the role and behaviors of adult allies in combating LGBT bias and supporting LGBT students. This is an important frame for participants to have as they move through the workshop activities to follow. Materials: None Time: 5 minutes 1. Ask participants what they think an ally is? 2. Drawing from their language and responses, confirm that an ally is an individual who speaks out and stands up for a person or group that is targeted and discriminated against. An ally works to end oppression by supporting and advocating for people who are stigmatized, discriminated against or treated unfairly. In this workshop and with the Safe Space kit, we are talking about allies to LGBT students. 3. Ask participants why they think it s important to be an ally to LGBT students? 4. Drawing from their language and responses, confirm that while all students are at risk of being bullied, harassed or called names at school, as we will discuss further, LGBT students face particularly hostile school environments. Visible support for these students can make a real difference in ways that will benefit the whole school. One of the most important parts of being an ally to LGBT students is making yourself known as an ally. In order to come to you for help, students need to be able to recognize you as an ally. Even if students don t come to you directly, research shows that just knowing that there is a supportive educator at school can help LGBT students feel better about being in school. Making yourself visible can be as simple a task as displaying a sticker. It can also be as involved as demonstrating and modeling supportive behaviors. 5. Conclude by reinforcing that this workshop is structured to help them feel more confident and capable in serving as allies to LGBT students.
KNOW THE ISSUES: Check Yourself: Understanding Your Own Beliefs Purpose: to encourage participants to assess their own beliefs and attitudes related to LGBT bias. Materials: Check Yourself Worksheets for each participant Time: 15 minutes 1. Introduce the activity by sharing that in anti-bias work, an important first step is to be willing to reflect on our own knowledge, attitudes and biases so that we can move forward with self-awareness and honesty. No one is born prejudice but yet we all carry some form of bias with us. We each learn sometimes subtly and sometimes not so subtly biases or stereotypes about groups of people based on their identity. So, as a first step to serving as an effective ally to LGBT students, it is critical that we all take time to reflect on those messages or attitudes that we each may carry about people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. 2. Distribute the Check Yourself Worksheet. Explain that each person should privately complete the worksheet as honestly and candidly as they can. Explain that after completion of the worksheets, you will be asking them to share at least one answer/reflection with a partner. 3. Allow participants 5-7 minutes to complete the worksheet. 4. Once everyone has completed the worksheet, ask the participants to find a partner to share at least one of their answers or personal reflection. Allow 5 minutes for this paired sharing. 5. Reconvene the group, and process the activity using some or all of the following questions. Discussion Questions: How did you feel while you were completing the worksheet? Was it hard, easy, did it make you feel uncomfortable? How did you decide what to share with your partner? As a result of completing the assessment, do you think you will do anything differently going forward either in your personal like or in your role as an educator?
KNOW THE ISSUES: Statistics Purpose: to present research findings that highlight the prevalence of anti-lgbt bias in schools and its negative impact on students educational outcomes, in order to motivate participants to take action to interrupt anti-lgbt bias and actively engage in efforts to create safer schools for all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Materials: GLSEN s Executive Summary of The 2009 National School Climate Survey as a hand-out for each participant; PowerPoint presentation. (Trainers should have a copy of the full 209 National School Climate Survey report for their reference.) Time: 15 minutes 1. Review the statistics. Keep it brief and make it as interactive as possible by asking the group questions. 2. Hand out the Executive Summary. Discussion: How are LGBT-identified students affected by different kinds of bias, harassment and bullying? Why is this so? Anything surprise you in hearing the actual numbers that have been reported?
JUST THE FACTS: Terminology Match-Up Purpose: to provide participants with a common language for discussing LGBT issues and to clarify any misunderstanding of various terms and concepts regarding gender and sexuality. Materials: Terminology Game Cards (use Essential Terminology only), PowerPoint Presentation or Overheads Time: 25 minutes 1. Prior to the activity make sure that you select the exact amount of terms with their matching definition so that each participant has a card and there are no extras. With a smaller audience you can give each person two cards but be careful that when pairing the two terms together, you also pair the same two definitions together. 2. Explain the purpose. Distribute one or two cards to each participant. 3. Ask participants to stand and find their match. Once they find their partner to sit together and discuss the term. Does it make sense? Allow about three to five minutes for this whole process. 4. As a large group review all the terms and definitions. Ask the participants to read the definition before showing it on the PowerPoint slide. 5. After all the definitions have been processed, refer the participants to pp. 40-42 of the Safe Space Kit for the full Glossary of LGBT-Related Terms. Point out that language is constantly evolving and that new terms are frequently introduced into our language (ex: mouse potato - person who spends much leisure time at a computer.) Because language is ever evolving, we are only offering working definitions. We understand that these are not perfect definitions and that some people who may relate to an identity or definition being shared may not agree with how they are being defined. We have taken these definitions from a variety of sources. Discussion Questions Are you confused by any of the terms? Are there any other terms you have heard or used that you would like to discuss? Why is it important to have clarity of terminology and language?
SUPPORT: Intervening in Anti-LGBT Name-Calling, Bullying and Harassment and Challenging Case Studies Purpose: to provide participants with an opportunity to explore ways of addressing incidents of anti-lgbt name-calling and harassment, and to build confidence in responding to these incidents. Materials: Case Studies, Case Study Worksheet or a sheet of blank paper for each group Time: 40 minutes 1. Prior to starting this activity, decide how many case studies you will have time to process. Try to keep small groups to no more than 5-7 people. 2. Open the activity by sharing that this activity will allow the participants to explore and discuss intervention strategies and effective approaches to supporting LGBT students using the information in the Guide to Being An Ally. Refer participants to pp.11-19, highlighting the many guidelines and tools offered; Reference key points especially the don t think you have to have all the answers; reinforce the learning process for us all. Rather than just reading this information, this activity will invite them to review the guidelines and tips offered in the Guide, discuss them and then apply it to case studies of scenarios that may occur in schools. 3. Divide the group into the corresponding number of case studies being presented using a count off system. Provide each small group with a case study and a Case Study Worksheet or a blank sheet of paper and a list of questions for the group to discuss. 4. Explain to the group that they will present their case study and solutions to the large group in 10-15 minutes. 5. Convene the large group and review each scenario one group at a time. Emphasize positive solutions, challenge any stereotypes, biases or negative solutions or solutions that would escalate a problem rather than deescalate the situation. Discussion Questions: Were the scenarios easier or more challenging than you thought? What did you learn from this activity?
Educate: Building a More Inclusive Environment: LGBT-Inclusive School Checklist Purpose: to provide a framework for assessing schools with regard to LGBT safety and inclusion. Materials: LGBT-Inclusive School Checklist Handout Time: 20 minutes Directions 1. Introduce this activity by sharing with participants that thus far in the workshop we have focused very much on how to support LGBT students as individuals and in primarily in a one-on-one or interpersonal capacity. Another aspect of your role as an ally is to consider the larger school environment and the work that can and should be done to make it the most welcoming and safe environment for all students, including LGBT students and their families. As discussed earlier, we all have been raised with individual biases and stereotypes that may impact how we interact with others. Similarly, our institutions are often fraught with biases sometimes subtle and sometimes not that are reflected in our policies, procedures and practices. As with the personal reflection done earlier, it takes an honest reflection and assessment of our institutions to reveal those biases that may be present and to work in a conscious and active way to address them. 2. Distribute the survey and ask participants to fill it out independently. Allow at least 10 minutes for the participants to complete the checklist. 3. If time allows, direct participants to move into small groups (or school teams, if appropriate) to discuss their answers and the areas that they feel are most critical to be addressed. 4. Reconvene and process the activity using some or all of the following questions. Note: This checklist is an effective lead-in to the Action Plan to follow, so the Discussion Questions offered below do not ask participants to reflect on next steps to address the gaps or biases discovered through the Checklist. This can be done with the Action Plan. Discussion Questions: Were there aspects of the survey that surprised you? Did the survey indicate any types of inclusion that you might never have thought about? If so, what parts? Which policies and practices at your school include LGBT people and issues? Which ones exclude LGBT people and issues? Are there policies in place that are not in practice? Why do you think this is the case?
TAKING ACTION: Action Planning Purpose: to encourage participants to reflect on and commit to specific actions to be an effective ally to LGBT students and create inclusive classrooms and schools. Requirements Materials: Action Planning Worksheets Time: 20 minutes 1. Introduce the activity by sharing that as important as everything they have done today has been, it will really only be of value if each person can commit and transfer the some level of learning back into their classrooms or schools. Thus, we hope to encourage that transfer of learning by asking you to make some specific commitments for next steps. 2. Distribute the Make Your Action Plan worksheet (or refer participants to the Action Plan form in their Kits, p. 32.) 3. Ask participants to complete the Action Plan, being as specific as possible in their ideas and action plans. 4. Process the activity using some or all of the following questions. 5. Prior to closing the activity, review pp. 35-39 with the participants, highlighting the many additional resources available to them to support them in their work as allies. Pay special note to p. 35 for the GLSEN campaigns and web-based networks that may be of interest. Discussion Questions: Ask for volunteers to share some specific action steps with the group. What do you see as some of the hurdles you may face to complete these plans? How will you address these? Are there other resources or advocates in your school or distribute who can support this effort? Who are they and how will you access them? NOTE: If time is limited, the sharing of plans can be done as part of a closing circle.
WRAP-UP & CLOSURE: Closing Circle & Feedback Forms Purpose: to bring formal closure to the workshop and provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on what they have learned. Requirements Materials: Feedback Forms Time: 10 minutes 1. Have participants form a circle, preferably standing. 2. Ask participants to share one or more of the following: a. One word that describes: how they felt coming in to workshop and one word describing how they are feeling now at the end of the program. b. Something they learned. c. Something they will use or do. 3. Thank everyone for participating and encourage them to use GLSEN as an ongoing resource. 4. Prior to adjourning, pass out Feedback Forms for completion.