How to Facilitate Frank Discussions of Hard Issues by Diverse Participants
by the adult and youth leaders of the Future Leaders, Future Changes program of the North Carolina Racial Justice Program

• Be sensitive to issues of time, place, and display of affluence at meetings. For example, poor people will be hindered from participating if meetings are held when they are at work, if there is no child care, if transportation to the site is difficult for those without cars, if the site is too plush.

• To best encourage participation, facilitators/group leaders in homogeneous groups should have the same identities as the group, i.e. race, class, gender, age, etc. In diverse groups, facilitators/group leaders should be drawn from the groups least likely to participate (usually the groups with least power). Thus mixed groups will have the widest participation if they are led by women, people of color, poor people, young people, sexual minorities, etc.

• Generate a tone of openness and relaxation, without physical barriers like tables between people. Arrange people in circles; provide a site where people can sit on the floor instead of chairs if they choose; have leaders dress informally. (Note: this sends an unspoken message of equality and may create some unease among people in the traditionally dominant groups who are more comfortable in hierarchical settings.)

• To begin the discussion, the facilitators should model whatever they would like the participants to do: revealing themselves if they want others to do that, talking frankly about hard issues, talking about times when they were confused and didn't "have it all together" if they want to move people away from hard-line positions to exploring new possibilities, telling about mistakes they've made if they want people to take risks. These stories must be relatively brief or the discussion will become facilitator-dominated, rather than participatory.

• Having small group discussions prior to large group discussions will sometimes allow people who don't tend to speak in large groups to organize their thoughts and more actively participate.

• Information about traditionally oppressed groups has often been used against them. Ask people's permission to take notes, record, or tape, explaining how that informaton will be used and who will have access to it. Record notes on flip charts so everyone can see the process, and encourage speakers to make any corrections of meaning and wording.

• When taking notes, respect people's exact words. Remember that people's words grow out of their culture and experiences, and any time we paraphrase, filtering/editorializing by the note-taker creeps in.

• Be sensitive to the existence of a majority or predominant point of view-there almost always is one-and don't let that point of view set the parameters of the discussion (defining the issue, excluding related issues, defining "success"). Try to arrange that the minority or traditionally oppressed group's point of view is heard first, and is not silenced during the discussion.

• To encourage authentic discussion, propose a definition of a "safe space" which is NOT defined as a place where no one is challenged or where no one says anything that will hurt anyone's feelings. Propose instead a safe space where anyone can bring anything to the table and there is a group commitment to understanding and engaging issues, listening to people's experiences, and validating diverse points of view.

• Propose to the group that at times it may be useful to leave space for silence between speakers so that everyone can absorb and reflect on what has been said.

• Suggest up front to participants from traditionally dominant groups that they may have to think twice about their first reaction to information coming from oppressed groups, that they should try listening again, and going past their initial responses to further engagement and understanding.

• In difficult discussions, the facilitator's primary challenge may be how to affirm participants and their common interests without squelching frank discussion of differences.

• In many of the most successful discussions among diverse participants, the struggles and conflicts over issues, history, tactics, etc. are productively sustained by an explicitly stated underlying commitment to relationship and community building.

- Editor's Note: The Future Leaders, Future Changes program, operated by the North Carolina Racial Justice Program,
directed by Terry Austin, Piedmont Friends Fellowship, is a group of middle school youth, college mentors and adult leaders who meet weekly to discuss issues of social concern. This list was compiled collaboratively by members of that weekly group.
(This material was used by Atlanta Meeting in their work on looking at racism.)

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