Section 3: Consent & Sexual Violence Training Guide
Section 3: Consent & Sexual Violence Training Guide
Facilitation Considerations
It is recommended that the facilitators for this training be experienced with trauma-informed approaches to sexual violence and connect this knowledge to specific facilitation skills to enhance the safety and learning of the audience. Facilitators should also be familiar with decolonizing, intersectional, and inclusive approaches to sexual violence and consent. If these are areas where facilitators need more knowledge, they should spend roughly 2-3 hours going through the recommended resources below. Regardless of audience, it is crucial that facilitators acquaint themselves with these bodies of knowledge in order to hold a relatively safe space for adult learner engagement on the topic of sexual violence.
It is also recommended that facilitators allocate at least 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after the training delivery for preparation and to be explicitly available to answer individual questions or inquiries from learners after the training delivery. After the training, facilitators are encouraged and, if needed, to debrief the positive takeaways and areas of growth (if any) from the experience with a peer or supportive person (see examples of debriefing questions in Section 2: Self-Care and Community Care).
General Principles of Trauma-informed Facilitation
- Emotional safety of learners
- Cultural humility
- Awareness of power dynamics in the room
In addition to sections 1 and 2 of this guide that refer to best practices in trauma- informed facilitation, we would like to offer the three principles mentioned above to guide the essence of this workshop’s facilitation. We recommend that you consider each of these principles as you prepare to create a safe environment for all learners.
If possible, we encourage you to inquire about learners’ backgrounds before the training (e.g., demographics, area of study, roles/relationships in the group). This information will provide you with the opportunity to prepare and adjust the content, materials and resources to be shared with learners. This will also give you the opportunity to examine your role in relationship to the learners.
As a facilitator, it is imperative to model honesty, openness/lack of judgement and humility when delivering a trauma-informed training that will examine personal and societal values. We encourage you to see this as an opportunity to facilitate a space that welcomes vulnerability and supports diverse experiences. During the training, we encourage you to name the challenges present in some discussions or information and to celebrate this as a learning opportunity and make yourself available for direct check-ins with learners.
Resources for facilitators to learn about trauma-informed facilitation:
Facilitating Discussion about Consent
As a facilitator, you will want to consider how to tailor the topic of consent and sexual violence to different audiences and contexts. In addition to helping learne