A Mural of Mentors and Ancestors
1 Hr
This is an activity in which the participants create a visual tribute to the ancestors and mentors who have helped shaped them as activists and feminists, and in which they reflect together on leadership and facilitation qualities needed for feminist movement building.
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Active Listening
45min-1hr
Conflicts are exacerbated by poor communication. Active listening skills help people learn how to listen and ask questions to clarify their understanding of another person’s ideas, feelings and points of view. It is a mutual process that helps people express themselves more clearly, listen more attentively and avoid misunderstandings that lead to conflict.
Breathing for Wellbeing and Calm
5min-1 Hr
The health of body, mind and heart is continuously affected by trauma, violence, stress, fear, diet, environment, daily news, and the challenges of life.The following simple exercises are offered for use at times when we feel stressed, distressed, overwhelmed or scattered. These tools are for all of us, whether we are survivors of trauma, activists confronting injustice and oppression, caregivers working with others or persons overwhelmed and stressed by daily life.
Checklist for Choosing an Issue
2-3 Hr
Through problem analysis, groups identify a variety of causes of a problem that can potentially be solved through political action. These are called “issues”, which is used as an easy description of the specific aspects of a problem that action and advocacy addresses. For example, the problem of gender violence needs to be broken down into narrower pieces such as domestic violence, workplace harassment, rape, etc. so we can focus our solutions.
Checklist for Planning Citizen Mobilization
Mobilizing community members is a vital part of advancing our agendas and rights and in holding decision-makers accountable. This checklist helps an organization think through the type, timing, capacity and focus of its citizen mobilization given its goals and context.
Communication and ICTs for Feminist Movement Building
Varies
Activists around the world use information and communications technologies (ICTs) as part of movements for transformative change. The following resources will help you think about your communications strategy from a movement building perspective so you are more impactful, creative and safer.
Contextual Analysis
3-4 Hr
This activity can be used for many purposes: informing strategy, mapping power dynamics in our social and political landscape, and laying groundwork for risk assessment and planning.
Creating A Safe Space
1 Hr+
To create a safe space, collectively defined by participants in which they can bring their ‘full selves’, ensure mutual learning is possible and risk is mitigated.
Dealing with Gender Dynamics and Stereotypes in Conflicts: Analysis and Approaches
3 Hr+
Understanding how sexism and patriarchy works deeply on our psyches and affects the way we see and deal with conflicts is crucial to addressing them effectively. It helps us develop both our power and capacity as individuals and as groups to respond to them productively. This understanding also helps us tap into the kinds of self-care we need personally and the solidarity and support that we need in our organizations and movements to deal with conflicts and transform them.
Dealing with Threats, Risks, and Safety
Throughout the world, women activists are on the frontline of defending and advancing human rights and, as such, face the direct backlash and violence associated both with challenging misogyny and advancing struggles for social justice. Certain contexts and political moments are more dangerous than others. Being able to analyze these contexts and threats, assess risks and develop protection plans are important skills both for survival and empowerment. Women activists highlight a variety of tools and steps for dealing with danger and risk. These often include: a) contextual analysis, b) identification of threatening incidents, c) threat analysis and risk assessment and d) development of a protection plan for personal, family and community security.
Dealing with Threats, Risks, and Safety Session 2: Identification and Analysis of Security Incidents
This is a process to identify and analyze incidents where women’s security has been threatened. It enables a group to gather important information to help assess potential risks to them, their work and organizations.
Dealing with Threats, Risks, and Safety Session 3: Threat Risk Analysis and Risk Assessment
This session is designed to help activists and organizations identify and analyze the nature of threats in order to assess risk and inform protection plans.
Dealing with Threats, Risks, and Safety Session 4: Developing a Protection and Security Plan
3-4 Hr+
The creation of protection and security plans for either individuals or organizations.
Defining Power and its Sources
60–75 min
This activity is designed to introduce the concept of power by exploring people’s existing ideas of power, generating a common definition and beginning to think about different kinds and sources of power. This is a quick way to begin to explore participants’ views of power
Different Kinds of Feminism
By reviewing different types of feminism, people gain an understanding of the range of feminisms that have emerged since the 1960s and how their different approaches respond to problems of patriarchy and power.
Feminisms - Different Meanings
60-75 Mins
By examining multiple meanings of feminism, people develop a fuller appreciation of its different interpretations and the backlash and power dynamics that get triggered in response. This examination can deepen people’s exploration of the reasons behind the negative attitudes toward feminism and of the variations that exist so they can develop their own definition.
Feminist Activist Leadership
2 Hr
This activity is designed to help inform and broaden participant’s reflections on feminist movement building and the principles that underpin feminist activist leadership by sharing insights from the African Feminist Charter.
Feminist Leadership: Key Definitions
90min-2Hr
Discussing various definitions of leadership allows women and men to appreciate the different contributions of feminist perspectives and practice as they relate to leadership for social change.
Friends, Foes and Forces: A SWOT Analysis
3 Hr
A SWOT analysis enables a group to assess the internal and external factors that may hinder or facilitate your group’s advocacy strategy in order to refine your goals, objectives, and activities.
Good Women/Bad Women
90 Min
Society works in ways that divide us. At one level, this is done by establishing a set of rules about what ‘women’ (and ‘men’) should and should not do. When we do not play by those societal rules, we are seen as different and not a part of our communities. We start thinking that those who are different in some way or don’t play by the rules are not ‘good’ women. But playing by the rules does not keep us safe or guarantee that we get the things we need to be healthy and fulfilled so we need to question this division and categorisation. We need to ask what it means for our movement building work - if we only collaborate and mobilise with people who ‘look’ or act like us, can we be strong? Can we create a world where everyone is safe and welcome? How can we work together, creating alliances that complement our diverse strengths and capacities?