Are you looking to help others learn, by teaching or facilitating conversations, about LGBTQ+ identities, gender & sexuality, or inclusion & allyship? Our goal is for The Safe Zone Project to have everything you need!
We have activities & curricula (with exercises, lesson plans, and all the handouts and participant packets you need), training resources (things like evaluations, edugraphics, and other housekeeping things), and lots of articles about facilitation & pedagogy.
Few different ways. (1) Reach out to universities/colleges in your local area to see if they offer Safe Zone training. They may also call it ally training, safer spaces training, or a myriad of other names. When you reach out describe what you’re looking for, i.e. “a foundational LGBTQ+ inclusion workshop” rather than a specific… Read more »
An academy for aspiring Safe Zone facilitators and a bunch of tools and resources for training trainers coming your way
Because we know this conversation needs to keep going.
Email us! Seriously. We create everything on this website so that people have better resources, and if you’re looking for a resource likely someone else is too! So let us know what you need, we’d love to hear from you.
Nope! Much of the content and structure of these activities exists in what we think of as “the commons,” or the collective knowledge and wisdom of educators who have been doing gender and sexuality education/activism for a long time. Most of the activities exist out there already in multiple iterations and variations, and we (Meg… Read more »
A 101 activity is one where the participants/learners do not need any prior knowledge in order for the activity to go well and for them to learn/get something out of the activity. However, those with prior knowledge will still likely benefit! On the other hand, a 201 activity requires some prior familiarity with the topic… Read more »
This combo activity invites participants to deeply engage with privilege and segues into a conversation about the coming out process.
A mini explanation of queer, LGBTQ. A useful place to start helping folks separate genders from sexualities.
Set your training up for success by beginning with shared group expectations.
Yes, it 100% is. And there are no catches. For serious. We get it. The way we do things is a little, well, different. A lot of people have grown to expect curriculum to cost hundreds of dollars to use, and to come with a lot of caveats, usage restrictions, and hoops to jump through. A lot… Read more »
Heck. Yes. Our curricula, activities, and resources are all uncopyrighted, and reasons like this are WHY THAT IS SO EXCITING FOR US. So you have our permission 100%. Here’s one word of caution: people often think they need to customize our Foundational Curriculum for a ton of reasons (their group is more “advanced,” or older, or… Read more »
Tips for how-to, when, and how-not-to ask for someone’s pronouns.
Nope. Our curriculum is evidence-informed, but not evidence-based. Here’s why: We tweak the curriculum several times a year based on changes in culture, research, and feedback from facilitators. We overhaul the curriculum every year (including frequent substantive changes to the structure, or replacing activities) Our curriculum is used in over 100 countries in more capacities… Read more »
Adding a little silver lining to the storm cloud that is 2017.
It would create a problematic power relationship, add to a specific problem we’re trying to solve, and is simply beyond our capacity.
Nope! Not just for universities. While Safe Zone programs are concentrated in higher education (and often at four-year universities in particular), there are organizations in all different fields who have and are starting Safe Zone programs. There are Safe Zone programs and folks conducting Safe Zone workshops in: Hospitals & medical schools Small local non-profits… Read more »
It’s birthday #3 and we’ve got a new 3.0 curriculum to match!
Creating an opportunity for people to ask the questions they’re afraid to ask — with less risk.
A handout (and handy activity) for demystifying coming out as well as some easy do and don’ts when it comes to supporting someone’s coming out process.
Nope! We actually don’t offer certifications anyhow, so you can’t be certified by us. Our curriculum is provided here for your use — no strings attached.
Yes yes yes! Please do. Everything is uncopyrighted, and we did that for YOU. No need to ask permission, but we would appreciate you sharing back anything cool you make, so we can spread the word.
Yes! One of our goals for this project is to turn it into the go-to resource online for sexuality and gender education activities, so we’d like to add as many as possible. If you have a great activity we don’t already have on the site, drop us a line. No guarantees we’ll add it, and… Read more »
Meet the newest member of the Safe Zone Project toolbox – Unlocking the Magic of Facilitation
Activity for participants to reflect on their early lessons and impressions of trans* people and identity.
The world keeps changing and so do the words that we use to describe it.
This activity focuses in on the essential vocabulary and LGBTQ terminology relating to gender and sexuality.
Highlighting the pervasiveness of stereotypes, as well as their inability to accurately tell individuals’ stories
An activity that will provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on their first understandings and assumptions of LGBTQ individuals.
How to get feedback from your participants! Guaranteed.
This activity helps participant investigate privilege by inviting them to identify what privileges they find personally important.
To make the biggest impact it’s important to stick the ending.
An activity to get to know common (and some less common) LGBTQ related vocabulary!
The best way to get better.
How to redirect a someone in a social justice conversation without shutting them down
The importance of responding to the group’s needs, checking in with individual members, and how to pick up what they’re putting down
How a style of question asking and digging in for more information can bring your workshop to new heights
The HOWs and WHYs of something that is simply a MUST if you want to continuously improve as a facilitator
Responding to the request to speak on behalf of all [blank] people
The importance of putting your personal spin on any curriculum you facilitate
How facilitation and social justice are like peanut butter and educational jelly
Some things you do (not) need to know before you start your journey as an all-star social justice facilitator
Exploring the concept of identity from an important perspective: when it matters more, and when it goes unnoticed
There are lots of different moments where we get thrown off our metaphoric game. Let’s prepare for those moments before they happen. Together.
An experiment in empathizing with a hypothetical person’s experiences, struggles, and setbacks with the lifelong process that is coming out.
Using the Genderbread Person as a guide, the activity leads participants to understand the important difference between gender, sex, and sexual orientation.
A lecture to help participants become more aware of and sensitive to asexuality.
An opportunity for participants to work through how they would handle particular situations regarding gender, sexuality and LGBTQ issues.
This activity creates the opportunity to for participants to ask what they are most interested in with anonymity.
An activity that provokes reflection on the different aspects of your life that would be altered if you identified with a different sexuality or gender identity.
This activity focuses on what are our salient identities in particular circumstances. How do our different identities intersect, interact, and affect our daily lives.
An essential component to any workshop, intros are when participants learn a little bit about you, and you a little bit about them.
This tiny activity demonstrates how changing your perspective can make something look completely different!
Getting started with your curriculum is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
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