A short and sweet guide to our activity finder and explanations on what our different categories of classification mean for each activity.
Activity Finder
This dandy little navigator found throughout the website is your quick navigation tool to help you find activities that are just right for what you need. Think of this as the Zappos shoe shopper for diversity educational tools. Selecting any text within the activity finder will bring you to a page that contains all the activities of that type.
Example: By selecting “10 mins” you will view only activities that we have classified as 10 minutes in length. Pretty neat right?
What the categories mean
So as you may have noticed we have classified our activities in a number of different ways. We have tried to make these classifications as straight forward and self-explanatory as possible. But just in case you’re extra curious – let us tell you what they’re all about.
Activity Type:
The where and how the majority of the time during the activity is being spent. For instance in “large group” activity the majority of the time during the activity is going to be spent working, discussing, and engaging with the entire group all at once. In a “Large Group” activity there may be times where the group is being introspective or there is a lecture but the majority of the time is going to be spent interacting with the entire group. We feel that this is the single biggest difference between the activities, and thus we have color coded activities according to their activity type.
Large Group – Engaging with the entire group
Small Group – Participants working with groups of 2-4 people
Reflective – Participants will be asked to work solo and be introspective
Guided Discussion – A discussion that weaves constant conversation and feedback from facilitator to group
Energizer – May not have a specific educational goal, and may focus on changing the energy or dynamic of the group
Housekeeping – A necessary element to the training’s smooth operation, may not have an educational goal
Lecture – The facilitator is demonstrating or illustrating a topic without much interaction from participants
Level of Knowledge
The level of knowledge that participants need to have before the activity starts.
101 – No previous knowledge (other than a familiarity with basic vocabulary) needed. You could conduct these activities with any group, anytime, anywhere and it would make sense.
201 – Some previous knowledge needed. Groups would need to have some exposure and understanding to these issues prior to this activity to understand and benefit from the activity.
301 – Advanced previous knowledge needed. This level of information is quite advanced and is for people who are really looking to dive deep into a particular subject or topic. These activities would not be conducted within an introductory training.
Trust Level
The level of trust and comfort you must have established both within the group and between the group and facilitator before you conduct the activity. Some activities can ask/require participants to share personal information, expose their bias or prejudices, or even just their knowledge and understandings of certain subjects. In order for participants to feel safe sharing and putting themselves out there it is important to build trust and understanding within a group and to build towards activities that require more personal exposure of participants.
All activities that necessitate participation do require a level of trust between participants. This initial trust is established by the maintaining of ground rules, the introduction and openness of the facilitator, and the way participants are received by each other (and the facilitator) when they first share/participate.
Low – Do not need to have additional levels of trust established between participants for individuals to feel comfortable and safe during this activity. These activities are good to conduct towards the beginning of a training or program in order to build a level of engagement and participation between participants.
Medium – Requires some previous trust established between participants. These activities will require participants share personal facts, beliefs or ideas within a small group environment or possibly even within a larger group environment. Jumping into these activities right off the bat with a new group is not advised.
High – Requires a participants feel quite comfortable and have formed relationships throughout the training with each other in order to make the most of the activity. Largely these activities will involve participants being asked to share personal thoughts, beliefs, or ideas with the entire group which is the highest level of risk and exposure for participants. These activities are best done towards the end of a training.
Note: Trust does not simply mean between the group, it also means within the settings and with the facilitator – a group of fraternity brothers may have a high level of trust within each other but trust within the training’s specific environment needs to be established too.
Length of time
Our best approximation of how long each activity will take from introduction of the activity to closing/debriefing the activity. Times are apt to vary with the individual participating group that you are working with and we encourage you to use these as a guide when planning your Safe Zone rather than as a rule. We do not encourage cutting any activity off at the time allotted if a group is enjoying, learning, and benefitting from the activity.
Category
Whether the activity is primarily focused on gender, sexuality, or both (LGBTQ). Because these are the predominant themes of the activities in Safe Zones we felt it was important to give each of these classifications their own category.
Individual Themes
What buzz words could be used to describe this activity. This classification of activities will be ever-expanding with the activity offerings themselves and will mostly feature buzz words or hot topics that specific activities will cover or touch upon. This is our way expediting your finding the activities that focus solely on bisexuality, cissexism, trans* issues, etc. without having to use the search feature.
Search
Don’t forget our little powerful search bar found under our activity finder. This nifty little tool will help you find right what you’re looking for (we hope). If it doesn’t – drop us a note – let us know what you’d like to see added to the site in order to keep that “Not found” page at bay.