Story circle on online GBV [deepening activity]

This activity allows participants to reflect upon and share experiences of online GBV.

About this learning activity

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This activity allows participants to reflect upon and share experiences of online GBV.

A safe space is the main prerequisite for this activity, and some quiet time for the participants to reflect.

This activity happens in two stages:

It is important to note here that this Story Circle is not for the purposes of therapy. Being able to tell your story, even anonymised, has some therapeutic effects, but it should be made clear that this is not the purpose of the Story Circle. If you are dealing with a group that you know has experienced online GBV, especially if there are people in the group who have very recent experiences, you can either make sure that there is someone in the facilitating team who can provide therapy, or skip this learning activity, if you don't think you can handle the participants being re-traumatised.

Learning objectives this activity responds to

Who is this activity for?

This activity can be carried out with participants with different levels of understanding and experience of online GBV.

It is important to know before doing this activity if there are participants whose experience of online GBV is current or fresh, as this activity might be a cause for stress for them. Knowing who your participants are, and also knowing what you as a trainer / facilitator can handle is important before considering this activity.

It is equally important for you, as a trainer / facilitator, to be honest about what you can and cannot hold. This activity is NOT recommended for situations where:

Based on the experience of story circle facilitators, it is ideal to have two facilitators for this activity.

Time required

Assuming that each participant will need about five minutes to tell their stories, and about 30 minutes will be needed to collectively reflect, plus some leeway to give instructions, then with a standard workshop size of 12, you will need a minimum of 100 minutes for this activity.

This suggested time for this activity does not include well-being activities that might be needed to address re-traumatisation of participants, or to take a break when needed. Ideally, for standard group size, holding this activity for half a day (4 hours, including breaks) would be sufficient to include well-being breaks and activities.

Resources needed for this activity


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Mechanics

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This activity has two stages:

During the Reflection Time stage, the participants are given 30 minutes to reflect upon a real-life example of online GBV. They can choose to tell their own experience or someone else's. Even if they are telling their own story, everyone is encouraged to anonymise their story. They should tell one story each.

In order to facilitate reflection, the participants may use the following guide questions to write down their story:

Facilitation Note: These are guide questions, and participants don't need to answer all of them. They are just there to help them articulate their stories.

Anonymising stories

Participants are encouraged to anonymise their stories, even if the story is theirs:

Once everyone has written down their stories, gather the participants in a circle.

Lay down the rules for this story circle. It would be good to also have these written down where everyone can see it and reiterate this message.

The point here is to create a safe space for people to share their stories.

Let everyone know that no one is being compelled to share their stories.

Open up the circle for stories.

Care Note: Think about ways in which to open and close the story circle that honours the stories shared. Some suggestions:
Open with a breathing exercise, close with a breathing exercise
Have a bowl of stones or shells that people can choose to hold, to close the story circle, have everyone put the stones or shells back in a bowl

Then close the circle once the stories have been told. In closing the circle, do something to acknowledge the stories shared and strength of the storytellers.

Depending on the type of participants, and what you are comfortable with, you can:

Note: It is essential to have a break for the participants to decompress on their own before summarising the activity.

Then the trainer/facilitator summarises the stories based on the following themes:

Facilitator preparation notes

This is not an activity for every trainer/facilitator. Or for every kind of participant.

If you don't think you can handle this, then choose another Learning Activity. Being able to admit what you can and cannot handle as a trainer/facilitator will only make you a better one – and capable of creating safe spaces for training.

This activity also requires a lot of trust between the facilitator and the participants. This requires mental and emotional preparation for the participants. This is not recommended as a starting activity, especially if the participants are not prepared for it.

Some guidelines to follow, if you do choose to use this learning activity:

Read the section on handling emotional situations in the Holistic Security Training Guide.

Facilitation Note: How do you keep to time and respect the storyteller?
Remember, that this activity is about opening up a space for participants to share and reflect upon experiences of online GBV towards understanding the issue a bit more. So while you might want to give the participants more time than 5 minutes to share their stories, you will also have to determine a time limit so that everyone can have the chance to share their stories (if they so choose), and equally important, to have space to reflect on each others stories. Time-keeping is essential to that. It is important that you let the participants know why you are time-keeping.

There are several tactics to gently remind people of that. Here are some:


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Revision #7
Created 15 April 2023 21:28:47 by Kira
Updated 27 June 2023 12:43:16 by Kira