Narrative thread

These are the Macro-Themes that will form what we call the Narrative Thread or the Conducting Thread. The facilitators should think about where they will start from and where they want to go, always keeping in mind the main objective of the Gincana.

It is important to take into consideration the expertise, skills, and knowledge of the facilitators involved, as well as the demands, needs, and desires of the participants and their collectives, so that the Gincana is inserted in a larger strategy of support for activists and strengthening of the field of HRDs and digital care.

Think about how the Macro-Themes and themes will be approached and can collaborate with each other, providing a path of learning and exchanges, which in the end will give meaning to the whole. These themes do not need to be dependent on each other, but can have connections, be complementary, or even deepen the themes presented.

Example of a Narrative Thread

Week 1 - "Star Monsters Against Capital"

Macro-theme: Recognition of the group, creation of bonds, creation of a common language, and of the values that will guide the group.

Weeks 2 and 3 - "Infrastructure of Affection”

Macro-theme: Contextualizing the group about discussions around what makes up technological infrastructures, where we are, and where we want to be in these infrastructures.

Weeks 4 and 5 - "Messengers of a new world"

Macro-theme: How communication tools, from messengers to websites, work and how we can strategically use them.

Weeks 6 and 7 - "Opening Codes: Sustainability and the next generations”

Macrotheme: Developing expertise in project writing and facilitating learning processes.

Week 8 - "Celebration”

Macro-theme: Partying and celebrating is also very important for us! Creation and strengthening of feminist solidarity networks for existence and permanence of life and struggles.

We suggest that the facilitators work each Macrotheme following the following Structure:

• Main Sessions + Deepening or Practical Sessions + Workshops + Aláfias.

By clicking here you can see an example of how the complete structure of a Monster Gincana with 8 weeks duration and 4 Macrothemes plus Microthemes could look like:

Following a modular logic, the facilitators can add more sessions to this structure as needed. Thus, they can have, for example, 2 or 3 sessions, 2 or more extra activities, depending on the complexity of the subject explored. In this way, each macro-theme, or time cycle, repeats this structure.
The duration of each cycle or macro-theme can take as long as is interesting and necessary for the group. It can happen in a single day, it can be divided into a week, with days in between activities, or it can be even longer, with weeks in between activities. This choice is made by the facilitators and according to the intention of the Gincana.

Reminder

It is important to remember that the longer the space of time between the activities, the greater the need for the facilitators to keep the participants engaged. For this, they can use the groups on messengers, email lists, and other tools that make sense for the group. These spaces can also function as places to exchange experiences, clarify doubts, send activities, etc.
Among the participants, these tools can be used to promote greater engagement and collaboration with the organizers, who can send music, references, games, new articles about interesting subjects, photos, to keep the group's mood curious and participatory.
For facilitators who are interested in a specific activity, it is possible to use only the script of the activity/session of interest. Combine some of the activities/sessions or use the suggested structure in full Main Sessions + In-Depth or Practical Sessions + Workshops + Aláfias.

Tip

In addition, it is possible within the extra sessions to approach other subjects such as activities dedicated to self-care or collective care, for example. One suggestion is the mediated conversation rounds, in which it is possible to talk about how the participants, and also the facilitators, are feeling with the Gincana experience when faced with a high volume of new information and experiences.
Another possibility are the sessions of stress reduction and relief technique for women, so that they can have contact and experience a technique that helps to release pains and tensions that we accumulate in the body. It is also possible to include sessions of other technologies that bring pleasure and/or good reflections about wisdom, self-esteem, frustration, and other feelings that we may encounter when we venture into new learning, especially technological learning. In other words, the possibilities are endless and it's worth exploring the skills that facilitators have beyond knowledge in digital care :)

At the next page there is a script with suggestions for activities to facilitate the choice and construction of the Macro and Micro Themes to be explored during a Gincana. This script was developed in a face-to-face meeting, but can easily be adapted to an online format. The ideal is that all the people who are building and who will facilitate the content of the Gincana should participate.