All Think Again events have an element of skills building. When your main goal is to help your group put their social justice understanding into practice, this is the page to look at. Since skills-based trainings often involve hands-on practice, they tend to require at least 4 hours.

Archaeology of Oppression – Uncovering our Unconscious Learnings

This workshop uses reflection, discussion and expressive arts activities to explore early learnings, assumptions and unconscious biases about social groups. The facilitators create a supportive and blame-free environment where participants can discover how oppression sneaks into their thought processes. Participants leave the workshop empowered with a set of tools to interrogate their assumptions and take responsibility for their beliefs. Depending on the group’s goals, this workshop can focus on a specific topic (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class) or take a broader approach. It can be adapted to be appropriate for groups of any age & experience level.

Communicating Across Difference (An Introduction to Dialogic Communication Techniques)

One of the most powerful ways to learn about social justice issues is simply to talk with each other openly in a diverse group. Of course, that’s not always as simple as it sounds. Differences in communication style among individuals and across cultures can make already-loaded topics even more difficult to talk about. This workshop introduces simple communication strategies that anyone to use to listen and speak more effectively about hot button issues. Participants begin using the new techniques right away as the facilitator leads them in a dialogue about a real issue that is salient for that group.

Supporting Survivors of Sexual Assault (Peer Counseling Skills)

For peer counselors, RAs, or community members who do not provide ongoing counseling, but may be the first point of support for someone who has experienced sexual assault in their campus or community. Participants will practice basic peer counseling skills, discuss appropriate boundaries for peer counseling situations, and identify self-care tools to make their work sustainable. This workshop is completely LGBT-inclusive, and if needed can include an additional component focused on building cultural competency for supporting LGBT survivors.

Collaborative Leadership: Working Together to Make Stuff Happen

Does your student group have great ideas, and struggle to implement them? Do you have lots of enthusiastic members, but the same few people always end up doing all the work? Do interpersonal or political differences sometimes get in the way of getting stuff done?

Effective leadership and collaboration don’t happen automatically. There are specific skills, tools and techniques that can help you move your group from good intentions to coordinated, sustainable action.
This interactive workshop creates opportunities for student leaders to reflect on their own passions, skills, and leadership styles, and to explore and practice concrete tools for leadership in student groups.

Participants learn structures for decision making, delegating roles and responsibilities, building alliances, maintaining accountability and boundaries, and facilitating meetings. After this workshop, participants will have a plan for bringing their learnings back to the group, and working together to make stuff happen.