The following information was taken from the Youth Development Life Skills Manual.
Prepared by: The Youth Development Global Initiative Group Peace Corps Thailand

For these notes in Thai, click here.

FORWARD AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The session plans contained in this manual are meant to provide you with meaningful and fun ways to train youth (and adults) on various life skills, including team building, communication skills and conflict resolution. One of the best ways to learn is through experience, and all the sessions honor the experiential learning cycle.

The experiential learning cycle requires the learner to progress through the four phases of a learning process. The role of the trainer is to help the learner through the process. A good trainer must have the competence to understand what goes on at each phase and to facilitate the learning process.

We hope that these sessions will provide you and your community with valuable forums for discussing important issues and learning from one another. The pages that follow will hopefully provide you with tips on facilitating groups.

This manual was compiled by the Peace Corps Thailand Youth Development Global Initiatives Group, and we thank them for their efforts and dedication. The manual has been funded through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

WHAT IS A CO-FACILITATOR?

A co-facilitator assists the community in deciding what it wants to do and then partners with the community to get the work done. As a co-facilitator, the Volunteer works jointly with Counterpart or another community member to guide the group through a process to identify and discuss goals, make decisions, and carry out tasks that positively affect their well-being. He or she models good leadership and stewardship but makes sure the decision-making rights and responsibilities remain with the community.

In some ways, the role of a facilitator is like that of an orchestra conductor. They both try to ensure that all members of the group participate and contribute their unique talents, that the group is clear on what is to be accomplished, and that the group works smoothly together. However, there are two significant differences in their roles:
(1) A conductor chooses the composition the orchestra will play, while a facilitator assists the group in deciding on their own agenda.
(2) A conductor has a set score to follow, but a facilitator needs to remain flexible and move with the group to successfully complete the group’s goals.

Facilitation is an exciting and challenging role, but it requires excellent language skills and an understanding of the local culture and community issues. As a Volunteer you are likely to have opportunities to become involved in the facilitation of meetings and other community activities, and sometimes it will be appropriate for you to “take the lead.” Much of the time, however, it is more productive to help a local person develop the skills to serve as facilitator.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD FACILITATOR
Becoming an effective facilitator requires time and experience. Learning by doing is the best way. Nevertheless, there are certain qualities that enable someone to become a good facilitator. These are outlined below:

• Trust in other people and their capacities
• Patience and good listening skills
• Self-awareness and openness to learning new things
• Confidence without arrogance
• Respect for the opinions of others, not imposing ideas
• Practice in creative and innovative thinking
• Ability to create an atmosphere of confidence among participants
• Flexibility in changing methods and sequences, not always sticking to a preset sequence
• or agenda
• Knowledge of group development including the ability to sense a group’s mood and change
• methods or adjust the program on the spot
• A good sense for the arrangement of space and materials in order to create an attractive
• physical arrangement for participants
• Skill in drawing and handwriting

[Adapted with permission from VIPP: Visualization in Participatory Programmes, p. 39. UNICEF, New York. 1993. (ICE TR124)]

FACILITATING GROUP DISCUSSION

Facilitation of group discussion is a skill that encourages the group to express and discuss its own ideas. The group is the reservoir of knowledge and creativity; the facilitator serves the group by building trust, remaining neutral, and not evaluating or contributing his or her own ideas.
Ø The role of the facilitator is to encourage the discussion, help clarify when necessary, assist the group in summarizing their ideas, and keep them “on task” and moving toward their goal. The facilitator is concerned about the process; he or she does not control the content.
Ø Facilitation requires skills in asking questions, listening and paraphrasing, and summarizing. It also demands careful attention to what is happening in the group. The facilitator may need to encourage quiet people, move the conversation away from dominant persons, and deal with disruptive persons.
Ø There is no prescription for good facilitation. That said, one good rule le is to let the group do about 95 percent of the talking.
Ø Facilitators need to be aware of how much they talk. They should not dominate the conversation or be the focal point. The diagrams below show the difference between controlling and facilitating a discussion.
Ø Facilitators need to tolerate silence—even enjoy it! Silence can mean various things: a lack of understanding of a question or of the process, confusion, thinking or reflecting, or needing time to translate ideas and language.
Ø Facilitators need to consider how the group views them. Often, non-verbal behaviors—such as nodding the head negatively, or gesturing toward a point one supports—shows the group the facilitator’s point of view of what he or she expects from the group.

SPECIFIC SKILLS FACILITATORS NEED
1. Asking Questions Facilitators use questions to help group members bring out relevant information, clarify points of view, summarize information, and draw conclusions. These types of questions are particularly useful:

• Open-ended – Can you give us some examples of…?
• Probing – Will you explain a little more about that?
• Encouraging other views – Can anyone provide another viewpoint or suggestion about this?
• Summarizing – Will someone summarize the points presented so far?

2. Listening and Paraphrasing Communication has been described as 80 percent listening and 20 percent speaking. Listening is a skill and a way of being with people. By listening actively, the facilitator tries to understand what a participant is saying, feeling, and thinking. The facilitator then checks for understanding by paraphrasing. The process of listening and paraphrasing is much like catching a ball and throwing it back. Listening and paraphrasing honor the contributions of the participants and also help to clarify issues for the group. Paraphrase starters:

• What I heard you say was…….. Is that correct?
• I think you said that…….. Is that right?
• It seems to me, your viewpoint is……. Is that stated accurately?
• You differ in opinion from Mary in that you think……. Is that right?

3. Summarizing The purpose of summarizing is to: a. pull important ideas, facts, or information together b. establish a basis for further discussion or make a transition c. review progress d. check for clarity or agreement Summarizing requires careful listening as it requires organization and systematic reporting back of information expressed. Summarized information ensures that everyone is clear about what transpired in that portion of the discussion. Wherever possible, encourage someone in the group to do the summarizing. Always ask the group or relevant members of the group “Does this summary capture your thoughts and ideas correctly?” Starter phrases for summaries:

• If I understand, you feel this way about the situation…
• There seem to be the following points of view about this…
• The group has presented these five issues so far…
• I think we agree on this decision: what we are saying is that we…

For more information on facilitation, see the Roles of the Volunteers in Development (ICE resource) manual. Good Luck!

Facilitating Team Building Activities

The central purposes of facilitation are to: enhance the quality of the learning experience, to assist clients in finding directions and sources for functional change, and to create changes that are lasting and transferable.

Things to remember when preparing to lead team-building activities: · Specify the overall goals and objectives for your team-building or team-training session. Decide how to reach additional objectives that are likely to be achieved by the activity. · Plan your briefing procedure. Decide whether to present a "lecturette" before conducting the activity. · Plan your debriefing procedure. Prepare a list of discussion questions to ensure that participants will reflect on their performance. · Anticipate possible disasters. Ask yourself a series of what-if questions. Brainstorm preventative steps and contingency plans with your co-facilitator.

During the Activity:

1. Get into the activity as quickly as possible. Keep your initial presentations and instructions to a minimum.
2. Present an outline of the important rules and steps of the activity. Assign roles to different participants and distribute the materials.
3. Warn participants that they may be confused initially. Explain that things will become clearer as the activity progresses.
4. Don't interfere with participant behaviors once the activity has begun. Remind participants of the rules when necessary. Implement time limits and other rules in a fair but flexible manner.
5. Give fun consequences as necessary when rules are broken. The consequences should be light-hearted but should also force the participants to rethink their plan, or to discover a way to deal with the consequence and not let it affect the success of the activity.
6. Move smoothly from one stage of the activity to the next.
7. Bring the activity to a definite conclusion at the end of the assigned time period or when the goal is achieved and lead a debriefing discussion.

Debriefing: The debriefing section is a very important part of the activity! The value of a team building exercise is unveiled during the discussion, or “debriefing” that takes place afterwards. During the debriefing process, participants share opinions, discuss ideas, create action plans, and begin the process of personal growth. Although debriefing is a common teambuilding term and practice, debriefing is a great way to teach valuable lessons about sportsmanship, sharing, compassion, and many other “teachable moments.” Facilitators ask participants for their opinion and refrain from making statements to participants. In this way, participants learn to think for themselves. In a debrief discussion, participants are asked to reflect on their experiences and to discuss points of learning that they believe took place.
In debriefing the experience, a facilitator would foster a group discussion concerning the details, analysis, and evaluation of the group’s behavior following activity completion. Sample questions might include: What happened? What was the impact of this? How did that make you feel? What did you learn from this? How was this activity like real life? What will you do differently next time? What did your group do well? What problems did your group have? How did you solve these problems? How did your group communicate? How did you feel during the activity? What role did you play in the activity? Did everyone give ideas and participate? If not, why not? A simple debriefing strategy may include asking three simple questions:

• What happened during this activity?
• So What? (Why are the answers to question 1 important? What do they teach or show you?)
• Now What? (Where do you go from here? What are you going to do with the things you learned?)

Simple Debriefing Techniques to use with Youth

Roses and Thorns Debrief
Gather the children into a circle. Tell the campers that they should come up with a rose and a thorn for the day or the activity they just completed...

Rose - something good that happened/they liked doing or saw etc..
Thorn- something they did not enjoy/ disapproved etc..

You can also change the two categories:
Apples and Onions
Candy and Vegetables Thumbs Up, Down, Middle This activity is a very valuable way to encourage participation in the debriefing part of your teambuilding activity for a couple of reasons:

• It allows participants to see how opinions of a particular experience vary greatly in the group.
• It provides the facilitator with an opportunity to focus the group discussion on a particular topic.

1) Have the group stand in a circle, facing each other.

2) Instruct them to place one hand behind there backs.

3) On the count of three, they will make either a "Thumbs Up", "Thumbs Down", or "Thumb in the Middle" sign with their hand.

In this example, the signs represent "how the group worked together as a whole."

Thumbs up means the group functioned perfectly: took time to plan, listened to everyone's ideas, no one argued, everyone participated in a positive fashion, etc.

Thumbs down means that the group did not function well as a team at all: there were lots of arguments, no planning, inappropriate communication, etc.

Thumbs in the Middle means that the group did well, but there is room for improvement.

4) Once you explain the "thumbs" scale, count to three, and have everyone present their thumbs and keep them in front of their bodies.

5) Ask the group to go around the circle and discuss one specific example why they chose the way they did. TAKE A STAND Draw Line in the Sand. Make a statement about the activity or about the debriefing topic that the participants are required to take a stand on. Participants move to either side of the line depending on if they agree or disagree with the statement.

RATE THE ACTIVITY With one hand behind their back, each participant rates the activity (or an aspect of the activity) from one to five. A rating of 1 indicates that there was nothing positive about the activity at all. A rating of 5 indicates that the activity went as well as it possibly could and there is no room for improvement. On the count of three, each participant moves their hand from behind their back and holds it out in front of them to show the rest of the group how they rated the activity. Starting with those who have 1 finger raised, ask each participant to explain why they rated the activity as they did. This technique allows for everyone to be involved in the debrief of an activity. It is used to show varying opinions within the group and is a good beginning for discussion since participants will comment on different aspects of the activity. SACRED STONE

Use a stone or other such object. Make a rule that the only person who can speak is the one with the stone. All others must actively listen. Ask broad questions about the activity and ask participants to express their opinions.