workshop 12

Forging a mission

overview

This workshop is the last in this sequence, but by no means the last you will run (we hope).

By now, you will know each other better, and have settled into a supportive and more relaxed way of being with each other. It’s a good moment to look outwards and think about a wider purpose for the group.

In this workshop, you will forge a mission together that will help you take some action to bring about positive change in your community.

YOU WILL NEED

• Post-it notes saved from Workshop 3

• Post-it notes in 3 colours

SET-UP

For this workshop, you will need one large central table or desks pushed together, with everyone sat round it

check-in

If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be?

Take a few minutes to write a description of your superhero and superpowers, or draw them in your journals, then go round and share.

These can be as silly or as serious as you like – it could be that your superhero combats discrimination, or they could be able to change their hair colour at will.

creative activity: golden circle

This Golden Circle exercise is a helpful tool for coming up with a mission or project idea as a group.

Begin by introducing the purpose of the activity – that this is the first stage of coming up with a group mission and project idea that could benefit the wider community.

WHYs

The centre of your circle will be your ‘WHY’ – the reasons for doing something, the problems you want to help solve, the things you want to change.

If you have saved them from Workshop 3, take out the post-it notes from Workshop 3, where you wrote struggles that the group / people their age are facing at the moment. put these in a cluster at the centre of the table. Remind yourselves of them together and add or take away from them as needed.

If you don’t have the post-its from Workshop 3, ask the group to write on post-it notes in the same colour, some issues or problems facing you as individuals, you as a group, or more generally what’s affecting your peers at the moment. Stick them in the centre of the table.

Examples of WHYs could be: struggles with eating, sexism in school, work-related stress and pressure, body image insecurities, etc. There are no right or wrong answers, and encourage everyone to put in as many as they can think of.

HOWs

Next, using different colour post-its, surround the WHYs with HOWs – ways that you could change things for the better or begin to solve the problems you’ve identified.

These can be general and big-picture, rather than practical or super-specific. Examples of WHYs could be: support for mental health, opportunities to relax, better SRE, peer-to-peer mentoring.

WHATs

Finally, think about what you could do as a group, within real-world limitations. These are your WHATs and should form the outer circle in another different colour.

Again, all ideas are valid here. This is a chance for you to encourage activism and leadership in each other.

Examples of WHATs could be: a video or social media campaign about a particular issue, inviting a speaker in or running an event, creating a petition.

MISSION

Finally, look over your golden circle together and select one strand to focus on next term, following through from WHY through HOW to WHAT. Your chosen WHAT could be something you can focus on putting into action next term.

This will require some group negotiation and may need another session to continue the discussion. It is advisable to keep the focus narrow and select only one WHAT to plan in the short-to-medium term, but you can save other WHYs, HOWs and WHATs for the future.

discussion prompts

WHY prompts

• What are the problems are you facing at the moment?

• What are the challenges for students your age?

• What do you wish was different or better?

HOW prompts

• How could x problem be improved?

• What is the need here?

• What changes or support might help you deal with struggles?

WHAT prompts

• What can you imagine doing as a group to help?

• What aspect of this could you tackle together?

• What is a practical way you could begin to solve this issue?

Here are some examples of a group of related WHYs linking through to ideas for HOWs and WHATs:

WHYs:

• body image insecurities

• pressure to look Instagram-perfect

• unrealistic beauty standards

links to

HOWs:

• access to a more diverse range of role models

• visibility for a wider range of body types

• education about the origins of beauty standards in a sexist, racist ideals

• self-care that shows kindness to our bodies

• self-expression that celebrates our uniqueness

links to

WHATs:

• a video campaign, assembly or peer-to-peer workshop, challenging unrealistic beauty standards and examining their origins

• a lunch time event every half term where students can come and practice self-care activities together

• a competition for self-portraits or photography that celebrate diversity and uniqueness – this could then form an exhibition

check-out

Revisit your individual superpowers, then think about what superpowers you would like as a group.

Give everyone a few minutes to write down a description or draw a picture of the group as a team of superheroes, or simply write down a group superpower.

Share and discuss how this workshop has made you feel, as individuals and as a group.

Further reading / thinking

Inspiring activism

This workshop could be an opportunity to discuss activism going on around the world, or in your local community. You could discuss:

• Black Lives Matter and the global response to the murder of George Floyd and other Black people at the hands of the police.

• Climate protests around the world, perhaps spotlighting Greta Thunberg as an inspiration for young people and the neurodiverse community.

• Campaigns related to gender-based violence and discrimination – including the #MeToo campaign, the protests responding to the murder of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, and trans rights campaigns.

Be Her Lead’s mission

The Golden Circle is an exercise we have used as an organisation, but it can be applied to group projects, or individual goal-setting; watch Simon Sinek’s TED Talk explaining the thinking behind it.

If you would like to encourage the group to feel connected to Be Her Lead’s mission, you could show them our Theory of Change below, which lays out our mission and was developed using the Golden Circle exercise.

You could go on to create your own version of this in a future workshop.