Debrief Protocol for Facilitators

This protocol is intended to help facilitators and coordinators of community conversations to debrief after a community event and think about what they might like to do differently or keep the same next time. In total, this protocol takes 50 minutes.

REFLECTIONS (15 MINUTES)

Go around and invite each person to share a highlight of the meeting.
Invite people to share moments of strong facilitation that they saw from others. (This does not have to be a circle; it could be more informal.)
Invite people to share observations or concerns they had.
Ask, “Did we raise marginalized voices in the meeting? Did we challenge imbalances of power and privilege?”

FACILITATION CHALLENGES & BRAINSTORMING (15 MINUTES)

In smaller groups of 3-4, invite facilitators to share moments when they faced challenges in their facilitation (such as participants who would not stop talking, groups that got way off topic, or any other challenge). How did they handle this? You may want to have copies of Strategies for Facilitators of Community Meetings available for reference.
Have the small groups share takeaways from their conversations.

OBJECTIVES & NEXT STEPS (20 MINUTES)

Review the objectives of the meeting. What were you hoping would be achieved or discussed? Did the meeting fulfill your expectations? Working together, list out any next steps that need to be taken based on the input or suggestions from the attendees.
Review the feedback forms. What patterns do you see? Are there any changes you should make at the next event based on this feedback?

The Great Schools Partnership thanks Everyday Democracy for their collaboration in the fieldwork and shared learning that shaped many of these ideas.

This resource was produced by the Great Schools Partnership and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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