Introduce yourself in really personal ways. Model both vulnerability and strength, and reveal some of your personal connections to the particular issues you are addressing. This might mean sharing your personal investment in creative or social change work, or barriers you’ve overcome. This signals a shift away from a ‘right/wrong’ approach to learning that helps to build trust and connectedness.
Notice how these young facilitators bring themselves, and their connections to the issues at hand, into the room. Even just a little bit of transparency, real-talk and vulnerability about some of the bumps in the road you’ve experienced during your own anti-racism, intersectional equity or lateral liberation learning journey will go A LONG Way in setting a tone of openness and humility.