Talking about tactics

• Flipchart sheets from a prior context analysis/problem identification exercise e.g., the ‘FORB map of our town’.
• Plenty of post-it notes and marker pens.
• One copy of the ‘Talking tactics’ poster collection. This includes a summary poster, posters describing each of 15 tactics and story posters which illustrate each tactic being used to promote FORB).
• Four pre-prepared flipchart sheets headed ‘Action ideas: tactic name’ for each of the following tactics: Emergency tactics, Change tactics, Building tactics, Healing tactics.
• The ready-made presentation script and accompanying PowerPoint (slides 13-24) for this exercise.
• If using the alternative methodology, you will also need the ‘Emergency tactics’ handouts.

The poster collection, presentation script and PowerPoint for this exercise are available in multiple languages in the accompanying materials to Session 6 of the Local Changemakers Course.

• Arrange the chairs in a semi-circle facing the front of the training room. Stick the flipchart sheets from your preceding context analysis/problem identification exercise on the wall.
• Put the tactics/story posters out on four tables that participants can sit around, placing the posters for one category of tactics on each table – Emergency tactics, Change tactics, Building tactics, and Healing tactics. Put the matching ‘Action ideas’ flipchart sheet on the table with the posters, along with post-it notes and pens.

Begin the exercise with the ready-made presentation with accompanying PowerPoint (slides 13-24). The presentation creates awareness of practical ways in which participants can protect and promote human rights. It introduces four sorts of tactics for promoting human rights (Emergency, Change, Building and Healing tactics), opening participants eyes to the many different ways in which they could make change. (Although the exercise begins with a knowledge input, the focus of the exercise as a whole is on learning and gaining inspiration through stories and mutual reflection, rather than theory.)  The knowledge input can be adapted to tailor it to your target audience if desired.

OVERVIEW OF THE 15 TACTICS

EMERGENCY Tactics: Prevent; Stop and save; Call for help and warn

CHANGE Tactics: Protest; Persuade; Provide incentives; Defy

BUILDING Tactics: Build awareness; Build engagement; Build skills; Build relationships and networks

HEALING Tactics: Material and psychosocial support; Document violations; Highlight and commemorate; Seek justice and compensation

DISCUSSION GROUPS (60 MIN)

Divide participants into four groups and explain the following:

We’re now going to spend some time exploring and discussing the emergency, change, building and healing tactics in groups. On each table you will find posters relating to one of these four types of tactics. The posters either explain the tactics in a little more depth or contain stories of people using the tactics to promote FORB.

Each group will spend 15 minutes at a table reading the posters and brainstorming action ideas for one category of tactic. The key question is – how could we use these tactics to promote FORB in our context? After that, groups will rotate and spend 15 minutes discussing the next category, before rotating and discussing again.

When you get to your tables use the following process:

• Read and think: Spend a few minutes reading and thinking about the posters and about any action idea post-it notes left by previous groups.
• Brainstorm: Thinking about the problems we identified in our context analysis exercise (point to the relevant flipchart sheets on the wall), brainstorm as many ideas as you can for ways in which these tactics could be used to tackle those problems.
• Write your ideas on post-it notes and stick them to the ‘action ideas’ flipchart sheet. Please write clearly on the post-it notes, so that other people can read them! At this stage it doesn’t matter if you think the ideas are realistic – be as creative as possible.
• Remember to think both about actions we can take as individuals in our daily lives and actions we could take in groups or organisations – perhaps through our faith communities, workplaces, or youth groups or by gathering a new group of people together.

Tell each group which category they should start with and send them off to the tables to start working. During the group work, move between groups to check on how they are doing. Tell the groups when it’s time to move on to the next category of posters – every 15 minutes.

TIP! Why not schedule a break or introduce an energiser at this point? The ‘Emoticons’ game works particularly well with this exercise.

PLENARY FEEDBACK (40 MIN)

• Fetch the ‘Action ideas’ flipchart sheets from the tables and put them up, spacing them out along a wall.
• Ask participants to gather round the sheets to read the action ideas.
• After a few minutes, ask participants to choose an action idea that they think is a good idea that would ‘work’ in their context. They should take this post-it note from the flipchart sheet and sit back down (in the plenary).
• Ask each person in turn to share the action idea they chose, saying why they chose it. Ask anyone else who thinks this is a good idea to put their hands up. Depending on the size of your group and time available, ask one or two of these people to comment on why they think it is a good idea.
• If there is time after everyone has had a chance to share, ask participants if there were any other action ideas that they really liked that no one picked.
• Gather all the post-it notes that participants picked and put them on a new flipchart sheet, labelling it ‘Our favourite action ideas’.

Congratulate the participants on all their ideas and thank them for their active participation. Conclude by saying that we are going to take what we have learnt about tactics and our action ideas with us as we develop action plans in coming sessions.

Emergency tactics are used when a specific human rights abuse is happening or about to happen to a specific person(s) in a specific place (e.g., harassment, attacks on places of worship, hate crimes). If tactics for such situations are particularly relevant for your group, do the following exercise prior to using the exercise above for Change, Building and Healing tactics only.

Remind participants of what emergency tactics are and show PowerPoint slide 24, reading out the examples.

DISCUSSION GROUPS (20 MIN)

• Divide participants into three groups and explain that each group will focus on one of the three emergency tactics (Prevent; Stop and save; Call for help and warn).
• Give each group post-it notes and pens, the relevant Tactic poster and accompanying story posters, and the ‘Emergency tactics’ handout of discussion questions for their specific tactic.
• Give the groups the following instructions: Read out the text on the posters and discuss the questions on the handout. As part of this you will be brainstorming action ideas – write your ideas on post-it notes. You have 20 minutes.

PLENARY FEEDBACK (20 MIN)

Give each group up to 5 minutes to present the tactic they looked at and their action ideas, putting their post-it notes up on the ‘Action ideas: Emergency tactics’ flipchart sheet.

After the presentations, open for discussion of the following questions:

• Does anyone have any more ideas about ways to handle emergencies?
• Was it hard to think of ideas?
• Which ideas did you like the best?

Encourage the group, praising ideas they have come up with and recognising that it isn’t easy to think of ideas – especially in relation to emergency tactics, where taking action can be risky or dangerous.