Justice activities
Thanks to a generous grant from ACE Aotearoa, we —Kotare Trust, AWEA and colleagues—were able to produce facilitator guides for using some of our more popular education for social justice activities. If you'd like to know more or ask us to make links to other relevant sites please contact us.
The activities can be sorted by column.
| Name | Description | Type of activity | Skills | Specific issues |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 hour stopover | Provides an opportunity to develop strategies for increasing cultural safety and cultural competence | skill-sharing | self-awareness and values | discrimination in general |
| Agree—disagree | This activity that allows people to explore their responses to a range of views and to listen to the views of others in a non-confrontational environment | analysis | self-awareness and values | any kind of issue |
| Awareness of own change model | An activity to demonstrate some problems with assumptions about how social change occurs and help people clarify their own understandings and assumptions of how this happens | reflection | models of change | any kind of issue |
| Continuums - classic, axis, cluster, card | To encourage participants to express their opinions and explore different positions in a group process. This may also lead to people shifting their positions. Continuum tools can be particularly useful when supporting group decision making. This resource includes explanations about how to use four types of continuums. Classic, axis, clusters and card. | reflection | working in groups | any kind of issue |
| Critical Paths Analysis | Challenges community organisers to envision a sequence of changes on the path to their desired social changes. | reflection | campaigning | any kind of issue |
| Cutting the Issue | It's next to impossible to make a difference on a huge problem. How you 'cut' it will influence your prospects of success. What part of the problem is immediate, concrete and winnable? | reflection | campaigning | any kind of issue |
| Energisers, games and group formers | This resource includes a mix of 30 different energisers, name games and ways to break into small groups as well, as some reflections on what makes an energiser work well. | energiser | working in groups | any kind of issue |
| Explaining faces | For connecting the group to the overall issue and providing an opportunity for people to engage without feeling exposed | icebreaker | working in groups | any kind of issue |
| Friends, Allies and Enemies | An activity to support strategic analysis as part of building an action, campaign or coalition | analysis | working in groups | any kind of issue |
| Lifting the blanket | An activity to explore identity and culture. | reflection | self-awareness and values | any kind of issue |
| Listening to the People | This process combines some elements of the vision gallery with a reflection on hopes for the future shared by different groups in the society; hopes and longings that activistsneed to listen to if they are to build a broad based movement that appeals to the people. | reflection | self-awareness and values | any kind of issue |
| Mattress Game (Pillars of Support) | To clarify the principle that government or ruling authority depends on the co-operation of the people, and non-cooperation is therefore powerful. | reflection | models of change | any kind of issue |
| Mechanisms of Change | Encourages understanding of the different ways non-violent movements can bring about change and the importance of these different mechanisms when selecting tactics. | reflection | strategising | any kind of issue |
| Nacerima | For enabling participants to explore what they regard as culturally normal | reflection | self-awareness and values | stereotyping |
| Naming Perceptions: Growing Coalitions | Relationship building for groups that are exploring working together more closely. | reflection | working in groups | any kind of issue |
| One Day Movement Action Plan Workshop | A one day workshop based on Bill Moyer's Movement Action Plan. | analysis | campaigning | any kind of issue |
| Playing for Life - The Game of Strategy | This tool is useful for acheiving the following: Describe people’s stories about strategy and campaigning. Elicit special skills and knowledge around strategy and tactics, movement building and theories about how social change happens. Reflect on and appreciatively evaluate past campaigns and actions, either successful campaigns or those that have not yet fully achieved the stated goals. Disseminate knowledge about previous campaigns of nonviolent action. | reflection | models of change | any kind of issue |
| Power Mapping | Power mapping helps to identify campaign influencers, allies and other stakeholders and the relationships between them. The exercise itself is useful to practice conceptualising campaign strategy. When applied to real campaigns, the exercise can help to prioritise campaign targets and to identify useful ways of reaching them. | reflection | analysis of power | any kind of issue |
| Privilege Backpack | The purpose of this activity is to explore participants experience of privilege in a practical way, thereby grounding participants theoretical understanding of privilege with a stronger awareness of the ways that they benefit from privilege in their daily lives. This activity is based on the work of Peggy McIntosh and her article “White Privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack”. | reflection | analysis of power | inequality |
| Quotes on a topic | Provides an opportunity for participants to explore a range of views on an issue | icebreaker | self-awareness and values | any kind of issue |
| SMART Objectives | An activity that supports groups to develop objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Realistic and Time-bound. | analysis | campaigning | any kind of issue |
| Social change: integrating learning into practice | For encouraging group, workshop or conference participants to reflect on what they have learned and integrate it into their practice | reflection | working in groups | any kind of issue |
| Stakeholder Analysis | A strategic analysis tool | reflection | analysis of power | any kind of issue |
| Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) | An activity to use as one element of strategic planning for groups who share a common purpose, either as one organisation or as a group of organisations (eg network, alliance, coalition). | analysis | strategising | any kind of issue |
| Ten Chairs in Aotearoa NZ | Ten chairs is an economic literacy, social justice and structural analysis tool. This is an Aotearoa NZ version that includes the impacts of colonisation. | analysis | analysis of power | inequality |
| The Blanket Game | An activity to help group members tell the difference between goals, tactics and strategy. | reflection | strategising | any kind of issue |
| The Duke and the Duchess | An activity to develop awareness of participants own assumptions about social structures | reflection | self-awareness and values | power |
| The Human Misery Industry | A tool specific to Aotearoa New Zealand for exploring what it means to be an ally when working for the crown. | reflection | analysis of power | institutional power |
| The Miracle Question | This activity encourages participants to imagine the world as they want it to be and develop detailed thinking about the changes that need to happen in order to get there. It draws on strengths based therapy and 'the miracle question' developed by Steve de Shazer and others. | reflection | models of change | any kind of issue |
| The Motis test | For demonstrating how institutional racism works and to understand how practices can be unintentionally assimilationist | reflection | self-awareness and values | institutional racism |
| The Rich list | An activity for understanding oppression, privilege and wealth. | reflection | inequality | |
| The Tale of Curl | An activity to enable people to explore the experience of being in a marginalised group | reflection | self-awareness and values | discrimination in general |
| Thinking about relationships | For providing a structure to enable people to use their own knowledge about relationships to apply to other working relationships | analysis | self-awareness and values | any kind of issue |
| What was I taught? | For enabling people to explore the development of their own values and beliefs in relation to the issue in a safe context | reflection | self-awareness and values | any kind of issue |