Be an ally, not a voice over. Our guest Divas Vats, Community Worker and Acumen Fellow responds to our questions around facilitating and designing training for historically marginalized communities. We engage with our dilemmas, anxieties as we understand what it takes to facilitate a room with power differentials.
What does solidarity as a facilitator mean? What does being an ally mean? If one is not from a marginalized community, then can one facilitate such a group? We asked tons of questions in this episode, and Divas responds generously. Join us in our attempt to build a more informed view on working with marginalized communities, messing things up and learning from it.

From the Margins: Part 02

Who is a facilitator? How do they become stewards of creative spaces and thoughtful conversations that affect change? In this podcast, we engage with all the dimensions of a facilitator, their doing and being. We explore diverse mediums used in facilitation, unpack how to build an inspiring career pathway and listen to powerful stories of facilitators across the globe. Join us every fortnight to meet a peer who crafts transformational learning experiences for communities, organizations and individuals.

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I have never facilitated a group of people with disabilities. Mostly because I never thought I have what it takes and also the deep fear of failing. What if I suddenly realise I am not a great facilitator after all.
In Episode 2, Moses Chowdari, Executive Director of Enable India simplifies what it means to design learning spaces for people with disabilities and keeps it very very real. What struck me the most during the interview is there is no “special formula” - it is just what Enable India calls ‘celebrating the human spirit’.

The Enabling Facilitator - Part 02

Practitioners of experiential education, globally, are guided by the work of Kurt Hahn. Hahn suffered severe sunstroke in 1904 which left him permanently disabled and required a long period of recovery in darkened rooms. It is in this period, Hahn shaped his thinking and philosophy around the power of great outdoors and learning by doing.
We met Moses Chowdari, Executive Director, Enable India who is leading the organisation’s strategy and vision to enable not just people with disability but invest in an entire ecosystem that commits to equal opportunities.
Have you ever “second guessed” yourself when it comes to training people with disabilities? Do leave us your comments on our social media - linkedin and instagram.

The Enabling Facilitator - Part 01

In part 2, we continue our conversation with Gagan Sethi and engage with 5 questions that our listeners left us on social media. Join Doing Being Doing on linkedin and instagram for more conversations. In the previous episode, Gagan sets the context - he says he is an educator, a political one. It is key for educators to ask political questions and also understand the politics of their constituency. Through this conversation, we also unpack the politics and identity of the facilitator and how it also impacts our ability to ask the right question and steer conversations for reflections. He says a facilitator’s job is to create a space where people can have honest conversations first with themselves, and then with others.

The Political Educator - Part 02

Gagan Sethi, founder member, former Executive Director and Managing Trustee of Jan Vikas, a leading NGO based in Ahmedabad has a trail of accomplishments, distinguishing him as a grassroots activist and co-creator of quite a number of institutions - a few of which have gained national and international stature. Established in 1977 by Professor Contractor and Gagan Sethi, Jan Vikas has since expanded its institutional field manifold but most importantly positioned inclusive perspectives through a broad canvas of relationships, and collaborations. Many around Gagan Sethi would say that he excels in strategic thinking. He has a canny way of sensing political templates in institutional fields and interesting ways of analyzing organisational issues for interventions. His perspectives in organisational development, which appear to stem from insights rather than the run of the mill managerial versions - stand quite apart from the mainstream approaches.

The Political Educator - Part 01

In part 2 of Episode 11, Prerna tells us that while one need not be a lawyer to become a POSH trainer, you need to be well versed with the law.
There are ample resources available online that will help you interpret not just the law but also various case judgement that have helped shape our understanding of the law. For e.g., one can follow Live Law and Bar and Bench for regular updates on legal judgement related to sexual harassment.
With regards to certification, at the moment, there is no central body that provides certification on POSH. However, there are many organisations that provide certificate courses on POSH, including the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and Institute of Legal and Management Studies.
Join us as we engage with the politics of being a POSH trainer - the unlimited possibilities, a fast growing community and the emotional readiness to walk this path.

From the Margins: Part 02

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