LAW FOR BLACK LIVES REGIONAL STRATEGY SESSION: FACILIATION GUIDE Below is a suggested guide for regional strategy conversations. MBL refers to the Movement for Black Lives. Regardless of how you facilitate your session, please make sure someone fills out the post-caucus survey, available at http://goo.gl/forms/XnlxHc67KZ, where you should also be able to see other caucus’s responses.
GOALS 1. Provide participants with the opportunity to connect and build with others from their regions and cities 2. Jumpstart the building of cross-organizational, legal defense infrastructure to support the MBL for long-term sustainable power building efforts AND short-term rapid response needs. 3. Advance discussions around the why, what and how of doing legal work to support the MBL.
AGENDA A. B. C. D. E. F. G.
Introductions – 5 minutes Before Getting Started – 5 minutes Values/Intention Setting – 5 minutes Mapping the Field - 15 minutes Forecasting – 10 minutes Synthesis – 20 minutes Next Steps – 20 minutes
Introductions (5 minutes) Introduce yourself with a 30 second description of what skills and/or experience you bring to the group. Each person should describe their organizations and their preferred gender pronoun (PGP).
Before Getting Started (5 minutes) o
Decide Whether You Need to Split into Smaller Groups: If your city or state group has over 15 members, you may want to split into smaller groups to ensure more people can contribute. However, if you have multiple groups, make sure you save some time for a report-backs at the end.
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Tweak The Agenda: This agenda is simply a suggestion. It was created by a diverse group of advocates from different parts of the country—but we encourage you to shift and change the guided questions to accommodate your local context. You may decide to go deeper on one portion of the agenda and complete other parts later.
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Assign Roles: Determine who will be the Note-taker and who will be Facilitator A and Facilitator B. Skim the guide to get a sense of what each of these roles looks like. Depending on the size of your group, the notetaker can transcribe the conversation and/or be in charge of charting on the easel paper and take down the easel conversations after the session. If your group prefers to have someone else map on easel paper, that’s also great! Be mindful of prioritizing black leadership, and avoiding gendered divisions of labor.
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Get Each Other’s Contact Info: Pass around sign-up sheet to gather emails, phone numbers and names.
Values/Intention Setting (10 minutes - Facilitator A) Drawing on conversations from the convening, quickly brainstorm onto chart paper the core principles and values you want to guide your work in your region. You can refer back to the guiding values for Law For Black Lives in your program for some direction and ideas. Note where your group has unity and where there is room for further alignment. For example:
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make sure organizing is at the center of all legal strategy always have an organizer at the table when prioritizing/determining strategies work collaboratively across organizations/institutions
Mapping The Field (15 minutes – Facilitator B) Put up 2 pieces of chart paper on the wall. Title one “Movement Map,” the second “Legal Map” 1. Movement Map: On a piece of chart paper write answers to the following questions. Participants can answer in a popcorn style. o Which organized groups are working to support the MBL in our city/state? o Draw arrows to represent existing relationships or histories of collaboration. 2. Legal Map: On a piece of chart paper answer the following questions. Participants can answer in a popcorn style. o Which legal groups or lawyers are currently supporting MBL in the region? Think about the range of legal needs in the local community? o Who are the legal groups or lawyers that could be drawn into supporting MBL’s legal needs? o Draw arrows to connect groups with existing relationships, or histories of collaboration.
Forecasting (10 minutes – Facilitator A) Answer these questions within the timeframe of the next 3 to 6 months. Record answers on chart paper. 1. What urgencies exist in our region? (ex. Is our police department calling for more cops; is there an antiprofiling bill pending in the city council or state legislature?) 2. What organizing response (protests/campaigns/uprisings) can we expect in our region? Will these escalate in frequency or number of the course of the next six months?
Synthesis (20 minutes – Facilitator B) Co-facilitators summarize discussions above, with emphasis on points of alignment. Have an open discussion on the following questions: o o o o o
Is there sufficient legal infrastructure to support the organizing response in our region? Does the legal community have enough relationships with grassroots leaders within our communities? Are there gaps between anticipated urgencies and the expertise/capacity of legal and organizing groups? Are there discrete legal needs already identifiable? Based on the answers to the previous questions, how best can the legal community build the power of local movement for black lives?
Next Steps (10 minutes – Facilitator A) Group coordinator facilitates remainder of conversation to: 1. WHEN IS THE NEXT MEETING? Co-facilitators get temperature of the group. Do folks want to set up a meeting back home to deepen this conversation? Who else needs to be at the meetings back home? Can you set a date for the next meeting? 2. DEEPER DIVES? At this point in the gathering, each of you have heard interesting stories of creative legal work happening in other parts of the country and have met individuals/institutions that can offer wisdom and expertise on your local fight. Take a moment to brainstorm possible “Deeper Dives” aka the names of individuals, organizations, and case studies that your region may want to explore further in order to deepen your vision for your local work. For example:
Meet with the X grassroots organizer learn about how they used a participatory process to develop local policy demands. Connect with Y legal organization to learn more about their municipal fees litigation. Connect with X trainer to get additional training on movement lawyering.
3. IDENTIFY 3 NEXT STEPS: Identify three things that will happen between now and the next meeting back home (ie. Will get notes out; will create a regional listserve; will find venue for next meeting; will put together caucus’ guiding principles/values based on the broader convening)
REMINDER for NOTETAKER: Immediately after your session, fill out survey in google forms, where you can also see how other caucuses responded: http://goo.gl/forms/XnlxHc67KZ