Considerations and Customisations
As mentioned at the start of this guide, you must have your ideological objectives in place as to what you would like to achieve through organising A F.A.I.R. Space. Further, the previous sections detailing the session structures and their deliverables would have given you a good understanding of what you can expect in organising the program.
Consequently, there is a certain amount of flexibility you have in manoeuvring and customising these sessions to best achieve your objectives and derive the most value for your Changemakers. When planning the structure of the sessions, a few key considerations that should be kept in mind are summarised below:
1. Age group:
It is important to consider the age group for which the program is being conducted. For example, if the program is being conducted for young individuals i.e. 18 – 27 year olds, the topics being explored and the questions being asked can be more complex. However, if this is being conducted for students in school, i.e. 14 – 18 year olds, then factors such as access to resources and existing knowledge should be kept in mind when deciding the topic of discussion.
2. Themes:
A theme is the problem statement/topic/query that will be used as a tool to help participants understand the Methodology. This query is what the participants will conduct their ‘F’, ‘A’, ‘I’ and ‘R’ sessions on. You may choose to address a specific theme, or have a broader set of themes, the way the flagship program does. These broader themes include: Well-being, Gender Equality, Peace, Environment, Hygiene, Nutrition, Education and Employment.
3. Engagement:
It is important to ensure that sessions are engaging the participants in conversations or activities i.e. they are answering questions in real time on call or group chat, interacting with each other, etc. This is important since it gives participants the opportunity to think about the conversation taking place and provide their responses in real time.
4. Number of participants:
The number of total participants of the program are also important to help determine the structure of the session. For example, if your program has 10 or less participants, then the sessions can be structured as one main session where all of the discussions are taking place. However, if there are more than 10 participants, then discussions can take place in breakout rooms, and participants reflect on the conversations in their breakout rooms in the main session. The number of participants will also help decide the duration of the session. For example, for 32 participants, sessions would be 120-minute/2 hours long, given that the objective is to give each participant time to speak.
5. Time for deliverables:
It is important to understand that participants may not be able to give time to deliverables, such as submitting initial positions. Therefore, time should be set aside time during the session to let participants work on deliverables. For example, in ‘F’ sessions, providing participants time to research during the session would be beneficial since it will ensure that they acquire adequate information.