4.2 Establishing Brave Spaces

Here are some suggested parameters to help create brave spaces:

• • • Controversy with civility
      Conflict is a natural outcome in a diverse group.
      Continued engagement through conflict is important and such activity strengthens rather than weakens diverse communities.
      
      
    • Own both your intentions and your impact
      Intentions and impact matter.
      The impact of our actions is not always congruent with our intentions and that positive or neutral intentions do not trump negative impact.
      
      
    • Challenge by choice
      It is about more than simply affirming challenge by choice as a ground rule. It is also necessary to actively encourage participants to be aware of what factors influence their decisions about whether to challenge themselves on a given issue.
      It is important to ask participants to think about what keeps them from challenging themselves. And to encourage participants to be especially attentive to the degree to which their agent group memberships inform their decision about whether and how deeply to engage in a challenging activity or dialogue.
      
      
    • Respect
      It is important to spend time discussing respect.
      To support them in maintaining increased mindfulness of the different ways they can demonstrate respectfulness to one another ask: How does someone demonstrate respect for you? Delving into this question can reveal various cultural understandings of the term and mitigate assumptions participants bring with them about what kinds of behaviors are respectful.
      Discussing ways to firmly and respectfully challenge others and how to respond when being firmly and respectfully challenged is a fruitful investment of time that can prevent students from automatically experiencing and interpreting challenges from others as acts of disrespect.
      
      
    • No Attacks
      Have clarifying conversation to describe the differences between a personal attack on an individual and a challenge to an individual’s idea or belief or statement that simply makes an individual feel uncomfortable.
      Pointed challenges are not necessarily attacks, but the uncomfortable experience that may result can sometimes lead to a defensive reaction.
      
      

Source: From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens (in The Art of Effective Facilitation: Reflections From Social Justice Educators).