There are at least two types of staff who will be spending time ensuring impactful implementation of this intervention.
First, are those directly responsible for implementing the curriculum, including facilitating the groups. Those are the staff that will mobilize the community, support participant selection and facilitate the dialogue and reflection groups. Ideally, there should be two facilitators per group. The specialized facilitation skills will be further discussed in the Facilitation section of this manual.
Second, are the supervisory staff responsible for overseeing overall GBV programmatic activities and that will have a role to play in monitoring the intervention to ensure it does no harm.
Implementation staff: Community Engagement
- Identify and engage with community leaders/influential community decision makers that will be supportive to the process of the project. Be very clear about the purpose of the intervention. Take time to explain what the intervention is meant to do and what it is not meant to do. For example, it is meant to get men to reflect on power. It is not meant to get alcoholics to stop drinking.
- Ask identified supportive community leaders to help make the participant selection process to be transparent. Share the participant criteria and ask for input and feedback. Explain that each dialogue group will have between 12-15 men and that you are suggesting men volunteer based on agreed criteria.
- Ask community leaders to convene a meeting with men from the community whereby staff can explain the intervention and create space for men to ask questions.
- Observe and identify community leaders/influential community decision makers that could potentially create barriers to the project. Devise and implement strategies to work with potentially difficult community leaders to avoid or limit possible barriers.
Implementation staff: Participant Selection
- After the meeting with men ask for volunteers. Explain to the men you will be coming back to have individual meetings with them. Should there be more than 12-15 men interested a drawing will be held to make final selections. Explain that there will be more than one group and men not able to participate in this time will have the opportunity to volunteer again at a later date.
- Staff should briefly meet/interview, one on one, each volunteer to ensure they understand what they are volunteering for and expectations of participation. It is very important participant understand expectation including a commitment to non-violence for the duration of the intervention.
- Once 12-15 participants have been selected, bring those men together to agree on a time for the sessions to be conducted. The time and day selected should consider men’s availability, work schedule and other responsibilities, to ensure men that volunteer will continue through to completion.
Implementation staff: Group Facilitation
- The curriculum includes step by step instruction for facilitation of men’s dialogue groups. The facilitation section of the manual will also offer additional guidance on good facilitation, including highlighting this is not a It is not a training but a reflection and dialogue group whereby men learn new information and reflect on how that fits with current attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours and where they want to make changes.
- Prior to facilitating men’s dialogue groups, staff should go through a training that includes participating in as many of the activities in the curriculum as possible. Experiencing activities as a ‘participant’ before facilitating others to engage in the activities, will help ensure impactful groups.
- Facilitate each session in a way that supports participants in their journey, including holding participants accountable for attitudes, beliefs and actions that contribute to or condone IPV, CEFMU, and Rape.