What is WLDEP?

On February 22nd, 2023, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest hosted its first class session for its Women's Empowerment and Leadership Development Program (WELDP). In attendance were around 20 women who are refugees from countries like Afghanistan, Iran, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The WELDP's syllabus (included below) features 10 weeks of curriculum, exploring different themes of authentic leadership, which would lend towards empowerment of the self and others. Led by myself and Sadaf Hakeem, a Women's Empowerment Specialist at LSS-SW and an Afghan refugee woman herself, we facilitated the classes weekly to correspond with the themes in the curriculum. The weekly agenda typically looked as follows:

Icebreaker 

Review Class Agenda

Activity 1 & Discussion 

*Break*

20-minute professional development presentation*

Activity 2 & Discussion

Creative Writing Activity 

At a Glance

Below is a sample of what our weekly sessions were structured to look like. This example is from Week 3, where we explored aspects of identity and self-discovery. The goal was to begin introducing and familiarizing ourselves with one another while looking inwards and understanding our own thoughts toward ourselves, our values, and the roles we inhabit. Take a look below to see what this class session looked like, and feel free to check out the hyperlinks in the document that will take you to the activity sheets that we used to guide our learning!

WLDEP Curriculum

Now that you have a good idea of what our weekly sessions were structured to look like, let's step back from the parts and look at the whole.  In practice and leading up to the day before presenting materials, we would tend to edit or adjust according to the needs of the class or as time required, so oftentimes we as facilitators would refer to our curriculum as a rolling, living guide that we could adjust as needed. Below you will find the "WELDP Schedule" where the program was generally outlined as we planned activities according to the corresponding themes. You've already taken a look at Week 3, so you might be able to get an idea of what the rest of the program agendas entailed. The themes we explored throughout the program were related to Self-Discovery, Interpersonal Relationships, and how the two themes in conjunction work to foster Authentic Leadership. The activities we implemented in class were selected for each theme through anticipating the direction of the discussions. For example, the Self-Discovery sessions were designed to incorporate activities garnered towards introspection and placing the Self in microsystemic settings; Interpersonal Relationship activities were designed to incorporate the themes uncovered in Self-Discovery within our interpersonal relationships and psychosocial contexts; finally, Authentic Leadership activities were to tie the parts together as a whole and begin action-oriented goal-setting for empowering others through authenticity and embracing achievements towards positive growth. 

The WLDEP Schedule below will grant you an inside look to our curriculum planning process as well as the inner-workings behind leaving room for adjustments to be made (as well as insight to circumstances beyond our control as part of a small, grassroots effort to service clients psychosocially, which I will touch on later!)

You may have noticed that in each class session, we incorporated time for a Professional Development activity. This effort was a combination of participatory inclusion and external resources. For example, at the beginning of the program, we passed out forms to consult with the participants about a subject they are experts in, and whether they would be willing to prepare an activity to provide advice, guidance, or resources on their selected topic. One of our participants is seeking her M.A. in Sociology/Counselling and is well-versed in stress mitigation and mindfulness techniques. She volunteered to lead a session on positive stress regulation and mindfulness during our Week 8 Session for action-oriented learning. Her insight provided valuable and relevant information for the other woman, as she was their peer and understood the life experiences of her own peers as refugee women resettled here in Phoenix. During one of our Self-Discovery weeks, we heard from a staff member at LSS-SW, another Afghan woman who specializes in financial literacy. Her presentation introduced concepts like financial independence and demonstrated the importance of establishing your own financial empowerment and having the women learn how to apply for student loans, open savings accounts, and writing checks. Our participants showed great interest in these practical, professional development activities that were catered towards their development in utilizing resources to aid in their empowerment.

Below is the form we used to keep track of our Professional Development speakers. Those who participated in the program as students who chose to present on a topic have their names redacted to protect their privacy. How cool is it that we had so many volunteers from the program to share their knowledge with the other women?!

My Role as a Researcher

As this program was my Applied Project, there were several things I had to do to make sure that my research would be safe, supportive, and engaging for the program participants. In the Origin Story, I showed you my original proposal for the project, which included two different interventions that I would measure. This included a pre-survey that was to be administered during Week 2 of the program and the same post-survey to be administered in Week 9. These surveys contained the same questions so as to assess the growth of the participants in their understanding of the themes we presented throughout the program. 

An additional measure was enacted, as I originally posed the following question to uncover the role of expressional elements in the curriculum as catalysts for empowerment: In what ways might a curriculum based on creative, emotional, and introspective expression create supportive connection and empower women both individually and relationally? 

This process required that I produced a consent form script to acquire verbal consent for each of the interventions that I implemented in order to publish as part of my Applied Project. I chose to acquire consent verbally, as it was an intentional effort to allow the participants to ask as many questions as needed and to make them feel as comfortable as possible when participating in this research process. 

As such, I introduced myself and my role as a student researcher to the women from Day 1. I prioritized transparency and openness, as well as the fact that ths program was designed so we can learn from each other. As a co-facilitator for the program, it was crucial to me that I was a peer to the women and that the researcher/subject dynamic was diffused, as the participants themselves helped shape the program and their participation in my research.

 Take a look at the document below to see what the consent process and what my original research plan looked like!

 In Actuality...

As is to be expected with "best laid plans" and the nature of research itself, the WELDP took form through different characteristics that both shaped and limited the program. I hope this page helped you get a good idea about the preparations and the actions that took place to make this program as rewarding as possible for our participants. The reality behind circumstances facing smaller, participatory efforts for psychosocial services can actually be demonstrated through the different factors that affected this program and my research. I will explore this in detail in Bird's Eye View, so be sure to check out the next phase of my examination!