PURPOSE
To create an emotionally and physically safe environment that is supported by all group members.
A set of safety and group behavioral guidelines established by the facilitator or the group that is agreed upon by the participants.
To create a willingness to work toward group goals and help others achieve personal goals.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
It provides a framework of how the group will treat each other so people can talk openly about their feelings, try new things, be goofy, challenge themselves, and give and provide feedback without fear of retaliation.
Without it, a group does not have a standard of conduct to follow or a way to hold people accountable to the group.
It is difficult to create a safe place for growth if people are not supportive of one another.
It can be a powerful tool that really bonds a group together.
HOW DO YOU DO IT?
There are a variety of ways to facilitate the development of the Full Value Contract—from quick and simple to more in depth and, potentially, long lasting. It gives you a framework to revisit if the group is not creating a safe environment. “Remember our Full Value Contract? We said we would respect one another.”
Time: 5 minutes
Any number of Participants
Each finger represents a behavioral norm that will help create a safe environment. One way, is to ask the group what they think each finger represents. You can get some good ideas from the group that way and are great to incorporate into the contract.
Little pinky—Safety—it is the small finger that often is easily hurt, so we need to take care of it.
Ring finger—Commitment—we commit to taking care of one another and being an active member of this group.
Middle Finger—Respect—reminds us to respect one another’s’ needs, views, and who we are as individuals. No put downs.
Pointer Finger—Responsibility—whenever you point your finger at someone else (blaming them), remember there are three fingers pointing back at you. Let’s remember to take responsibility for our own actions.
Thumb—Thumb’s up/Encouragement—let’s encourage and support one another as we participate in the activities today.
Open Palm—keep an Open Mind—be willing to listen to other’s ideas and try new things.
The way you seal the FVC is to give a high five to the people next to them in the circle. Have the participants give each other a high five!
Time: 20-30 minutes
Props:
Flip chart paper or butcher paper
Markers
How to play:
Split into groups of 4-6. If it is a small enough group, you can do this as an entire group. Use your judgment.
Have participants brainstorm a list of words or phrases that describe how they want to be treated and how they want to treat each other, in order to make the group a safe and respectful place to be.
From this list, choose 10 that are the most important to the group. Make sure that everyone understands what each word means. If not, take the time to define it.
Have everyone trace their hands around the edge of the paper and decorate them.
Write the 10 words in the middles of the paper, so that the traced hands form a frame around them. Read the 10 words out loud and decide if you can agree to live by these ideals while in the group.
If all agree, everyone signs their hand. If there is disagreement, discuss the concerns of people in the groups and modify the words until everyone can agree on the list.
Share the contract the small group made with the rest of the group.
Time: 20-30 minutes, could be more depending on the size of the group
Props
Flip chart paper or butcher paper
Markers (preferred) / writing utensils
How to play:
Split into groups of 4-6. If it is a small enough group, you can do this as an entire group. Use your judgment. Have each group follow these directions to create a “village”.
Determine, at most, 20 ideals your "village" will use to make it work well (e.g., respect, sharing). You should write, draw, or otherwise mark these ideals inside your village.
Decide on what hinders you from sticking to your ideals or things that drags your village down (e.g., racism, sarcasm). They go on the outside of your village.
Each person should draw his or her own dwelling (aka personal goal) on the village map. This is a goal for how each participant wants to act in the group. For example, if I think I talk too much, I may draw a mouth that says, “Let others talk”.
Each group should be prepared to present their village to the rest of the group.
You can connect the villages if your group is large and you have more than one village.
Also, can look at the ideals and hindrances and note the ones that came up on various villages. These could be the ideals that are focused on by the whole group and the hindrances that are avoided by the whole group.
Each village will look different and groups will often use their village as a metaphor. For example, a group might draw a river around their village to keep the hindrances out, and then draw paths between the dwellings to represent communication and shared goals.
Tell participants to think of a personal trait or strength they feel could "give" to benefit their group and its members AND think of something they feel they could "take" from the group that they need to feel more supported or to balance their personal abilities/strengths.
Ask participants to share what they can give and take. Note the overlap between what one person can give that another could take as each participant shares.
This is a great opportunity to debrief the experience and have a discussion before the workshop begins. Revisit what was discussed throughout the workshop.
Variation:
Consider using offer and need - if you feel it better aligns with your goals for this activity.
*Bonus Idea* Have the group members sit in a circle with a lycra tube around their backs to make the discussion feel more intimate and focused!
Time: 10 minutes
Props
Set of 24 index cards (1 set needed per group)
Markers/ writing utensils
How to play:
Split the participants into groups of 2-8. This activity is similar to the Memory Game. The goal is to match all the index cards in the group’s set before the other groups complete the task.
Write 12 community values on the index cards making sure that there are two copies of each value in the set so they can be matched. Each set can have different values written on the cards just as long as they can be matched within the set.
Lay out the set of cards face down on the floor or table. About 5 feet away from the set of cards, draw a line and have each group form a single file line behind the boundary line.
Only one person at a time can be across the line and working with the index cards.
When you say “go”, one person at a time approaches the set of index cards and turns over two cards. For each turn, only two cards can be flipped over.
If the cards match, the person picks up the cards and brings them back to the line.
If the cards don’t match, the group (from behind the line) looks to see the cards and then the person flips the cards back to face down.
The person goes to the back of the line and the next person in line gets a chance to match the cards.
Continue playing until each group has matched all of the cards.
Once the group has completed the memory part of the game, have them discuss the community values on the cards and decide on the top three they think are most important.
Have each group share out to the large group the values they chose and why. The values can be written up into a contract that is then used by the group as guidelines for behavior whenever they are together.