G'day folks in the OS global community
A new client has asked me about facilitating a
one-day OS for a group of stakeholders and others
about the creation of a refuge/hostel for
indigenous women - she has only minor concerns
about using Open Space having recently
experienced her first event with me - her major
concern is about using a non-Aboriginal white
male as the facilitator - see honest and
forthright comments below - and this event would
be in a different part of the country from where
I live and where I'm not known locally in the
indigenous community - any thoughts on this
query? Any stories of this sort of cross-cultural/gender scenario?
Cheers
Brendan
We have an opportunity with the new site being
built in ----- to devote some of our resources to
responding to the plight of indigenous
families. Having a different focus away from the
mainstream site gives our service an opportunity
to explore, with the assistance of indigenous
stakeholders, a different way of responding to
women and children from indigenous families
escaping violence. I dont know what this will
look like and it will be difficult and we wont
always get it right. It will be a process of
learning and experimenting with new ways of responding to families.
This is like a leap into the unknown for us
because it will change our service. It has not
been undertaken by any other service to my
knowledge, so there is no blue print to how we
should proceed. Having said this, I do think it
is possible and I believe it will have a positive
impact on our service as a whole.
There would be about 35-40 people invited to this
gathering which would represent all of the key
groups that would have an interest in a
mainstream organisation taking on and providing a
service to Aboriginal women and children.
There has been a positive reaction so far to the
proposal from Aboriginal organisations but I am
sure we will face some resistance/perhaps
hostility? (I will probably know this before we
enter an open space) and in a sense that is one
of the reasons why I think an Open Space forum
will be good so that we can hear and respond to peoples concerns.
One of my concerns Brendan is how they will
receive you as a facilitator of this process. I
am confident about you holding the space for us
to discuss these issues but I also dont want to
set you up in the process either. I am worried
that there might be some hostility to a man
facilitating the process and not a woman (you may
be the only man there). I would love your
thoughts around this and whether you have done
anything similar before. Part of me says be
courageous and go with what you think will work
and another part of me is scared stiff!
*
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