Section 1 provides the opportunity for you to introduce yourself, give a territory acknowledgement, and provide a bit of background on the training, including the duration of the workshop and what participants can expect.

To establish a foundational relationship with participants, arrive early and greet participants as they enter the space. Be friendly and outgoing as you set up, making an effort to create an atmosphere of comfort.

Section 1 includes the following slides:

• Slide 1: Workshop Title
• Slide 2: Territory Acknowledgement
• Slide 3: Welcome and Introduction
• Slide 4: Session Objectives
• Slide 5: Group Guidelines

Slide 1

Facilitator Notes

• This workshop is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where noted. This means that content can be adapted to fit each institution’s specifics.
• This training has been adapted from Simon Fraser University’s Professional Boundaries for TAs and Navigating Power Dynamics and Boundaries as a Graduate Student by Possibility Seeds.

Slide 2

For slide 2, insert your post-secondary institution’s territory acknowledgement on this slide.

Facilitator Notes

• Elaborate on and personalize your territory acknowledgement.
• If you are comfortable, you could make connections between colonization (non-consensual theft of land and violence/devaluing of Indigenous people – particularly women, Two Spirit, and others who don’t align with colonial understandings of gender and sexuality) and sexualized violence (non-consensual sexual touch or behaviour that is often used to assert or maintain power and control over others).
• You may want to consider the possible experiences and impacts of colonial violence on different cultures or international students.
• For an online session, invite online participants to share their territory in the chat.
• Consider sharing native-land.ca.

Slide 3

Facilitator Notes

• Welcome participants and introduce yourself. Include your relevant experience and education and share why you chose to be a facilitator.
• Give your positionality, pronouns, and ethnic background, and take a minute to explain why your positionality is relevant, including why someone may wish to state their pronouns. (This helps ensure that each participant is addressed correctly; we cannot tell someone’s gender by observation and we should not make assumptions.)
• Note the duration of the workshop (approximately 90 minutes).

Slide 4

Facilitator Notes

• Share the following information to introduce the workshop:
  • This training provides foundational knowledge about sexualized violence in post-secondary settings with a specific focus on the culture, expectations, and environments graduate students may experience.
  • Graduate students occupy a unique space in post-secondary institutions, often simultaneously occupying multiple roles (e.g., student, teaching assistant, research assistant). This reality makes them uniquely positioned to occupy positions of power over others but also be subjected to others who have direct power over their academic and professional success.
  • This training provides the tools, resources, and strategies to support graduate students who experience or witness sexualized violence.
  • This training focuses on the power hierarchies that exist within academia, and how these lay the foundation for different forms of harm to occur and create barriers that make it challenging for people who have been harmed to access support.
  • Ultimately, this training encourages graduate students to become more aware of and work to change an existing academic culture where sexualized violence is normalized.

Slide 5

Facilitator Notes

• Briefly elaborate on each expectation, including the importance of mutual respect and confidentiality in the workshop:
  • Mutual respect and confidentiality are essential. What is shared in the workshop must not be shared outside of the workshop.
  • Take space, make space, or give everyone a chance to participate.
  • Participation is by choice but encouraged.
  • Respect lived experiences.
  • Take care of yourself and it’s okay to leave, if necessary.
• Elaborate on ways participants to take care of themselves during and after the workshop:
  • You are free to tune out or leave the room if you are feeling triggered. (Ask participants to signal that they are okay if they leave the room).
  • The content may be emotionally triggering, and some participants may have a delayed traumatic response (later in the day or subsequent days after the training).
  • The training provides self-care and professional resources.
  • Facilitators will be available after the training to debrief. Highlight confidentiality for participants who access support services or debrief with facilitators.
• Ask participants if they would like to add anything to this list.
• Optional: If you have the time, ask participants to introduce themselves by sharing their name, field of study or research, and one interesting thing about themselves.