Plan of action for facilitators

Project number: 2016-2-NL01-KA104-034912
Project title: Bottom-up online zelfhulp voor
ouders met een achterstand (OZO)
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The content in this document only reflects the views of the
project responsibles. The European Commission is in no way
responsible for any use that may be made of the information it
contains.
PLAN OF ACTION
(for facilitators)
Version: 4.0
Date: 2.3.2018
Author: Onno Hansen-Staszyński (Ezzev Foundation)
Revision: Beata Staszyńska-Hansen, Maria Ghiata Pozios, Radosław Nowak

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Introduction
This document forms the basis of the pilot that is to be organized in 2018 (May-July) in the
Netherlands and beyond.
Aim of the pilot:
 To establish whether participants in the proposed online setting will widen their identity
labels as individuals who have a distance to society and/ or the labour market and see this
situation as a given (“fixed mindset”) to a growth mindset in which perceived distance to
society and/ or the labour market is seen as a positive challenge;
The aim of the pilot is measured by means of self-reporting in the form of questionnaires that are to
be filled out by the pilot participants before (point zero) and after the pilot.
Within the pilot three basic roles will be fulfilled: supervisor, facilitator and participant. This
document is to facilitate facilitators in organizing and implementing the pilot.
The pilot will consist of four phases:
 Phase one: participant enrolment and filling out the pilot facilitator questionnaire;
 Phase two: preparation of the structured chats;
 Phase three: six structured chats;
 Phase four: evaluation.

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Pilot description
The framework of the upcoming pilot is project OZO, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the
European Union. The pilot will take place between May 7 and June 29, 2018.
The core of the pilot is formed by six structured chat sessions online with parents who perceive
themselves as having a distance to society and/ or the labour market. The chat sessions follow a
strict chat protocol and are structured by a facilitator. Four of the six chat sessions have a pre-
defined topic: characteristics the current generation of youngsters (session 1), communication good
practices (session 2), self-presentation on video (session 5) and self-presentation online (session 6).
Two of the chat session topics, for sessions 3 and 4, are to be decided by the participants
themselves.
The chat sessions protocol and facilitator structuring ensure an online communication that is
nonjudgmental, non-confrontational and avoids to a certain degree dialogue. The platform on which
the structured chat takes place ensures maximum privacy and near anonymity.
Aim of the pilot is to empower participants to shift their mindset away from a fixed mindset and
towards a growth mindset. The assumption is that the experience of the chat session will empower
participants to challenge their blockades while feeling stimulated to find and use their own voice.
The pilot envisions three roles: supervisors who enrol facilitators, provide support and documents to
facilitators, and are responsible for evaluating and disseminating the pilot results; facilitators who
enrol pilot participants, provide support and documents to participants, organize and structure six
structured online chats, are responsible for the process of participant evaluation and who fill out an
evaluation questionnaire twice; and participants who commit to actively participate in the six
structured chats, are co-responsible for providing two chat session topics and who will fill out an
evaluation questionnaire twice.

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Your role as facilitator
Your aim as a facilitator is to prepare, implement and evaluate six structured chats in which
participants are empowered to shift their mindsets: from a more fixed mindset to a more growth
mindset. The pilot, consisting of only six structured chat sessions, is to provide an indication whether
the mindset of participants and facilitators indeed shifts.
Your tasks are to enrol pilot participants, provide support and documents to participants, organize
and structure the six structured online chats, provide participant evaluation and fill out an
evaluation questionnaire twice.
Supervisors will support you in your tasks. They will send you all documents necessary for the pilots
and will provide first line support to you.
Please note:
As a facilitator you will need to have your own, intrinsic motivation. Without an intrinsic motivation
you should not initiate a non-hierarchical online self-help environment for underprivileged parents.
 In case your intrinsic motivation equals ambition, be aware that you might run into conflict
with other who also have ambition and see the online activities as a means to realize (a part
of) these ambitions. Another potential challenge is the tension between your ambition and
the bottom-up communication structure of the platform.
 In case your intrinsic motivation equals passion or the alignment with a formal position, you
should be aware of the challenge not to dominate the participants, not to install hierarchical
relations and not to narrow down the communication topics to your own passions or
specialisations.
 Be aware that your role as facilitator is to serve – the online environment is tuned to that
purpose. During the pilot participants, not you, are to come up with two of the six structured
chat topics. Only if participants do not come up with these topics you are to decide which
two topics to add to the four pre-given topics and prepare a short introduction to them.

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Phase one: enrolling participants
Supervisors will send you at the start of the pilot the documents you need to support your role as
facilitator:
 Plan of Action for facilitators – this document;
 Chat instructions for participants – to send to participants and to facilitate you in supporting
participants in how to engage in the structured chat sessions;
o You will need to read this too in order to understand the nature of the structured
chat sessions;
 Chat protocol eng for facilitators and supervisors – to support you in facilitating the
structured chats;
o You will need to read this too in order to understand the structure of the structured
chat sessions
 Chat protocol for participants – to send to participants;
 Pilot questionnaire for participants – to send to participants;
 Pilot facilitator questionnaire for facilitators – to fill out before the first structured chat
session and again after the last structured chat session;
 Pilot questionnaire for facilitators – to facilitate you in providing participant evaluations
before the first structured chat session and again after the last structured chat session;
It is important to select parents with their own intrinsic motivation. Rather aim for quality than for
quantity. If the online environment is on its way and the quality of the communication is high, the
participants themselves will start to invite other parents.
Good practices:
 Prepare an offer to your target group that avoids references to learning or helping. Rather
stress the social character of the online environment.
o The online communication is about empowering underprivileged parents’ existing
resources (experiences, skills, knowledge, network) by means of a respectful, non-
hierarchical communication that only rarely allows for dialogues and excludes
negative reactions. This is being secured by the facilitators and the chat protocol.
The communication mostly consists of exploring one’s own reflections, emotions,
and associations.
 In addition, stress opportunities in the offer rather than problems or challenges. Tap into the
intrinsic motivation of parents which probably is that they have a right to a better situation.
Explain how participating in the online environment will increase their chances to improve
their situation by narrowing their distance to society and/ or to the labor market.
o Within the online environment they will reflect on their children, on how they
communicate, on how they present themselves to others.
o They can also suggest their own topics to reflect upon.
 Build trust:

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o Enrol as many trusted parents with a status of informal authority as possible. They
will rub off their trust and authority to the online environment.
o Be transparent to participants about your own motivation, explain in detail what is
to be expected of you, and what is expected of participants:
 What is expected of you is: intrinsic motivation, good will, being interested
in others, a willingness to empower others, to follow-up on one’s promises,
and show commitment to finish what one started.
 What is expected of participants is: intrinsic motivation, good will, being
interested in others, willingness to empower others, to follow-up on one’s
promises, show commitment to finish what one started, and fill out a
questionnaire before and after one’s participation.
o Listen more than you talk, take doubts seriously, affirm, show both warmth
(empathy) and strength (the capacity to change things).
 Lower barriers to online environments:
o Explain the positive aspects of communication within the specific online
environment: the option to be anonymous while at the same time being in a closed
group, the opportunity to communicate with peers without the need to dedicate
money and time or to find a babysitter for the children, and the choice at all times
between chat, voice communication and video communication.
o Address potential negative aspects of communicating online: the lack of nonverbal
communication, the slow pace of the communication, the verbal nature of chatting
which might cause anxiety over one’s writing abilities. Stress that no one will be
criticized for their writing abilities.
When enrolling parents facilitators should make sure to acquire future participant email addresses
as well as explicit permission to email them.
 Communication with the future participant will occur by means of email.

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Phase one: filling out pilot facilitator questionnaire
In parallel to the enrolment of underprivileged parents as participants you will need to fill out the
pilot facilitator questionnaire that was sent to you by the supervisors and then send the filled-out
version back to the supervisors.

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Phase two: preparing the chats
The second phase starts after the enrolment process is closed. The following steps are essential in
phase two:
 Send the future participants a short activities description by email containing:
o A summary of the most important steps and data:
 Facilitator email address
 Online platform URL – Jitsi meet
 Chat sessions description
 The core of the pilot is formed by six structured chat sessions online
with parents who perceive themselves as having a distance to
society and/ or the labour market. The chat sessions follow a strict
chat protocol and are structured by a facilitator. Four of the six chat
sessions have a pre-defined topic: characteristics the current
generation of youngsters (session 1), communication good practices
(session 2), self-presentation on video (session 5) and self-
presentation online (session 6). Two of the chat session topics, for
sessions 3 and 4, are to be decided by the participants themselves.
The chat sessions protocol and facilitator structuring ensure an
online communication that is nonjudgmental, non-confrontational
and avoids to a certain degree dialogue. The platform on which the
structured chat takes place ensures maximum privacy and near
anonymity.
 URLs to 4 videos that function as introductions to the 4 predefined topics –
participants can choose to watch these already before the chat and then
again during the structured chat or just watch them during the structured
chat session. You’ll find the videos here.
o Documents
 Pilot questionnaire for participants;
 Chat instructions eng for participants;
 Chat protocol eng for participants.
o A proposal on how to schedule the 6 first structured chats
 It is recommended to use an online appointment scheduling app like
Doodle.
o A proposal for a codename for the sessions that needs to be used to enter the right
chat space within the online environment
o A proposal for a day and time for a one hour test session within the online
environment to answer questions by participants
o A proposal on how to communicate by email from this point on
 Familiarize yourself with the online environment
o The chat takes place on the platform Jitsi meet. The platform Jitsi meet uses so-
called end-to-end encryption. This means that only the chat participants have access
to what is being written or shown in the chat. The data are not seen or stored by a
third party. No one has to register.

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o Participants are in principle anonymous. The only thing that third parties can see is
the fact that they’ve participated in a specific chat at a certain time. If they’d want to
prevent that also, then they might use a VPN like the free version of CyberGhost.
o Because Jitsi meet requires a code that allows entry to a chat group and this code
has no link to the platform, only those who have shared the code among themselves
have access to the chat. This means that participants are anonymous on the one
hand but on the other hand it is known to you and the other participants that they
are one of those invited.
o As long as they do not create a chat name in Jitsi meet that could be understood to
reference to them, they do not use a webcam and a microphone and do not write
anything that would make them identifiable, no one knows who is writing anything
specific in the chat.
o Try out Jitsi meet before the first chat with a friend or family member. Go to Jitsi
meet and enter a random code that only you and the other person know. Acquaint
yourself with the functionalities the platform has to offer and feel at home at the
platform before the first chat session with the group takes place.

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Phase three: six structured chats
 Your responsibility:
o Your main responsibility is to moderate structured chats according to the chat
protocol that the supervisors have sent you. You are responsible for the
implementation of the six chat protocol phases: check in, intention statement by the
facilitator, stillness, mirroring images, reflection and generative dialogue and check
out. Your concrete responsibility concerns three aspects: participant management,
time management and content management.
 Participant management:
o You provide instructions to participants on how to act during all six phases:
 During the phases check in, mirroring images and check out participants are
only allowed to individually publish their messages. They are not allowed to
react to other participants, not even positively, nor engage in a dialogue
with them.
 If any participant would nevertheless react or tries to engage in a
dialogue with you or another participant, you write: “This type of
contribution is not allowed at the moment.” Repeat this as many
times as necessary.
 During the phases intention statement by the facilitator and stillness
participants are not allowed to publish any message at all.
 If any participant would nevertheless publish a message, you write:
“No contributions are allowed at the moment.”
 At the end of the check out phase of structured chat session one add to the
thank you message: “Please send topic suggestions for chat sessions three
and four to me by email.”
 During all phases if a participant reacts negatively or draws attention to a
spelling mistake, you write: “This type of contribution is not allowed
throughout the chat.” Repeat this as many times as necessary.
 Time management:
o You are to keep an eye on the time throughout the chat. You are to end each phase
at the time indicated by you at the start of the phase by writing your facilitator text
for the next phase. Do not wait for participants to leave a pause in the chat.
 If a participant would continue publishing statements concerning the
previous phase, you write: “This contribution concerns a previous phase and
is not allowed at the moment.” Repeat this as many times as necessary.
 Content management:
o During the pilot the structured chat sessions 1, 2, 5, and 6 have a pre-given topic
that is to be expanded during the phase intention statement by you. The topic
requires a short, personal introduction by you why the topic is relevant. The
introduction is to be followed by an introduction to view a short video on YouTube
(overview here).
o During the pilot the structured chat sessions 3 and 4 have topics that are to be
decided by the participants.
 As facilitator you need to by mail and at the end of structured chat session 1
encourage the participants to send you:

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 A relevant chat topic (relevant meaning relevant for the participant
aim of the pilot to to abandon what Carol Dweck calls a “fixed
mindset” and expand a “growth mindset”).
 A short, qualitative video introduction on the topic on YouTube or a
very short text or audio fragment, plus link.

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Phase three: facilitator structured chat texts
Protocol
phase
Facilitator texts
Check in Welcome all. We start with the check in phase, which will last ten minutes. During this
phase it is about your emotions, your experiences and your knowledge. Please provide
your contributions as unhindered as possible. Do not worry about spelling mistakes;
just let your words flow. Read what others write but do not react to them, not even
positively. Do not engage in a dialogue with others. Please indicate how you are doing
right now.
Moderation texts:
- This type of contribution is not allowed at the moment.
- This type of contribution is not allowed throughout the chat.
Intention
statement
by the
facilitator
Thank you. We now enter the second phase. I will provide a short introduction on
today’s topic. This will last ten minutes. During this phase it is about your emotions
and experience. Please take in the information in silence and feel what images,
feelings and body sensations come up. After my introduction there will be silence.
Moderation texts:
- No contributions are allowed at the moment.
Stillness The third phase is stillness. This will last three minutes. Please do not do anything in
this phase but letting images, feelings and body sensations come up.
Moderation texts:
- No contributions are allowed at the moment.
Mirroring
images
The fourth phase is about expressing what images, feelings and body sensations came
up during the introduction and the stillness phase. This will last ten minutes. Please
provide your contributions as unhindered as possible. Read what others write but do
not react to them, not even positively. Do not engage in a dialogue with others.
Moderation texts:
Reflection
and
generative
dialogue
In the fifth phase you may ask other participants questions. This will last ten minutes.
Please show curiosity and willingness to support. Do not react negatively.
Moderation texts:
- This contribution concerns a previous phase and is not allowed at the moment.
Check out We’ve arrived at the last phase. This will last ten minutes. Please share your insights
and plans for follow-up actions. Read what others write but do not react to them, not
even positively. Do not engage in a dialogue with others.
Moderation texts:
- This contribution concerns a previous phase and is not allowed at the moment.
End of
check out
Thank you all. We’ll meet again [insert here the day and time of the next chat.]

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Phase four: pilot evaluation
After the sixth structured chat session you will need to evaluate the pilot. This phase consists of five
steps:
 Sending a thank you-email to the participants:
o Attached is the document Pilot questionnaire for participants;
 Fill out the document Pilot facilitator questionnaire for facilitators;
 Conduct an evaluation as described below;
 Send the evaluation results as described below and the filled out pilot facilitator
questionnaires to the supervisors;
 Send the evaluation results of the quantitative evaluation (a table with anonymized
participant scores) to the participants.
The evaluation is conducted on three levels:
 Chat statistics:
o How many underprivileged parents were invited to participate;
o How many underprivileged parents participated in each of the chat sessions;
o How many topic suggestions for chat sessions three and four were provided by the
participants.
 Quantitative evaluation (see document Pilot questionnaire for facilitators) – before and
after:
o Anonymized questionnaire results per participant and for all participants as a group
as summarized in a table.
 Qualitative evaluations:
o Organize interviews with as many pilot participants as possible on:
 Do they view participation the structured chat sessions as useful?
 Does it enable them to better participate in society?
 Does it enable them to better communicate with others?
 Does it enable them to better find a job or a job they’d want?
 Would they recommend participating in similar chat sessions to others?
 Do they view reflecting on current youngsters as useful?
 Do they view reflecting on communication good practices as useful?
 Do they view reflecting on the two participant topics are useful?
 Do they view reflecting on self-presentation on video as useful?
 Do they view reflecting on self-presentation online as useful?
o Summarize your findings in bullit points without referencing to identifiable
participants.

Plan of action for facilitators

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