This activity helps participants recognise the importance of respecting the individual needs of others, therefore creating a safe environment in which they feel comfortable sharing personal opinions and stories and interacting with the others.

RESOURCES

• Time: 20/30 min according to the number of participants
• Materials: flipchart
• Preparations: Write “Our constitution” on the flipchart you plan to work on

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Explain to the participants that in order for the training to succeed we need to create a “safe space”, where they are comfortable to share their opinions, ideas and feelings, both within the workshop and outside it. For this reason together they shall create the group’s “constitution”. This “constitution”, despite its potential formal name, is not about imposing some rules on them, but rather for allowing them to express their needs in terms of what it means for them such a safe space. Therefore, all the rules of the “constitution” will be proposed only by participants themselves.
2. Ask participants to propose different “rules” that should be part of the constitution, by expressing the different needs they have in terms of feeling safe and comfortable to share their opinions, ideas and feelings. Give some examples to make things more clear (e.g. “Rules can be about how should we treat differences of opinion, how we manage time, how we manage the space etc.”).
3. When participants share “rules” that they would like to be included ask them to also explain what they mean by them in order for their need to be fully understood by the rest of the group. For example, if one participant proposes “Respect” as a rule, ask what exactly he/she understands by “respect”. Write down each proposed rule.
4. After all participants have presented their proposals tape the constitutions on a wall where it will stay until the end of the training. During this time it can be used as a tool for managing the group dynamics.