BlaqOUT Conference

Activity Name & Description: BlaqOUT Conference

BlaqOUT Self Care Workshop

On April 18 & 19^th, 2014, I was able to host a session at the BlaqOut Conference.The conference is for individuals who self-identify as Black/African American or of African descent and as Same Gender Loving, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning or somewhere else on the LGBT spectrum.

I was invited to be an active member in the planning committee of this student conference by Black LGBTQ Higher Education Professionals. As an active member, I am assisting in conference duties, assisting in online meeting sessions and general conference planning duties. At this conference, I will be presenting a workshop entitled “Radical Self-Care-A workshop on Queering Wellness and Cultivating Balance.”

At this time my goals are to provide students with cultivating wellness techniques and as they create personal wellness and self-care plans that relate their individual identities. At this time, I am still developing learning outcomes and learning outcomes, but my workshop request has been submitted to my fellow conference planners.

My workshop consisted of a 60 minute session. As I reflect on the workshop facilitation, I wish I had requested the 90 minute session because the participants found it nourishing.

Students will have opportunities to develop and share resiliency skills with one another. This is personal challenge for myself to negotiate balance, but I also feel I have a keen insight in assisting others in their journeys. My goal is to also connect multiple student development theories into my workshop. I feel this aligns with our course objectives. To connect this workshop to other course goals, I feel that this aligns with the learning goal to assess, design, implement a program. My goal is to include a preassessment and post assessment where I hope to utilize student learning outcomes and through individual participation, I plan to utilize a scaffolding approach to move students from basic to advanced.

      Visual aides were used in the presentation both through the use of a powerpoint but also the written words that students shared in response to the questions proposed in the workshop.

The Learning outcomes for the presentation were as follows:

(1)  Students will be able to share lived experiences and resiliency skills.

(2)  Students will build a sense of community while sharing narratives around their own definitions of self-care.

The presentation consisted carry different self-care and wellness strategies and I was able to lead a facilitated discussion. I tried to use many different methods to have students interact with one another and to also engage them in their own learning.  I asked students to form into discussion groups their students were asked to share their own draft strategy and resiliency skills and report back to the larger room. Groups were instructed to respond to a number of questions that they would report to the larger group. Based on the larger group discussion, I would encourage students to work with me and explain their own experience to not only me, but to all of the positions. I wanted to take a role where I could learn from the students, I didn’t want to just engage in a banking method, but I wanted to really listen to their rich perspectives. This was very empowering for me, not only as a facilitator but also as a participant. I mentioned at multiple times, that I am a learner in this experience and we must work together to drive the session forward.

Date/Semester

April 2014 (Spring Semester)

Learning Domains Addressed (Labels)

X Leadership

X Social Justice & Advocacy

X Education

X Personal Development

Learning Outcomes

 -Student will be able to develop a workshop where students will be able to build a sense of community while sharing narratives around their own definitions of self-care.

Assessment Rubric

	SLO #1
Advanced	I will be able to gather 5 student definitions and strategies from student feedback.
Competent	I will be able to gather 3 student definitions and strategies from student feedback.
Basic	I will be able to gather 2 student definitions and strategies from student feedback.
Poor	I will not be able to gather 3 student definitions and strategies from student feedback.

Evidence (Shown in Notes, Website and Pictures)

http://blaqoutucr.blogspot.com/p/bios.html

Name: DeeJay Brown
Position: Professional Staff
Affiliation:  UC Irvine

"Creating space where we can express how our vulnerability and our resiliency can be radical places both for ourselves as Queer* individuals and how our power and solidarity can create more space for the Larger Queer Community. We have an immense power to transform and self determine who we are and it is awesome to just bear witness of who we are when we join in community."

Reflection

The goals of the workshop were met. In terms of evidence I received both conference evaluations as well as qualitative information that I embedded into my workshop. At the conference, I wanted to bring an issue close to my heart and one that I wanted to work with students. I feel that self-care is one area in my life that I will constantly seek to improve. It also embodies mindfulness and self-growth. One of the goals of the workshop were that students would be able to share lived experiences and resiliency skills. I also wanted students will build a sense of community while sharing narratives around their own definitions of self-care. I feel that both of these goals were met, I also found out in the break after my session, that students continued the discussion with other participants.

At the end of the presentation I was given verbal feedback regarding the presentation and workshop. To assess student learning I was able to ask students to develop their own list of self-care strategies. I also emailed this list to all participants and other professionals have emailed me to share the scholarship and articles that I used to frame my presentation.