Creating Connections
Gaining Trust, Maintaining Respect
As a facilitator, it is important to be able to gain the trust of your students/audience that you are presenting to. You will be discussing sensitive topics, and in order for the class to retain the information that you are trying to relay to them, they have to feel safe and comfortable in the space and with you as a facilitator. One way to begin building rapport with the class is to engage the class with icebreaker activities to help introduce yourself and have the class introduce themselves in ways that allow them to share as much as they feel comfortable with. These icebreaker activities also help with team building for the group overall, and this can increase the level of trust that the people in the group have for each other. This increase in trust is beneficial even after you are gone because the class might feel more comfortable being vulnerable with each other and helping classmates in need. Below are some examples of icebreaker questions and activities with instructions.
Ice Breakers
Icebreaker Questions
In five words or less, what is the bravest thing you've ever done?
What is something that makes you feel comfortable, confident, or safe?
If money was not a limit, what is one thing you would do to change the world?
Complete the sentence, “I wish everyone could...”
What is the best form of potato?
What is the least interesting fact/story about you?
Icebreaker Activities
Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament
Acting as the referee, pair each member of the group up, and ask them to play three rounds of rock, paper, scissors with the winner winning two out of the three rounds. All of those who won their respective rounds will play against each other until there is one person left as the ultimate winner. As people lose throughout the game, encourage them to cheer on everyone remaining.
Three Things
Start with yourself as the leader and list three things in any category (this could be anything from your three favorite foods, favorite songs, places you’ve been, etc.). Once you answer, pass it to someone else in the class and assign them a category if they have not thought of one yet, and then they will share their list of three things. The group is not allowed to repeat categories, so by the end, everyone has a unique list of things about them to share.
Dance Mirror
Standing in a circle, give each person 10-20 seconds to come up with an appropriate dance move. Next, the first person in the circle will do their dance move, and then the next person in the circle will repeat the dance move of the person before them and then their personal choice of dance move. This repeats around the circle, with each person repeating the dance moves of the people before them until you get back to the beginning.
Virtual Icebreaker: Home Scavenger Hunt
Give everyone 30 seconds to get up and go get their most meaningful/favorite object in the room that they are in. Everyone will then share why they love that object with the group.