For example, are facilitators able to create and sustain environments and relationships where participants feel able to express their emotional discomfort without feeling silenced or shamed but where they are also invited to critically reflect on this discomfort? Can facilitators support participants to examine their emotional discomfort – e.g., identifying what, when and why they feel specific emotions (e.g., anger, rage, sadness as well as happiness and joy) and what these emotions do to their bodies and their relations with others? Can facilitators support participants to consider how they might channel their emotions in positive and pro-social ways? Can facilitators respond to disclosures through protective and supportive practices?
Do facilitators foster a belief in the group’s power to create positive change? Are they able to build solidarity among group members to support this change? This might occur through participants working together on an activist project in their communities designed to support gender equality and other forms of equality.
Are facilitators skilled in connecting with participants in ways that recognise and provide space for them to express their points of view even if they are uncomfortable (e.g., through demonstrating empathy and the active listening skills of paraphrasing or summarising) while also challenging harmful attitudes and behaviours (e.g., by offering different perspectives and ideas)?
For men and boys to really understand and engage with the emotional discomfort of this work, teaching and learning activities need to be designed in ways that open up rather than close down conversations. Do your program’s activities support open questions and invite further conversations to support men and boys to think critically about and explore the issues, values and feelings behind common responses to this work (from men and boys) such as resistance and disagreement? Do your activities invite men and boys to examine their emotions – for example, identifying what, when and why they feel specific emotions (e.g., anger, rage, sadness as well as happiness and joy) and what these emotions do to their bodies and their relations with others? Do your activities open opportunities for boys and men to explore how they might channel their emotions in positive or pro-social ways?
Are men and boys provided with the opportunity to practice with others the new knowledge and skills they are being exposed to? Learning theory informs us that people must be provided with the opportunity to practice new thinking and skills in different settings, in order to master those areas. How are men and boys actioning their aims and how are they being captured in order to claim change or a program outcome? For example, if communication skills are an aim of your program just self-reporting of increased capacity from men is not enough. How could men show that this is something they are practicing or how could they record their attempts to inspire and inform others?
This is about providing opportunities for participants to consider their relations with the non-human world (e.g., how do they think of and care for the non-human world – the land, trees, plants, animals etc.?) Do they think of these things as material to accumulate and possess or as things to connect with and nurture?
This is about providing opportunities (e.g., through posing scenarios or connecting with participants’ personal experiences) for men and boys to understand how different forms of inequality work. This may involve, for example, exploring how practices of sexism, homophobia, classism, racism and ableism impact on different people in different contexts.
It is important to identify the areas of content in your program that may be traumatic for some men and boys. It is important to develop a plan for recognising and responding to this trauma in physically, psychologically and emotionally supportive ways.
How are others included in your program?
If your program is attempting to end violence or racism, how are the people most impacted by this oppression included in the design, content and aims? How transparent are your processes and activities?
Can people access them on your website?
Have you reached out for community consultations about key issues or concerns?
Do you have activities that are co- developed and facilitated with diverse practitioners?
Do you regularly seek feedback from stakeholders about the aims and activities of your program (in de-identified ways if necessary)?
The evidence is that interventions are more likely to make change if participants have multiple points or sources of exposure to the intended messages. For example, a face-to-face education program might be complemented by communications or media strategies in the organisation or community, or local events, or other strategies. More widely, interventions that work at multiple levels of an organisation, setting, or community are likely to have a greater impact on attitudes, behaviours, and social norms.
Does your program include policy and practice that all staff are aware of and can implement when working with men and boys to ensure the safety of participants and others in their lives? For example, do you have a screening assessment for facilitators and participants that can reveal their experience of violence both as perpetrators and as victims? Does your program have mechanisms to identify, assess and report violent or at-risk behaviour (including issues of child safety)? Does your program include mechanisms to support perpetrators and victims of this behaviour? Does your program support regular staff debriefs/supervision about issues of safety with a skilled manager?
A logic model shows how a program is supposed to work, depicting relationships between activities and results. It is a visual representation of a project’s activities, outputs and the changes it seeks (impacts), all linked together in a series of ‘if–then’ relationships (‘if this happens then that will occur’). A theory of change is more sophisticated. Like a logic model, a theory of change shows activities and outcomes, but it also explains how and why the desired change is expected to come about. A theory of change includes a theoretical or conceptual account of the problem, an explanation of why activities will produce outcomes, and the indicators or evidence of whether the intended changes have occurred.
Westernised ways of living value individualism, competition and wealth accumulation (including ideas of property/land ownership and the use and abuse of animals). Challenging these values through supporting participants to see themselves as connected to and caring for all living things is important when working with men and boys for social and environmental justice.
For example, the program should encourage boys and men to gain critical awareness of how their attitudes and behaviours might be harmful to themselves and others, to take responsibility for their actions, and to do the work of personal change.
Applying an intersectional lens means recognising how factors such as gender identity, sexuality, race, class, religion and ability, and conditions such as access to housing, health, education and employment intersect to make worse or alleviate experiences of discrimination and injustice (e.g., homophobia, racism, poverty). Does your program provide opportunities for participants to examine how these factors and conditions play out in their lives and in their relations with others?
For example, does the program aim to change men’s and boys’ rigid understandings of gender and masculinity towards more equitable understandings? Does the program aim to change men’s and boys’ patriarchal behaviours and encourage more egalitarian behaviours? Does your program aim to encourage men and boys to take part in wider action for social change?
For example, the program might explore how common norms of masculinity – that men must be strong, stoic, in control, take risks, and avoid showing vulnerability – can limit men’s and boys’ health, their ability to seek help or support, or the quality of their relationships and friendships.