Harvest the Power Workshops

1. Leadership Journey
2. From “I” to “We”
3. Are We Doing the Right Things?
4. Caring for Ourselves and One Another
5. Integrity
6. Faith and Conflict

Workshops' Structure

Each two-hour Harvest the Power workshop uses the structure outlined below.

Quote

A quote introduces each workshop. You might discuss the quote with your co-leader as part of your session prep. Each workshop’s opening quote also appears in the Taking It Home handout.

Introduction

The Introduction provides a short summary of the workshop's content, along with guidance for leaders about implementing the workshop.

Goals

The Goals are general outcomes toward which the workshop is geared. As you plan a workshop, apply your knowledge of your group, the time and space you have available, and your own strengths and interests as co-leaders to determine the most important and achievable goals for the workshop and the activities that will best serve those goals.

Learning Objectives

The Learning Objectives describe specific participant outcomes that the workshop activities are designed to facilitate. It may be helpful to think of learning objectives as the building blocks with which the Harvest the Power program’s larger “big picture” goals are achieved.

Workshop-at-a-glance

The “Workshop-at-a-glance” table lists the workshop activities in order of their suggested sequence and provides an estimated time for completing each activity.

Workshop-at-a-glance is not a road map that you must follow. Rather, use it as a menu for planning the workshop. You will decide which elements to use and how to combine them to best suit your group, your meeting space, and the amount of time you have.

Keep in mind that many variables inform the actual completion time for an activity. Whole-group discussions will take longer in a large group than in a small group. Remember to consider the time you will need to relocate participants to another area of your meeting room.

Spiritual Preparation

Each workshop provides suggestions that you may use to prepare for leading the Harvest the Power program, to grow spiritually, and to grow as a leader. Because part of growing as a leader is learning to pay attention to the accessibility needs of those in your workshop, pay attention to Accessibility Guidelines for Adult Workshop Presenters as you prepare to facilitate each workshop.

Workshop Plan

The workshop plan presents the elements of each workshop:

• Opening: Each workshop begins with a short opening ritual: welcoming words, chalice lighting, and a reading. Shape your opening ritual to suit your group, any space limitations, and the culture and practices of your congregation.
• Activities: The core workshop content is presented as sequential activities. The variety of activities in each workshop aims to address participants’ different learning styles. Presenting the activities in the sequence suggested will help you provide a coherent learning experience. In general, the sequence will balance listening with talking, and individual exploration with group exploration.
  Select activities that you believe best suit the widest range of participants’ interests and will work well for you and your group. Keep in mind the participants’ learning journey and the benefits of a well-paced workshop that includes different kinds of activities.
  Each workshop includes one or more alternate activities that you may choose to substitute for a core activity. If you use alternate activities, take care to place them in a sequence that gives the workshop a balanced flow.
• Closing: Each workshop concludes with a closing ritual that signals the end of your group’s time together. During the closing, you will introduce the workshop’s Taking It Home ideas, invite participants to share briefly, offer closing words, and extinguish the chalice. Like the opening, the closing of a workshop grounds the experience in ritual. Use the workshop plans as a resource to shape a closing that fits your group and the culture and practices of your congregation.

The following are provided for each activity, including the Opening and Closing:

• Materials: This checklist outlines the supplies you will need for each activity.
• Preparation: If your group meets weekly, review this “to do” list for each activity at least a week ahead of a workshop. If your group meets less frequently than weekly, review the preparation items several weeks ahead. The list identifies all the advance work you need to do for the activity, such as writing a list of questions on newsprint or arranging supplies right before your participants arrive.
• Description: This section provides detailed directions for leading the activity with your group. Carefully read the activity descriptions during your planning process so that you understand each activity and its purpose. Later, when you are actually leading your group, use the description as a step-by-step guide.

Activities that include unusual physical circumstances or for which leaders would benefit from a reminder about inclusion have an Including All Participants section with accessibility guidance. In addition, please consult Accessibility Guidelines for Adult Workshop Presenters for general guidelines to help you prepare to meet some common accessibility needs.

The Workshop Plan also offers:

• Faith in Action: These activities are designed to give participants an opportunity to put their UU faith into action by bringing their learning from the workshop into their work in the congregation—or the world beyond the congregation. You can customize this section to your congregation and group.
• Leader Reflection and Planning: This section provides questions to help you and your co-facilitator process the workshop after it is concluded and use your reflections to shape future workshops.
• Taking It Home: The Taking It Home handout for each workshop includes conversation topics, journaling assignments, and ideas for further exploration or to apply the workshop learning. The handouts are designed to help participants extend their experiences by sharing them with family and friends or by integrating them into their practice as leaders. You may customize to suit your congregation and group before distributing to participants. Each Taking It Home handout includes a Find Out More section with supplemental resources, such as books, videos, and websites, related to workshop topics.
• Alternate Activities: Each workshop features one or more alternate activities that you may substitute for core workshop activities. Sometimes the alternate activities are simpler to implement than the core activities. Materials checklists, preparation steps, and activity descriptions appear in the same format as they do in the core activities. You can also use the alternate activities to build longer workshops of up to three hours.
• Resources:
  • Stories: Narratives, from the Sources of our Unitarian Universalist tradition, that illuminate and support workshop activities.
  • Handouts:  Materials to download and print for all participants to use in the workshop.
  • Leader Resources: Materials for the leader’s use during the workshop.