Paralegal Skills and Advice Centres > Practical Skills Useful for a Paralegal > Development Skills > Guidelines for Facilitating Small Groups in Community Education Workshops
Back to top

Guidelines for Facilitating Small Groups in Community Education Workshops

  • Be very clear on your role
  • Seat the group in a circle
  • Get people to introduce themselves
  • Check if translation is needed and get a volunteer to help
  • Ask someone in the group to take notes for reporting back later on
  • Explain how much time you have and how the small group discussion will work
  • Introduce ideas and questions – don’t enforce your own views
  • Keep looking at everyone in the group (eye-contact)
  • Be aware of your own voice – don’t talk too much or too loudly
  • Be aware of the way you approach people in the group – for example, don’t intimidate people
  • Don’t get into arguments or allow them to develop
  • Allow and encourage different opinions
  • Don’t allow people to interrupt each other
  • Be firm with dominant people and say that they should allow others a chance to speak
  • Give people time to think and to explain what they mean
  • Explain or summarise briefly where necessary, for example, with difficult words or concepts
  • Check if people understand before going on to the next topic, and allow for further questions
  • Use the go-around method to encourage participation from everyone in the group
  • At the end, ask the report-back person to summarise to check if everyone is happy with the report