Our training program operates on two tiers.
Tier One: We have a pool of working facilitators who train intensively with us over a period of years and who work under our auspices. Herstory is responsible for locating and securing funding for appropriate teaching sites and for assigning facilitators to sites most suitable to their skills and interests. Such sites as defined by Herstory constitute Herstory Writers Workshops.
We welcome into our workshops women with a vision of a special constituency to which they might like to bring the Herstory method. This is how our Latina program was born. In order to become an active facilitator working under our auspices, it is necessary to work with us for several months, as a writer in Herstory workshops, in order for the prospective facilitator and Herstory to determine if there is an effective ‘fit.’ If such a fit exists, then each facilitator-in-training must subsequently attend at least two workshops a week, including one of our hub workshops and one in the specialization (i.e. youth, bilingual, working with formerly incarcerated women) she wishes to pursue. She will also begin to attend meetings with our group of working facilitators.
We require a six- to twelve-month immersion before our junior facilitators begin to teach. We also require continued hands-on writing in our hub workshops, individual supervision from Herstory’s artistic director and meetings with our training team. Once a junior facilitator begins to teach, all writing and training are offered to her free of charge. We believe that our empathy-based approach is truly accessible to all, and therefore do not limit our facilitator pool to those with literary backgrounds or previous publications, but open it to all who wish to bring out the story in another. We give preference to those who demonstrate commitment to their own writing journeys. This requires that they make full use not only of the teaching opportunities we offer, but of our full writing program, including our daylong retreats – for this is where the true learning and community building takes place.
Tier Two: We offer training opportunities to schools, organizations, agencies and individuals interested in bringing our approach to their existing constituencies, without formally joining our network. We are happy to participate in conferences, offering half-day, daylong and other training options.
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