Do you have questions about ally skills—how to use your power and privilege to help those with less—but don’t know who to ask? Now you can ask a professional ally skills teacher!
Dear Ally Skills Teacher is a new advice column answering your questions about how to act as an ally in your workplace and community. The column is written by Valerie Aurora, the leading ally skills teacher in the tech industry. She has taught ally skills to more than 2500 people around the world through the Ally Skills Workshop, and made guest appearances on the Dear Prudence podcast and the Captain Awkward blog. Valerie also draws on her ten years of experience working as a software engineer to answer questions specific to the tech industry.
The first few columns will be based on questions frequently asked in the Ally Skills Workshop, a three hour class that teaches people simple everyday ways to use their power and privilege to support people with less. After that, Valerie will answer questions from readers.
Do you want to teach people how to use their power and influence to support people of color, women of all races, LGBTQ+ folks, and members of other marginalized groups? Then the Ally Skills Workshop Train-the-trainers is for you! In this six hour class, you will learn to lead (or co-lead) the Ally Skills Workshop, which teaches people ally skills – tips and techniques for using their advantages to fight inequality and oppression with simple, everyday actions. All of the materials for the Ally Skills Workshop are reusable, modifiable, and redistributable for no additional fee.
The session was fun, welcoming, and intuitive. The experience of the trainer and depth of information provided in the materials gave me confidence that I could, with practice, also offer this training. — Amy Sawyer
This training is online using the free Zoom.us video conferencing software.
Prerequisite: You must either have participated in an Ally Skills Workshop, or watched the first hour of the Ally Skills Workshop video.
This training takes place across two days for three hours a day. You must attend both days. The dates are:
The Ally Skills Workshop is an intensive 3 hour-long discussion oriented workshop. The workshop leader (or co-leaders) begin with a 30 minute introduction that teaches people the basics about ally skills and how to have inclusive, respectful, productive discussions. Then the participants split up into groups of 4-6 people to discuss specific real-world scenarios in which an ally could take action. After a 5-8 minute group discussion, each group reports out what they discussed and what questions they have. The leader guides this discussion, answers questions, and suggests more ideas.
Facilitating this workshop is easiest for people comfortable with speaking extemporaneously in public, feeling and expressing compassion for people with different experiences than their own, and kindly but firmly disagreeing with people in front of others. Having significant experience as a member of a marginalized group is recommended but not required, especially if you are co-facilitating with another person who does have this experience. You can learn more about the workshop here, including the workshop slides and the full facilitator’s guide.
[The train-the-trainers] was intimate and hands-on. I got to practice the skills I’d need to teach while benefitting from Valerie’s and others’ experience with presenting. I also made connections that I hope may mature into opportunities for collaboration in the future. — Dr. Sheila Addison
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Ade Bradshaw on Flickr, composition by Frame Shift Consulting. Commercial use by permission.
Step-by-step instructions on how to respond to a report
In-depth discussion of relevant topics
Dozens of real-world examples of responding to reports
Valerie Aurora and Mary Gardiner were the lead authors of the Ada Initiative anti-harassment policy, which is the basis of thousands of codes of conduct in use today. Valerie has more than 7 years of professional experience writing and implementing codes of conduct for software-related companies, venture capital firms, and non-profits. For more information on code of conduct training and consulting, click here.
The book is available under the CC BY-SA license, allowing free reuse and modification of the materials as long as you credit the authors.
Please spread the word, by blogging, tweeting, or emailing it to community managers and conference organizers. If you’re writing about the book, check out our press kit. Thank you!
Frame Shift Consulting is growing, and you could be part of our expansion! We are searching for a second facilitator to help teach the popular Ally Skills Workshop at tech companies, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as around the world and online. The Ally Skills Workshop teaches people with more privilege and power how to support people with less. The class format is highly interactive: 3 hours with a half hour introduction by the facilitator, followed by small group discussion and facilitated report-out among 20 – 30 participants.
The responsibilities of this position are flexible: anything from teaching one or two workshops per month to teaching four workshops per month, making sales, writing about ally skills, and co-running the business. We are advocates for working fewer than 40 hours a week, flexible hours, and working from home.
We strongly encourage members of marginalized groups to apply for this position. Facilitators with significant personal experience as the target of systemic oppression have an enormous advantage in leading the workshop. We would be honored to receive your application.
Note: Participants’ comments have been edited out to protect the privacy of participants and are instead summarized by the facilitator.
The Ally Skills Workshop teaches simple everyday ways for people to use their privilege and influence to support people who are targets of systemic oppression in their workplaces and communities.
Watching this video is a poor substitute for participating in a live workshop. That’s because most of the benefit of the workshop comes from having discussions with other participants, which involves practicing ally skills such as listening to marginalized people, taking turns speaking, passing the mic, learning new perspectives, and making decisions on what action to take. Without this participation, the workshop turns into one long lecture. The video is most useful as a way to give people a sense of the content of the workshop and the facilitation style.
If you’re looking for an interactive, immersive, and well-received training on diversity and inclusion, the Ally Skills Workshop might be for you. Learn more about hosting an Ally Skills Workshop at your organization here.
Do you want to teach people how to use their power and influence to support people of color, women of all races, LGBTQ+ folks, and members of other marginalized groups? Then the Ally Skills Workshop Train-the-trainers is for you! In this class, you will learn to lead (or co-lead) the Ally Skills Workshop, which teaches people ally skills – tips and techniques for using their advantages to fight inequality and oppression with simple, everyday actions.
The session was fun, welcoming, and intuitive. The experience of the trainer and depth of information provided in the materials gave me confidence that I could, with practice, also offer this training. — Amy Sawyer
This event is online using the Zoom.us video conferencing software, which you can install and use for this event for free. There will be a one hour break about halfway through.
The Ally Skills Workshop is an intensive 3 hour-long discussion oriented workshop. The workshop leader (or co-leaders) begin with a 30 minute introduction that teaches people the basics about ally skills and how to have inclusive, respectful, productive discussions. Then the participants split up into groups of 4-6 people to discuss specific real-world scenarios in which an ally could take action. After a 4-7 minute group discussion, each group reports out what they discussed and what questions they have. The leader guides this discussion, answers questions, and suggests more ideas.
Facilitating this workshop is easiest for people comfortable with speaking extemporaneously in public, feeling and expressing compassion for people with different experiences than their own, and kindly but firmly disagreeing with people in front of others. Having significant experience as a member of a marginalized group is recommended but not required, especially if you are co-facilitating with another person who does have this experience. You can learn more about the workshop here, including the workshop slides and the full facilitator’s guide.
[The train-the-trainers] was intimate and hands-on. I got to practice the skills I’d need to teach while benefitting from Valerie’s and others’ experience with presenting. I also made connections that I hope may mature into opportunities for collaboration in the future. — Dr. Sheila Addison
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Ade Bradshaw on Flickr, composition by Frame Shift Consulting. Commercial use by permission.
Do you want to teach people how to use their power and influence to support people of color, women of all races, LGBTQ+ folks, and members of other marginalized groups? Then the Ally Skills Workshop Train-the-trainers is for you! In this class, you will learn to lead (or co-lead) the Ally Skills Workshop, which teaches people ally skills – tips and techniques for using their advantages to fight inequality and oppression with simple, everyday actions.
The session was fun, welcoming, and intuitive. The experience of the trainer and depth of information provided in the materials gave me confidence that I could, with practice, also offer this training. — Amy Sawyer
Update: This training has been rescheduled for September 17.
The class is taught across 2 days, 3 hours per day, at the same time each day. Only the first day is listed due to limitations by Eventbrite. This event is online using the Zoom.us video conferencing software, which you can install and use for this event for free.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale. You can request a free ticket or ask questions about which ticket price is right for you by emailing contact@frameshiftconsulting.com.
The Ally Skills Workshop is an intensive 3 hour-long discussion oriented workshop. The workshop leader (or co-leaders) begin with a 30 minute introduction that teaches people the basics about ally skills and how to have inclusive, respectful, productive discussions. Then the participants split up into groups of 4-6 people to discuss specific real-world scenarios in which an ally could take action. After a 4-7 minute group discussion, each group reports out what they discussed and what questions they have. The leader guides this discussion, answers questions, and suggests more ideas.
Facilitating this workshop is easiest for people comfortable with speaking extemporaneously in public, feeling and expressing compassion for people with different experiences than their own, and kindly but firmly disagreeing with people in front of others. Having significant experience as a member of a marginalized group is recommended but not required, especially if you are co-facilitating with another person who does have this experience. You can learn more about the workshop here, including the workshop slides and the full facilitator’s guide.
[The train-the-trainers] was intimate and hands-on. I got to practice the skills I’d need to teach while benefitting from Valerie’s and others’ experience with presenting. I also made connections that I hope may mature into opportunities for collaboration in the future. — Dr. Sheila Addison
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Ade Bradshaw on Flickr, composition by Frame Shift Consulting. Commercial use by permission.
Do you have questions about ally skills—how to use your power and privilege to help those with less—but don’t know who to ask? Now you can ask a professional ally skills teacher!
