Consent and Leadership Series

How do you become a leader your community can trust?
 

What are the responsibilities of leadership in regard to consent and consent culture?
 

How should you respond when harm occurs in your community?
 

The Consent and Leadership series addresses these questions and more.
 

Consent and Leadership is a unique opportunity for leaders to deepen their understanding of consent, power, trauma, and accountability. It consists of 8 workshops and one optional lab, each exploring the knowledge, skills, and practices anyone who finds themselves in a position of influence or authority needs in order to foster a consensual space.

Full series tickets include admission to the optional Leadership Lab, as well as access to the Consent Academy's Discord server and a private channel for Consent and Leadership students and alumni, where leaders get feedback and seek advice on all things consent.

The workshops are as follows (each is on a Saturday from 10:00am - 12:00pm Pacific, and recorded for later viewing):

1. Embracing a Leadership Ethos - April 22, 2023
   What kind of leader do you want to be? When it comes to creating consent culture, what qualities does a leader need? In this workshop, you will start drafting an ethos statement to guide you as a leader. You will continually come back to this statement, especially when you need to make hard decisions or take a stand.
   
   By uncovering your values around leadership and consent, we will build a solid foundation to support you in becoming a leader who others would want to follow.
    
2. Owning Your Power - April 29, 2023
   “With great power comes great responsibility.” 
   
   Becoming a leader often means discovering you have power you never asked for or even wanted. At the same time, people will also expect you to have a lot more power in some areas than you actually do. What do you do with all these responsibilities?
   
   This workshop will dive deep into power, where it comes from, how to recognize the power you have as a leader, and how to use it responsibly, ethically, and to create positive change.
    
3. Bias and Awareness Gaps - May 13, 2023
   Humans have many biases and awareness gaps (things they don't know they don't know). As leaders, our biases and awareness gaps come together to not only affect how we respond to issues around consent, but they can also impact who feels welcome in our spaces and organizations for years to come. 
   
   In this workshop, we will practice identifying different types of bias, from cognitive to cultural, and after taking an honest look at the impact they've had on our spaces, we'll discuss how you can use your power as a leader to counter bias and create culture change. 
    
4. Writing Codes of Conduct - May 20, 2023
   A code of conduct is essential to fostering a consensual space. Codes of conduct act as informed consent, letting people know what kind of behavior is desired and what is not tolerated. If they don’t agree to it, they don’t enter the space, and if they act against the code of conduct, they face consequences, including potentially not being welcome in the space anymore.
   
   This workshop will give participants an understanding of the best practices for writing a code of conduct, as well as strategies for getting people to know it exists and to follow it. By the end of class, you'll have the beginnings of a draft, which you can send to Consent Academy to review. 
    
5. Trauma-Informed Practices - June 3, 2023
   What does a trauma response look like? What do you do when someone is having one? How should you behave when someone tells you about something traumatic? 
   
   In this class, we'll cover the foundational skills for interacting with trauma, including how to recognize and tend to trauma responses, as well as tools to protect yourself from secondary trauma and prevent burnout. 
    

6. Harm Creates Responsibility: A Guide to Consent Incidents - June 10, 2023
   When harm occurs, the last thing you want to do is cause more harm. 
   
   This workshop gives insight and skills for responding to a consent incident without causing additional harm; focusing on how to get information in a compassionate, trauma-informed way. We’ll cover the basics of interviewing and evaluating an incident. If you're in a position where you might find yourself responsible for supporting people and deciding what to do in the immediate aftermath of a consent incident, this class is for you.
    

7. Beyond the Ban: Options for Accountability - June 24, 2023
   What happens after someone’s consent is violated? How do you support the person harmed? The person accused of harm? How do you even begin to work with something this emotional, complex, and charged? 

   For many leaders, the first response is to permanently ban the person accused of harm. But there are more options for accountability, each with pros and cons. This workshop provides an introduction to what different accountability processes can look like, centering harm reduction and transformation for all involved. 
    

8. Personal Accountability for Leadership - July 1, 2023
   Cancel culture, rumors, or simply letting people down can be terrifying in a culture of retaliation and punitive justice. This fear can create a kind of instinct to deflect, deny, or defend against any accusation of wrongdoing. But this never makes the problem disappear. Not taking accountability as a leader causes loss of trust, and can drive away valuable members of our communities and organizations. 

   Everyone has times when they need to take accountability, including those in leadership. As the face of an organization, sometimes you even have to take accountability for the actions of those you represent. Personal accountability for leadership comes with unique challenges, especially around making public statements, balancing confidentiality, transparency, and the reputation and stability of your organization. This workshop goes over best practices, helping leaders reduce their fears of owning mistakes, so they can act with integrity when it really matters.  
    

9. (Optional) - Consent and Leadership Lab: The Problems, Difficulties, and Challenges: July 8, 2023
   Consent is complex and full of the unexpected. In this lab, we discuss what to do when you don’t know what to do. 

   The Consent and Leadership Lab is a space where leaders can come together, speak openly about the challenges of creating consent cultures, and work through potential solutions. We’ll have case studies to examine, but your questions and concerns are centered, whether it’s about a specific incident, codes of conduct, accountability processes, or consent culture in general.
   
   This session will not be recorded, so participants can speak freely and confidentially and get feedback and input from fellow leaders on pressing issues. Current cohort students can bring anyone they wish to this session - fellow organizers, board members, co-workers, peers, etc. 
    

Who is the Consent and Leadership Series for?

Anyone in formal and informal positions of leadership who finds their work expanding to include issues around consent, such as ethics, interpersonal conflict, and harm. If you host events, teach, organize, manage, or supervise people; if you are just the one people go to when a problem around consent comes up; if you care about creating consensual spaces and have some power to influence others — then this series is for you. 

What else should I know?

• This is an online class via Zoom. Zoom link and instructions will be emailed the day before and 30 minutes before the workshop begins.
• Each workshop will be recorded for later viewing. The slides will also be made available.
• Class time is listed in Pacific Time. Use this time zone converter to see what time the class will be for you: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
• Pay-What-You-Can tickets are open to anyone who needs them. Choose the ticket that is best for you.
• There are also a small number of discounted tickets available. If you are experiencing financial hardship, please inquire.
• Please let us know by email if you have any questions, access needs, or things that would aid in your learning: theconsentacademy@gmail.com

About the Consent Academy:

The Consent Academy is an educational collective based out of Seattle, WA with volunteers all over the world. Our mission is to teach consent in all of its complexity, aspects, and potential. With over 60 years of education experience collectively, our approach incorporates disciplines of psychology, sociology, public health, psychotherapy, and personal coaching to create a systemic view of how consent impacts everyone, from the bedroom to the boardroom. We believe consent is part of everyday life and its practice builds stronger, safer, and more connected communities. For more information, visit us at www.consent.academy.