Facilitation is essentially a very powerful tool in enabling and promoting equality amongst people; all facilitators believe that genuine participation is an essential means to effective group, community, organisational and societal development. In this sense, promoting Inclusion should be the business of all facilitators; indeed, this is clearly spelled out as one of the IAF Core Values and in IAF Core Competence C2, which states that facilitators should “honour and recognise diversity, ensuring inclusiveness.”

This Special Interest Group was started in 2018 and grew out of a larger network of Social Inclusion Facilitators, mostly based in Africa, that have been working for many years to use Facilitation as a means of tackling discrimination, exclusion and oppression in order to promote Social Cohesion and Inclusion.

The group currently has more than 40 members from the following countries – Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Netherlands, Romania, Rwanda, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda, UK, and USA. The group has the following objectives::

• To act as a means of organising for Social Inclusion facilitators globally
• To promote Social Inclusion facilitation amongst IAF members
• Development of Facilitation methods and Techniques in relation to Social Inclusion and for specific groups, e.g. people with disabilities (deaf, blind etc.), illiterate people, LGBTIQ communities, etc.
• To promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion through the work of the Special Interest Group.
• Sharing of learning, information, resources and services

• The group has a monthly meeting, which is usually advertised on the IAF website and open to any interested facilitator who wishes to participate
• An active whatsapp group for sharing and discussion of relevant issues
• Engagement with members and other facilitators on issues of Participation and Inclusion in Facilitation through the “I Can’t Breathe” sessions, which were inspired by the global anti-racist protests that took place after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020
• Development of resources related to anti-oppressive and inclusive facilitation; and diversity, equity and inclusion in general

To become involved with this group, please contact us via email here