Thank you for taking the time to watch our video! Our research team is interested in your feedback. Does this program seem like something that would be of value at your institution? Do you have similar programs at your institution, and if so, how do you encourage participation?

AWED Theater, the interactive, educational theater program incorporated into the workshop, is geared towards addressing the multicultural intersectional identities that are characteristic of FIU, Hispanic-serving institutions, and the region as a whole. For more information, leave us a message or visit go.fiu.edu/awedtheater.

I just got the chance to do a bystander training at my institution and it was definitely an eye opening experience for me, and I found myself nodding in agreement with the people you interviewed for your wonderful video. I think this kind of training is really valuable and I would love to see it implemented more broadly. Do you have any plans to offer it outside of your institution? What do you think of the train the trainers model for expanding a program like this?

The testimonials in the video suggest that the Bystander Leadership Program has been quite engaging and educative, and comments suggest that it has the power not only to raise awareness but also to change faculty behavior!  It was also encouraging to read that over 150 faculty have been trained--impressive.  

I am wondering whether/how you are studying the impact of this Program.  Have you collected data on initial changes that faculty make following participation?  What, if any, expectations do you have for longer term change at FIU?

Thanks for your question, Karen.  We are indeed gathering data about faculty behavior over the short and long term after the intervention, and we will begin analyzing our results over the summer.

In addition, for the sake of broadening our impact, we anticipate developing "refresher" or "booster" sessions that will help faculty reflect on what they have tried and get re-energized to continue to the work.  We also want to track how information about bystander and other initiatives diffuses through the faculty, so we are exploring ways to track (and ultimately tap) faculty-to-faculty networks of communication and support around diversity and equity issues.

If I didn't answer your question fully, Karen, I hope you'll ask a follow-up!

I loved your video and am encouraged by this program. Do you have advice or resources for folks who'd want to try something similar at their own institutions?

This sounds like a great program! I will be really interested in your data on faculty behavior, and especially the diffusion of impact through faculty networks. In this regard, are you doing anything to help faculty participants develop leadership skills and capacity around diversity and equity issues (e.g., is this a part of the bystander leadership program?)?

Hello Bystander Leadership team and visitors, Thank you for taking the time to put together such a great video about the project you are working on. Your description is also helpful, giving more of a sense of what prosocial intervention skills and strategies might be. I'm sure the universities I have been a part of are not alone in their need for something like this approach! So glad you are thinking beyond dry lecture-based harassment trainings that few relate to or recognize themselves in, toward skits mirroring everyday interactions that people are more likely to recognize while at the same time being disarmed by the softer, entertaining delivery. Why couldn't such a project move to taping skits and providing curriculum guides for wider dissemination? I'm even thinking of that old cable program "Supernanny" where family scenarios would be analyzed wisely...is extending your work anything you have considered?

Hi Sarah!  

Thanks for your comments.  I think that in addition to Sanaz's observations above, I would add that the "embodied practice" aspect of our training is as important as the contextual examples. 

Yes, we could develop online modules for broad dissemination, and they could work very well for highly motivated and well-informed participants, but in some ways that would represent a regression back to the slides-and-lecture sexual harassment trainings that did so little good for so many of us. 

Or, to put frame it more positively, I think the approach you mention could work very well for the "notice and interpret" steps of our model, but we don't yet know how to incorporate the critical steps of "assuming responsibility" and "taking action" into an asynchronous format.

With all that in mind, I think we are probably going to go the train-the-trainer route rather than taking a more mass-market/open-access approach to disseminating our work.  But as we continue to refine our work and interpret our results, we remain open to considering all the options, so thanks again for the suggestion!  

Dear Sarah: Thanks for your encouraging note! Our team met for 1.5 years to develop our content and strategy -- as the Bystander leader/developer, I was committed to having the day be almost entirely interactive (only a very few short powerpoints). Additionally, each component of the day builds on the previous. Participants first are oriented to take the perspective of others (Bystander STEPS 1-2: Notice and Interpret) and then move on to take increasing levels of responsibility in the interaction with multiple opportunities to practice intervening. First, they observe and discuss the skits with professional actors, then themselves act in defined skits, and finally create their own skits (Bystander STEPS 3-4-5: Lead by taking responsibility to intervene, decide how to intervene, then act). Part of what makes workshop effective is the opportunity for Ps to see what colleagues do --there is quite a range of creative responses. However, even more than that, what works is seeing how powerful it can be to act in concert with others. We think this community-building aspect is important to changing the norms of departmental climate, which is one of the ultimate goals of our NSF Institutional Transformation grant. We hope to have train-the-trainer materials available by the end of this summer and possibly offer sessions in 2020.  Your idea of taped skits is under consideration as a way to extend our work, but unfortunately, that won't provide the networking and community-building aspect that is so essential to changing climate. Thanks again for your thoughtful comments and suggestions.

Excellent video. Very interesting work. Thank you so much for sharing this.