Bystander Intervention Training: DISABILITY???

The announcement in original form

 AFSC BYSTANDER INTERVENTION TRAINING SEPT 24, 2020

Tacoma Friends Meeting has made arrangements with American Friends Service Committee for bystander intervention training on Sept. 24, 3:30-5 pm, via Zoom. This event is open to everyone and there is no fee for the training, but participants must Register Here  to receive a Zoom invitation two days prior to the session. Space is limited, so early sign-up is encouraged. Now more than ever it is important that we not just be bystanders, but that we be prepared to witness and assist if needed. In bystander intervention training, we learn how to intervene in public instances of racist, sexist, and other forms of interpersonal violence and harassment -- learning both what to do and what not to do. The training session will be led by Lucy Duncan, AFSC's Director for Friends Relations and an experienced trainer & online course instructor. This opportunity has been arranged by Tacoma Friends and is co-sponsored by Associated Ministries, an interfaith nonprofit organization in Tacoma. Questions? Contact Chris Ferguson (Tacoma Friends) at cdf@plu.edu or Sandy Windley (Associated Ministries) at sandyw@associatedministries.org

This is a great training. RantWoman had a chance to attend it at the 2019 NPYM Annual Session. RantWoman is also really excited for the opportunity to participate with members of other faith communities. And RantWoman is seasoning matters to do with disability.

RantWoman humbly acknowledges both her own capacity to be a serious problem child and a need to work also with disability and ableism.

The first thing RantWoman would do:

Now more than ever it is important that we not just be bystanders, but that we be prepared to witness and assist if needed. In bystander intervention training, we learn how to intervene in public instances of racist, sexist,  ABLEIST and other forms of interpersonal violence and harassment -- learning both what to do and what not to do. The training session will be led by Lucy Duncan, ...

[RantWoman mentions ableism specifically because RantWoman knows other blind people who have been subjected to creepy disability-related harassment on the street and worse than average.]

The next thing RantWoman would do: explicitly invite participants to make any access needs known. Some people will be comfortable contacting event organizers. Some will not. 

RantWoman ALWAYS has to think about accessibility for events. In this case RantWoman's main issues will be  some meeting process / visual cues points and the inaccessibility to screen reader users of things shared in Zoom chat and the practices RantWoman finds most helpful. In this case, Bystander Intervention Materials

provide plenty of resources. Others attending might also find it helpful to post links in the chat.

Next RantWoman will humbly note that when RantWoman attended this workshop previously, RantWoman spent a chunk of time after almost every topic raised by the presenter mumbling to herself something like "...or a person with a disability..." or "Could be a person with a disability." 

RantWoman realizes this behavior is obnoxious. One of the more steadfast disability and housign justice advocates in RantWoman's life outside Meeting has to be discouraged all the time from doing exactly what RantWoman was doing. (Advocate's capacity for doing this arises in part from an astounding list of medical issues and in part from missteps by her family's childhood Services for the Blind case manager, who happened to be a Quaker ) Anyway, RantWoman mid workshop realized she probably just needed to STOP IT.

In the workshop, an interesting thing happened: a volunteer was needed to play the role of someone just bothering people on the street. RantWoman does not remember the exact scenario. RantWoman does remember that the person who volunteered to be the harasser immediately began behaviors that for RantWoman registered as indicators of some kind of cognitive or mental health disability. The person who volunteered to intervene was successful about whatever the task was whether ending the behavior or just getting past the situation on the sidewalk, This volunteer also accomplished what was needed without a hint of ableism that RantWoman could detect. After the roleplay, at least one person commenting did pick up the disability issue. After the workshop, the person who volunteered to play the role of the harasser sheepishly said they would have no idea how to be a real harasser, but RantWoman thought the Friend was perfect as they played the part. 

RantWoman realizes it would be good just to take her questions and comments to the event organizers. However, RantWoman gets tired of needing to say the same things over and over and hopes to be able to recycle a good bit of what is here.

But now, on your mark, get set, Zoom