At 12:21 PM 9/8/00 -0700, you wrote:
Now they are in the process of planning for youth services, and they
have contacted me to use OS. The idea is to hold a couple of OS
meetings in the province to bring youth (13-19 or thereabouts) together
to get from them a sense of their needs in the victim services field.
We still need to identify who will be invited and why and what they will
be asked about, but a tricky question has come up, and I'm suffering
from a bout of either/or paralysis.
So? Whaddya think?
Chris
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My inclination would be to invite anybody who cares and forget questions
(yours) about gender, sexual preference etc. With a totally mixed group
you/they would get a marvelous view of what is really going on -- and I
have to believe that the participants would learn an enormous amount from
each other. But if you go for the "whole enchillada" -- it is absolutely
critical that the invitation be a real one (which means that folks truly
understand what is going to happen AND they have the freedom to turn it
down) -- Law of Two Feet writ LARGE. The issue is an ethical one. If
folks, of their own free will choose to engage what should be a powerful,
useful and (for some) healing conversation -- they must do it voluntarily
and with as full fore-knowledge as you can manage.
Useful alternatives are to convene separate OS for each of the several
groups -- the three "Gs" (Guys, Gals, Gays). Actually that might be worth
doing in and of itself. I can imagine young ladies finding great meaning
and healing in the opportunity to talk openly and honestly with peers. Rape
is such a lonely-making happening. Nobody else could possibly understand...
And the same might be true of the Gays/Lesbians.All this might turn into
some very substantial support groups. Of course, the Guys are so macho they
do not need support.
And of course, you could do all of the above -- just because you don't have
anything else to do.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-469-9269
fax 301-983-9314
Summer Phone 207-763-3261
Summer Address
189 Beaucaire Ave.
Camden, ME 04843
website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
Open Space Institute website www.openspaceworld.org
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