Online Evaluation of Empowering Social Justice Advocates

Penn State University: L-R Allison Subasic (Director, LGBTA SRC), Bruce Smail & Jessie Sell - Consultants & Co-Facilitators

In March 2011, Bruce Smail Consulting coordinated the Social Justice Symposium at Penn State University. We conducted an online evaluation survey of the Empowering Social Justice Advocates training for Penn State Students. Over 50% of the participants completed the online evaluation (see link below). Many thanks to my colleague, Jessie Sell, for co-facilitating this workshop and the LGBTA Student Resource Center for contracting our services and hosting the event during their Pride Week Celebration at Penn State University.

Click on the link for the PDF of the Evaluation: Evaluations_EmpoweringSocialJusticeAdvocates_PennStateUniv

Highlights – Overall Comments:

• It was a great experience.
• Time schedule may have made this a bit to tight for additionnal, more in-depth discussions and questions (that may account for the feeling that you responded to the questions openly, but that improvement could be gained). But I understand this is very ard to improve since a full-day program is already a lot. I would suggest a two-stage training, on 2 following WE, for the ones willing to go further. I am also sure that this training would interest the people in women’s studies, so it might be worth sending to their listserv the invitation for the event (but in that case, the feel, atmosphere and expectations for the event will probably be different).
• This presentation wouldn’t have been nearly as effective without the presenters allowing themselves to be vulnerable and open.
• The only thing that bothered me was the lack of interest of some of the group. I guess there is not much the two of you can do about this other than trying to create a stronger sense of seriousness and importance before and during the training. Don’t be afraid to redirect and re-focus some of the attendees if you feel that you need to. Thanks so much for coming!
• Freakin’ awesome!
• This was amazing. I learned a lot and it was a lot of fun!
• I found this experience to be very empowering and would love to do it again.
• The presenters were really great. They were helpful but made you think and helped to facilitate some really wonderful conversations.
• This was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done, definitely worth a Saturday.