What Is it All About?
Organize small-group focus sessions with an expert in your community to share key knowledge and facilitate an open conversation on cannabis topics. Small-group sessions can be organized at different times focusing on topics relevant to different groups such as your peers, younger students, or your community.
Why Do It?
Small-group sessions can provide a safe space for others to think about an issue, talk openly, and ask questions that they may feel uncomfortable asking in a larger group. They also provide an opportunity to explore a topic from multiple perspectives and promote everyone’s well-being.
How Do We Do It?
Determine the group or groups you want to engage in small-group dialogue about topics related to cannabis (e.g., peers, younger students, parents/guardians/caregivers, community members)
Determine which topics are of interest to your target group(s) and the questions they might have about cannabis.
Set some goals for the session(s) based on the interests of your target group(s). What do participants want to take away from the conversation?
Work with an adult ally to invite your community expert (e.g., from Public Health or a local community organization). Meet with them to talk about the goals of the session, the format (small-group discussion), the content, and the questions they might address based on the interests of your target group(s).
Determine the number of sessions you want to run. If you have a large number of participants who are interested in the same session, you might want to run more than one session in order to keep the number of participants in each session small.
Book the time and space for each session and advertise sessions to your target audience. You may want participants to sign up so you can manage the size of the groups.
Make sure other supports are available, such as counsellors, adult allies, resources, or support groups, in case anyone experiences renewed trauma or related emotions as a result of participating in this activity.
Ideas for Use in a Variety of Settings
Use a shared document with your team members to decide on the group you want to engage, the topics of interest to your target group(s), the questions they might have about cannabis, and the goals for the session.
Use available technology to meet with your invited community expert to talk about the goals of the session, the format, the content, and the questions they might address based on the interests of your target group(s).
Use available technology to run your session. Consider using an online calendar for participants to register for your session so you know how many are interested in attending. Consider running more than one session if you have a large number of interested participants.
Use available technology to survey participants at the end of the session in order to learn what other topics they might like to learn about in future sessions.
Have experts invite participants on a virtual field trip to their organization to find out more about their services.
What Else Do We Need?
- A community expert
- Access to other supports such as mental health professionals or counsellors
- A host for each session; Members of your team can volunteer to host different sessions
- A place to ask questions anonymously, which can later be used for conversation starters or video ideas to spark conversation such as Can I drive high?
- Honorarium if required for expert
How Do We Get Creative?
Create a podcast with the guest speaker using a free podcast creator tool such as Podcast creator.
Have students ask questions on the podcast and the experts offer solutions.
Have student experts in designated topics.
Have the facilitator describe a scenario ending in a “What would you do?”, then turn the discussion over to participants to handle the scenario by acting it out or by describing it in conversation. Remind the participants that their solution should be focused on harm reduction strategies.