RANGERS
Allies unite!
What you’ll need
- Pens or pencils
- Glue
- Paper
- Scissors
- Slips of paper
- A bowl
- A timer
Aim of the activity
What’s your allyship manifesto?! Work together to create a vision for an inclusive future.
Note to leader: If the maker is stuck on what to make in step 1 they could make a paper aeroplane or any simple paper craft. At step 6, challenging other’s behaviour refers to Ranger’s social circles only. If they want to learn more about how to safely challenge discrimination in other settings book a peer education session on the Girlguiding website and try out the Safe the world resource.
Want to understand more about inclusion? Check out the Including all training on our new learning platform. If you receive any disclosures or have a concern for welfare, follow our A Safe Space guidance.
Step by step
1
Get into small groups. One Ranger in each group is the maker, everyone else is a helper. Read the maker and helper instructions and start!
Maker - Sit down with some paper. Your task is to make something, anything! It’s your choice but don’t tell anyone what you’re making. You have to accept any item given to you by the helpers and use it - even if it’s not helpful. Once you’ve used it pass it back to the helpers.
Helpers - You’re going to help the maker by guessing what they might need and pass them an item to help them. You need to give as much help as possible (even if it looks like they don’t need it) – if the maker folds a piece of paper, maybe they need glue to stick it, or scissors to cut it?
2
Makers - what were you trying to make? Did the helpers help? What do you think the helpers could have done to actually help and make the task easier?
Top tip
Help is not always helpful, especially when we don’t listen or ask how we can help. We all want to support others, especially in the face of discrimination or inequality, and it’s really important to listen to how and when people want support. We call that being an ally.
3
Grab a bowl - together write down all the key values you think an ally needs to have on slips of paper and place them in the bowl. Maybe an ally should be good at listening, caring and learning?
4
Grab some paper and pens and get ready to draw. Take turns to pick a value out of the bowl but don’t show anyone which value you picked. You have one minute to draw a picture that represents that value. Everyone else, shout out ideas and try and guess what the value is before the time runs out!
5
How was it drawing the different values? Were there any that were really difficult to represent as a drawing? Together discuss which values you think are the most important.
It’s great to talk more about how we can support others but it’s also important to think about how we can turn our ideas into actions. A manifesto is a list of things that you are going to do to achieve something important to you. For example, political parties make manifestos to let people know what they want to do when they get into government.
6
It’s time to make an allyship manifesto for your unit! Get a piece of paper and work together to decide how you want to support others in your unit and beyond. Use the steps to becoming an ally to get you started.
Steps to becoming an ally
- Learn - you can do your own research and read to learn more about equality issues.
- Listen - the people who know the most about inequality and discrimination are the people who face it every day.
- Speak up (in your social circles and when you feel safe) - say something when a friend or family member says something insensitive.
- Take part - there are so many ways to support others. Some people join protests or sign petitions. You can also take part by being inclusive every day and supporting those around you.
- Learn from your mistakes - we all get things wrong sometimes. The most important thing is to keep learning and growing.
7
You’ve made your manifesto, take a minute to read it through. What could you do to help you stick to it?
Take it further
Make your allyship manifesto into poster that you can keep in your unit space. Allyship is a journey and a commitment to small, everyday acts of inclusion as well as supporting larger campaigns for equality.