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SDE Facilitator Supports and Resources
Whether one is currently working as an SDE facilitator or is in charge of hiring SDE facilitators, this article shares insights into daily and long-term supports, resources, and practices that current SDE facilitators have found useful.
Janice McDonald
Janice (she/her) is an unschooling mom and Editor of Tipping Points Magazine. She loves connecting with others through sharing stories.
August 16th, 2024

This is Part Two of a two-part SDE Facilitator series.

Part One explores what an SDE facilitator is, what they do, where to find jobs, and signs that becoming an SDE facilitator might not be a good fit. Find Part One: How to Become an SDE Facilitator here.

Part Two focuses on sharing insights into daily and long-term supports, resources, and practices that current SDE facilitators have found useful.

Index:

Introduction

When I started gathering responses for this article, I had originally thought it would all end up in one article. In trying to figure out how to structure the article, I realized that I had two main articles – one for those considering becoming an SDE facilitator and one for current SDE facilitators.

Therefore, for this article, I’ll assume the reader already knows what an SDE facilitator is and their potential roles. For anyone who needs a refresher, see Part One: How to Become an SDE Facilitator here.

Working as an SDE Facilitator

On-boarding for New SDE Facilitators

The amount of training and onboarding that SDE centers do for new facilitators seems to vary based on the center and how small or newly established they are. It seems like several of them consider each individual they hire and tailor how much support is needed on a case-by-case basis. If someone is already familiar with working in this type of environment, most centers feel they don’t need newly hired facilitators to do any other training related to working with youth. A few centers connect new facilitators with established ones in a mentorship role. Amy Damant, Celebrate Learning, said her center works under a charity that has its own requirement of child safety training. Having a visit day or trial period seems to be fairly commonplace so that the current staff and founders can see how new facilitators interact with the community. A lot of training is experiential and learned while on the job.

Here’s a list of possible training or onboarding a new SDE facilitator might receive:

  • Being paired up with an established facilitator as a mentor
  • Access to an operations manual or handbook
  • Training on systems and processes used in the space, possibly including Incident Report Procedures
  • Special check-in times, either throughout the day or after a longer period to see how things are going and if additional support is needed
  • Processing experiences together with other facilitators, as needed
  • Support with paperwork and other administrative type tasks
  • Orientation to the flow or schedule of the day
  • An introduction to the community norms and agreements that are already in place
  • Information on non-evaluative language, nervous system co-regulation, conflict resolution, decolonizing non-violent communication, and more

Daily Supports:

Here’s a list of activities that SDE facilitators find helpful on a day-to-day basis:

  • Getting enough sleep and rest throughout the day, as needed
  • Deep breathing
  • Slowing down and meditating
  • Eating well
  • Setting boundaries
  • Taking time for self-reflection
  • Intentional movement, such as walks
  • Self-regulating and co-regulating
  • Interacting with pets
  • Being in nature
  • Chocolate
  • Gardening
  • Practicing awareness of one’s needs and capacity
  • Gratitude
  • End-of-day group processing
  • Talking with friends, partners, family

Self-Care and Connecting with One’s Mind and Body

Several activities above could count as taking care of one’s self. The ironic thing that can happen in stressful situations, is that the things that help people handle stress are sometimes the last things on the list – eating well, getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, and connecting to one’s breath. These types of activities are especially important to Oxana Ostrovskaya, Luminary Learning Village, who said, “Right now we are looking for partnerships with mindfulness programs, that can equip our facilitators and parents with meditations, that help create deeper understanding of one’s feelings, fears, mental dialogue, physical sensations. As it seems to be one of the important skills that facilitators have to have to some degree, or have desire to learn.”

Nervous System Reset

Annie Friday, formerly Blue Bridge ALC, said, “I have found that our best facilitators already have their own awareness and routines to support the nervous system resets that are needed throughout the day and in their off time. Since what we do isn’t as ‘sanitized’ as a conventional school teaching job, we deal in direct conflicts often. So much of our day is conflict resolution support or witnessing.”

Connecting with Others

We need each other. It was important to several contributors that they found other facilitators they felt comfortable leaning on in their center for support. Sometimes this was done through group processing of events or daily check-ins. Besides those that they worked with, facilitators also connected with other community members, friends, family, and partners to support them when times were tough.

Long-Term Supports:

These were categorized as things that support people to stay in a facilitator role long-term. Several of them are similar to the activities listed in the daily supports section.

  • Lots of patience
  • Positive outlook
  • Reframing “failures” as opportunities for growth
  • Willingness to confront adultism head-on
  • Finding nonjudgmental people to process events and feelings with
  • Challenging one’s own and other people’s assumptions
  • Playing and being silly
  • Professional development, such as learning better communication skills
  • Facilitator-only days at the center for connection-building, etc.
  • Financial independence
  • Loving this work and finding purpose in it
  • Nonviolent communication skills
  • Setting boundaries and understanding one’s limits
  • Taking breaks
  • Communicating needs and fears with coworkers
  • Talking with a group of other facilitators

Annie Friday, formerly Blue Bridge ALC, said, “We realized in our first year that we didn’t have enough facilitator-only days. Originally we thought of them like we would in conventional schools – as in-service days for professional development. But really the greater development was in these soft skills like establishing culture and camaraderie, talking about community care, and learning nervous system resets like a short breathing routine or physical movement practice that we could incorporate throughout the day with young people too.”

Beyond only studying SDE philosophy, a facilitator might benefit from gaining knowledge about child development, psychology, unconditional positive regard, positive youth development, intentional culture creation, consent, group decision-making, collaboration, emotional safety, group belonging, restorative justice, repair work, and collective liberation.

Defining Success as an SDE Facilitator

As a one-on-one SDE coach, Dominique Paloma Bible, Off Da Beaten Path Learning LLC, feels successful when a child has a choice and makes choices that are in alignment with their needs and wants, even if that means the young person chooses to stop working with Dominique.

Some facilitators consider the outcomes of their time working with kids and define success as helping young people:

  • Access their agency
  • Build confidence and responsibility
  • Attune to their needs
  • Advocate for themselves
  • Express their authenticity
  • Have fun playing
  • See something that needs to be done and feel empowered to do it
  • Feel connected to each other, the facilitators, the world
  • Be in touch with their emotions and feel emotional safety with the facilitator
  • Include other people
  • Feel safe to say no
  • Create the life they want
  • Feel seen, heard, supported, and loved unconditionally

Even though Bria Bloom, Flying Squad Portland, rejects the schoolish notion of success, she shared that she knows she’s doing something right when “the young people feel safe to bring things to me, when they feel safe to tease me, swear in front of me, and generally do the things or talk about the things they would think many adults judge them for.” With young people who don’t share things as openly, she measures success on whether the relationship feels good and supportive.

Andrea Cubelo-McKay, Embark Center for Self-Directed Education, defines success as when “kids feel supported and respected by me. They know they can and they will seek me out to support them.”

Recognition & Appreciation

Although I didn’t ask specifically about recognition and appreciation, I get the sense that this type of work and the people who do it often don’t receive enough recognition, appreciation, or praise for their work and efforts. I can see how facilitators might not ask for this because it is often purpose-driven work; they do it because they care about the people, not the accolades. Yet, this doesn’t mean that they don’t want or deserve recognition. The work is hard, emotional, and messy. The things that can help a facilitator stay strong in hard times are often short emails of gratitude or simple pats on the back acknowledging that “Yes, you are making a difference. I see that and value it. I see you and value you.” If an SDE community knew how impactful recognizing the facilitators’ efforts was, they might be willing to give small acknowledgments more often, thus boosting morale and helping with retention.

Burnout

Burnout can often come alongside not enough recognition and appreciation. While there aren’t specific statistics to reflect burnout in SDE spaces, there is fairly high turnover across varying types of youth and education work. Spencer Babcock, Rock Tree Sky, said, “Managing the emotional demands of supporting a self-directed learning community can be challenging. Burnout and compassion fatigue are real possibilities. Practicing self-care, seeking support from colleagues and maintaining boundaries are essential for sustainable resilience and well-being in facilitating.” While SDE centers have considerably more freedom to create structures that mitigate burnout, there could be invisible pressures working against good intentions. The effects of school culture, such as perfectionism, scarcity mindset, either/or thinking and more, can show up even in SDE communities. Therefore, it can be especially important to preemptively look for and recognize the early warning signs of burnout and find solutions together. Facilitators can listen to an experience of burnout and why it’s important to deschool grind culture in this episode of Radical Learning Talks Podcast – “Burnout: Deschooling Grind Culture”.

Professional Development Resources

Spencer Babcock, Rock Tree Sky, said, “There are numerous resources available for individuals interested in learning how to become a Self-Directed Education facilitator. A year or so into my SDE journey I learned about the Open Masters and realized that I could self-direct my own path to learning everything I needed, to work in the SDE field, instead of going back to school to get a graduate degree to study SDE. Practicing an SDE path to learning about SDE facilitation made sense. I designed my own path, choosing books, articles, videos, workshops and internships to take me on the path to getting a job as an SDE facilitator.”

Playwork

According to The Playwork Principles website, “Playwork is an approach to working with children that aims to support and facilitate the play process – and the emerging profession that practices this approach. Different play or playwork organisations define or describe playwork in slightly different ways.” One of the first times I encountered the term, “playworker” was in relation to adventure playgrounds. This article by Alexander Khost and Yoni Kallai talks more in-depth about playworkers. I can see how an SDE facilitator might use some of the same principles when figuring out what to do at a center. A few other playwork resources can be found here:

SDE Facilitator-Specific Trainings and Certification Programs

Here are a few other resources specifically designed for SDE facilitators:

Conclusion

There are many different ways current SDE facilitators are supported, such as, by gaining knowledge and skills, taking care of themselves, and receiving care from their communities. I’m hopeful that, in the future, there will be systemic changes that keep supporting this unique, and often underappreciated, role in raising the next generation. But for now, perhaps, it’s worth letting them know how much they are valued. A little appreciation can go a long way.

Other Facilitator Resources

Index:

SDE-Adjacent Content

Books

Articles

Videos

Films

Websites and Blogs

Podcasts

Online Courses and Webinars

Online Communities and Groups

A community that understands the specific struggles that an SDE facilitator faces is so important. Otherwise, the advice given might not actually be helpful. Here are some online communities to check out:

Events and Conferences

General Resources

One could also connect with their state-wide homeschool organizations to better understand the laws and legal loopholes.

General Trainings and Certification Programs

There are plenty of resources on various topics that are not specifically related to Self-Directed Education that could benefit a facilitator. Below are some keywords to start a search:

  • A Right to Be Bystander Intervention Training
  • Antiracism and decolonization education
  • CPR and First Aid Training
  • LGBTQIA+ education
  • Life coaching
  • Mandatory Reporter Training
  • Marketing, social media management
  • Mental Health First Aid
  • Neurodivergent education
  • Non-violent communication training
  • Quickbooks and bookkeeping
  • Reparenting/inner child work
  • Restorative justice
  • Sociocratic governance or Sociocracy Trainings
  • Transformative justice
  • Youth mentoring

Books

Videos

Websites

Podcasts

Article Contributors:

in alphabetical order

If you did not get a chance to contribute to this article and have a perspective or resource that you feel is missing, feel free to email janice@self-directed.org.

Janice McDonald
Janice (she/her) is an unschooling mom and Editor of Tipping Points Magazine. She loves connecting with others through sharing stories.

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