Facilitator Skills and Qualities

More than 5,000 skilled facilitators are a part of AmericaSpeaks‘ national and international network of professional and dedicated volunteers who serve at 21st Century Town Meetings®.

Table facilitators support small group discussions among diverse citizens and ensure all voices of participants are heard. Skills and qualities held by facilitators in the network include:

• Significant experience facilitating small-group face-to-face deliberation, building toward shared agreement while holding respectful space for difference
• Ability to focus on one’s own small group while maintaining overarching responsibility to the total assembled group
• Deep listening skills; able to hear both unique individual voices and also emergent common themes
• Comfort with diversity and emotion on many dimensions
• Awareness of one’s own thoughts, opinions and feelings with the ability transcend them to stay in a facilitation role despite any personal stake in the outcome of the conversation

Join AmericaSpeaks’ Facilitator Network

If you have those qualities and would like to become a facilitator for future meetings, please join the facilitator network by signing up below.