ENS’s community speaker policy is co-designed with people affected by statelessness and provides good practice guidance on how to engage and work with community speakers.
This policy can be used by event organisers and stateless changemakers to make speaking engagements a more supportive and empowering experience. The development of this policy and its importance for community members is best explained by this blog, written by Lynn Khatib.
The ENS community speaker policy aims include:
- More voices of representatives of stateless communities are present in advocacy spaces and spaces of influence.
- ENS has a more streamlined process to inform community members and activists of speaking opportunities.
- Community speakers at ENS events feel safe, empowered, confident and articulate in what they wish to communicate.
- Community speakers at ENS events or referred by the ENS Secretariat feel confident to set their by-line and decide the content of their presentation.
- Community speakers at ENS events or referred by the ENS Secretariat don’t feel pressured to share their ‘lived-experiences’ when agreeing on speaking engagements unless they choose to do so.
Other best practice topics addressed include remuneration, by-lines, guidance on how to approach new speakers, prepare them for events, support them during speaking engagements and check in with them afterwards.
Resources
As practical resources, the external policy offers step-by-step process for organisations wishing to improve their current practice. The individual community speaker policy is a template that offers a range of example by-lines or boundaries that our community representatives have struggled with in the past – you can delete or edit this until it reflects your needs. Should you like support with this process, get in touch with ENS.
