Social Justice Program Guides

Host a Social Justice Program

Fostering an anti-racist community starts with intentional programming. This page includes a series of guides that can help student leaders develop meaningful social justice programming. You’ll find:

  • Full facilitation guides
  • Learning outcomes
  • List of necessary materials

If you would like to contribute a program to this list, please contact the Student Engagement Center.

Social Justice Program Guides

Our guides are organized by areas of interest. Within each category, click on the name of the activity to download a guide.

  • Tapped Into Awareness: An experiential activity that explores the concept of socialization and who has power in society.
  • Privilege Chains: By adding and removing links on a paper chain, participants can explore the concepts of privilege and oppression related to their social identities.
  • Truth Trivia: An interactive quiz show format that covers a broad range of social justice issues in the United States: social class, race, gender, sexuality, etc. 
  • Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood: An interactive program where participants design their ideal city, but see how discrimination is just around the corner in the neighborhood.
  • Cross the Line: Learn first hand about people’s experiences as members of dominant and subordinate groups. If you feel brave, cross the line…
  • It’s in the Cards: Ever been treated as less than? Find your worth in the cards and be treated as the joker or the king.

  • Moral Conversations: This experience is about learning to have respectful conversations where participants make a commitment to listen to each other with the sole purpose of understanding.
  • Pre-Program Difficult Conversations: An activity that can be done before a high-risk social justice program. Helps participants confront their anxiety of having a conversation about topics that are sensitive or controversial.
  • Trust Activity: An experiential activity where participants lead another individual around a room without using any verbal commands/cues. Can be used before high risk programs to talk about issues of trust, risk taking, etc
  • Concentric Circles: Commonalities and Differences? Its all in the circles. Learn about your partners and make new connections.
  • Where I’m From Poems: Words have a big impact in someone’s life. Tell your story by writing a poem to express your background in your own powerful words.

  • A Taste of Difference: Using ice cream sundaes and coloring with crayons, this introductory level activity helps get participants thinking about what identities they and others hold.
  • Family Portrait: An experiential activity where participants map out their family and family dynamics using other participants.
  • Identity Circle: By asking participants to self-identify by moving in and out of a circle, this activity gets participants thinking about what identities they and others hold.
  • Really You: Pick a roommate from the list of 6 individuals, but will your choice change as you learn more about the person.

  • Universal Design: Participants physically assess a space for accessibility needs, explore the definitions of “disability,” and learn about the concept of universal design.

  • Attending Gender: Participants answer questions in pairs to stimulate thinking about gender.
  • Gender Rules for Intimacy: The purpose of this activity is to gain awareness of individual perceptions of gender roles and gendered rules of intimacy.

  • Common Ground–Religion: By asking participants to self-identify by moving in and out of a circle, this activity gets participants thinking about what religious/spiritual identities are in the room.
  • Interfaith Four Squares: Using a provided quiz sheet, participants test their knowledge on religious diversity.
  • Institutional and Cultural Web of Religious Oppression: Participants construct a “web of oppression” by sharing examples of how non-dominant religious groups experience oppression in the US.

  • LGBTQ Clue: Can you figure out the heterosexual person in the bunch? Come play the game and learn why stereotypes aren’t the best way to interact with anyone.