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Role Play Principles

Plan role plays ahead of time to make the situations as realistic and relevant as possible.

• Start with situations that will be relatively easy for role players to handle so you can build group confidence.  Be sure, however, that before the role playing is over you have tried the most difficult situations people will be facing. After all, the point of the exercise is to make people feel ready to handle those situations.

• Give each person a copy of the guidelines shown on the following page and review the guidelines with the group.

• Decide how to use your most experienced people. If you use them in the first role play, they can provide a model for others. However, watching them first can intimidate less experienced people, who may feel, “You can do it because you’re experienced, but we won’t be able to measure up.”

Another strategy is to mix the veterans with less experienced people so they can help keep the role play moving successfully.

Yet another approach is to use them last to provide a positive conclusion to the session.