Factuality: A game changer for social work regulators

The game is changing in social work regulation. The ASWB Education Meeting, held in Arlington, Virginia, in early May, explored some of those changes and discussed how social work regulators can position themselves and their organizations to face the challenges ahead.

One highlight of the meeting was playing FACTUALITY, an interactive board game created and facilitated by keynote speaker Natalie Gillard. This two-part immersive experience was designed to enhance attendees’ awareness of how race, class, gender, faith, sexual orientation, ability, and age can affect outcomes in people’s lives.

Using a board game of her own design, enhanced by facilitated dialogue and audience participation, Gillard created an immersive experience designed to simulate fact-based inequities in society.

Gillard created FACTUALITY nearly a decade ago to address the urgent need for an accessible approach to raising awareness about the impact of inequity. Since then, she has led virtual and in-person programs for more than 61,000 global participants in corporate, educational, and nonprofit settings on six continents. Her natural creativity was nurtured at Cambridge Montessori School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which emphasized tactile and experiential learning. That early background, combined with her fondness for board games, sparked an idea. “I loved the games Monopoly and Life as a kid, and I thought, ‘What if the rules, that deck of game cards, included past and present U.S. policies?’ How would I fare if I, a Black woman, were a pawn, and the rules were based on facts about this country? And most importantly, how would other groups fare on that very same game board?”

Reflections

“The game was validating,” said ASWB Chief Executive Officer Stacey Hardy-Chandler. “The format was innovative and provided a psychological component to information that wasn’t necessarily new. The visceral response people experienced went beyond something they might only read or hear.”

“This session gave regulators a chance to dig deeper into their intrinsic biases and get a better understanding of what impoverished and marginalized communities deal with throughout their life journeys,” said Alverta Muhammad of Ohio. “It gave participants the time and place to have very difficult conversations.”

Megan Battaile, ASWB executive leadership manager, said, “My character, Mason, a Black man, was different from me, a white woman. However, his experience is intimately connected to my heart, as I navigate raising a biracial son who will soon be a Black man. This exercise helped me understand the complex world my son will journey through and the obstacles he will face based solely on the color of his skin.”

“ASWB’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Committee recommended that we take advantage of this innovative opportunity, and I think it was well worth the investment,” said Hardy-Chandler. “I hope we can continue to offer our members unique experiences like this.”

To learn more about Natalie Gillard and FACTUALITY, visit factualitythegame.com.