Become a certified Be The Messenger facilitator
Deliver the Education Edition of the Be The Messenger training in your own district and beyond. Facilitators are selected and certified by Dr. Brian Chad Starks, in collaboration with the Center for Teacher Effectiveness.
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The Framework is built on four constructs
The Be The Messenger Framework examines how identity, culture, diversity, respect, power, and institutional practices shape human experiences, relationships, organizational behavior, and institutional outcomes. Everyone defines these four words a little differently. The work starts by asking how you define them, where your definition came from, and what happens when it meets someone else's.
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Identity
Who you areThe lens through which a person sees themselves as a unique individual, and the lens through which society sees individuals and groups, which may be grounded in labels, stereotypes, and biases.
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Culture
Where you come fromThe beliefs, values, norms, customs, language, and heritage of a particular group that are essential to their identity and that they use to navigate the world without apologizing. Often passed down from generation to generation.
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Diversity
What connects usA set of beliefs that values differences in perspectives, identities, backgrounds, religion, lifestyles, cultures, and languages. It includes, yet is more than, race, gender, and class. Differences are our strengths.
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Respect
How you show upTreating yourself and everyone in high regard by appreciating and valuing difference when it comes to identity, culture, and diversity.
"Get uncomfortable to get comfortable."
The Framework in fullThe Education Edition
The first application of the Framework is a full day for the adults in a school, delivered by Dr. Starks or a certified facilitator. By the end of the day, they can:
- Know the student's environment: the communities students come from
- Understand the school environment: how the school approaches discipline
- Define the four constructs and use them in the way they teach
- Practice the Messenger Method: Self-Reflection, Self-Awareness, and Self-Consciousness
- Understand bias and privilege
- Understand the collateral consequences of structural inequality
- Become Messengers
Designed for classroom teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, Title I staff, school administrators, school staff, athletic coaches, and school volunteers.
How you become a facilitator
Certification is by invitation. Take a short course, interview with Dr. Starks, and if it's a fit, you're in the next cohort.
- Take the short course. About 20 to 30 minutes, ending with a short application. Everyone who finishes gets to schedule an interview.
- Interview with Dr. Starks. A conversation about who you are, where you'd deliver the training, and whether this is the work for you.
- Certification. Two days of Content Mastery and one day of High-Impact Facilitation, delivered live by Dr. Starks with the Center for Teacher Effectiveness. Each cohort is announced as virtual or in person.
- Train where you're invited. Your own district, neighboring ones, and anywhere the training is requested.
Have a group of ten or more? Bring the training to your institution.
A certified facilitator, or Dr. Starks himself, delivers the training for your people. Districts that want to keep the work going can certify their own facilitators from the same visit.
Discover the work
The podcast, the Dispatch, the book, and two free guides. When you have been through the training, the Courageous Hearts Collective is the community of Messengers putting it into practice.
The podcast
Guest conversations with leaders on Tuesdays. Solo Messenger Memos on Thursdays.
The Messenger Dispatch
The publication home for Dr. Starks' original essays, scholarship, research-informed analysis, and Messenger Memos.
Courageous Hearts
A 52-week devotional guide that brings the Framework into daily life. Paperback, hardcover, and a fillable digital version.
About the founder
Dr. Brian Chad Starks holds a PhD in criminology and created the Be The Messenger Framework. His keynotes, trainings, and advising for senior leaders live on his own site.