Restorative Practices Training for School Leaders:
A two-day training specifically for school leaders and educators seeking to implement Restorative Practices in their communities. Hosted at:
Community School of Digital and Visual Arts
1955 W Cornwallis Road, Durham, NC 27705
About this event
In this intensive, highly interactive two-day training, you will learn the essential components of Restorative Practices and Restorative Justice. Led by trained IIRP facilitators, the training will focus on :
- a fundamental understanding of Restorative Practices in schools and youth centers
- the mindset of a relationship-based approach to discipline and conflict resolution
- the process and practice of leading proactive community-building Circles,
- how to lead restorative conversations and healing circles
- resources for effective school-wide implementation
- plenty of time to practice, practice, practice.
In this unique training for school leaders (and emerging leaders), you will explore models of implementing Restorative Practices in order to confidently apply them in your school. You will hear how school leaders have taken strides to effectively implement Restorative Practices school-wide, including supporting staff training, approaches to managing discipline, and consistent language and process throughout the school.
The training will be led by IIRP-trained facilitators: Christel Butchart, April Warren, and Anita Scott Neville. You can find their complete bios below.
Beverages and light snacks are provided both Friday and Saturday. Masks will be required indoors. We will closely monitor and follow the CDC’s COVID-19 guidelines for indoor gatherings.
Register Today What are Restorative Practices?
Restorative Practices (RP) is a social science focused on proactively building relationships among community members (IIRP Staff, 2021). As opposed to traditional authoritarian modes of instruction and discipline, RP takes into consideration the contextual factors affecting one’s behaviors, rather than merely distributing punishments for misbehaviors. Furthermore, RP strives to avoid conflict altogether by strengthening relational bonds and improving modes of communication before incidents may occur. RP has been found to be effective in reducing child discipline problems in school and at home, increasing collaboration between families and school staff, increasing parental engagement, and decreasing parental concerns for their children’s futures (Ingraham et al., 2016).
Here is a short video showing Restorative Practices in the community.
Restorative Practices Presenters
Christel Greiner Butchart, MA currently leads the Peaceful Schools NC initiative at Carolina Friends School. With 15 years of experience as an educator, Christel works to empower teachers, students, and school communities in effectively implementing a social curriculum founded in student education and practice of conflict resolution strategies. Christel is Rotary Peace Fellow, receiving her Masters in International Relations with a focus on Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Queensland, AU. At Carolina Friends School, she teaches Conflict Resolution and Rehearsal For Life, based on Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed. Internationally, Christel has worked with students and teachers in Myanmar (Burma) and Australia, teaching peace education and developing relevant conflict resolution curriculum. She recently completed the IIRP Restorative Justice training and is eager to support other educators in their pursuit of restorative practices in schools.
April Warren believes that all students can succeed and sees communities as powerful agents in changing unjust systems. April is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill with a Bachelor’s in Sociology and a minor in Education. After graduating, April taught for two years at Neal Middle School in Durham with Citizen Schools, an AmeriCorps organization. She began working full time at Student U in 2015 as the Middle School Program Coordinator, implementing after-school and summer programming for middle school students in Durham. In 2016, Student U began implementing Restorative Practices into their program framework. Since then, April attended the International Institute of Restorative Practices and has led over 10 sessions with Student U staff over the past four years. April believes in the power of Restorative Practices within communities and is excited to share this passion with other educators.
Anita Scott Neville is a Durham native and graduate of Durham Public Schools. Since her graduation from UNC Greensboro, Anita’s career has been rooted in public service; particularly human service including community development and education and instruction for citizens in transition. Anita serves as Restorative Practices Coordinator and Equity Champion at The School for Creative Studies. Her passion and belief in the “science” of restorative practices led her to become a licensed trainer and to complete graduate certification from the International Institute of Restorative Practices (IIRP). Anita is also the founder and principle of CommYUnity Matters, LLC, a non-profit collective whose goal is to work with individuals and groups in support of their efforts to address issues that affect their ability to be of maximum service. Having served in local and federal government as well as private and non-profit agencies, Anita brings to her work an appreciation for the broad scope of community needs that could benefit from a restorative practices platform. Service to students and families who seek to strengthen their relationships is her primary focus. Anita’s self-reflections honor the spirit of “Ubuntu – I am because you are” and her awareness that community matters.
References
IIRP Staff. (2021). What Is Restorative Practices? IIRP. https://www.iirp.edu/restorative-practices/what-is-restorative-practices.
Ingraham, C. L., Hokoda, A., Moehlenbruck, D., Karafin, M., Manzo, C., & Ramirez, D. (2016). Consultation and Collaboration to Develop and Implement Restorative Practices in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Elementary School. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 26(4), 354-384. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/10474412.2015.1124782
