Facilitators:
Jamila Sams (she/her) 
Kareem McQuilkin (he/him)

We Do It For The Culture

Essential Question:

How can hip-hop and social-emotional learning serve as a source of liberation for students?

Target Audience:
School and district level educators serving grades 6-12 as well as community organizations serving students in grades 6-12

Workshop Description: 
Hip-hop music and the vibrant energy of the culture can be used as a form of healing for young people, especially marginalized youth who have experienced mental health challenges caused by stressors rooted in a long history of structural racism, institutional racism, and discriminatory practices. Equity starts with meeting our young people where they are. By connecting the 5 SEL competencies with the 5 elements of hip-hop culture, participants will gain practical strategies for using hip-hop to engage young people in meaningful and relevant ways; fostering the development of positive self-expression and resilience skills.

Integrated Strategies to Create and Advance Equity Policies at School

Facilitators:
Anastasia Ordonez (she/her), 
James Haslam (he/him) 
Dr. Rebecca Euni Mi Haslam (she/her)

Race Forward

Essential Question:
How can we advance honest, accurate and fully funded public education as the foundation for a just, multiracial democracy?

Target Audience:
Students, educators, parents, school board members and school leaders

Workshop Description: 
The development of equity-based policy is more than checking a box... When equity-driven policies and practices are core to a school district and developed in collaboration with its community, every student benefits. In this workshop, participants will learn about HEAL Together, a national school district organizing initiative anchored by Race Forward and the NYU Metro Center. HEAL Together is building a movement of students, educators, and parents in school districts across the United States who believe that an honest, accurate and fully funded public education is the foundation for a just, multiracial democracy.

Participants will be introduced to the HEAL Together’s  “Equity Policies Toolkit for School Boards”, which features policies and case studies gathered from school districts around the country on a range of topics including immigrant students' rights, budgeting for equity, and culturally relevant education. Designed to serve as a reference for districts considering similar equity-based policies, this toolkit can be used by school board members, administrators, educators, and supporting community members who are interested in working towards racial and social equity in our nation’s public schools. 

Presenters will utilize a variety of multimedia and interactive methods to ensure that the session content is informative, accessible, and engaging for all participants.

Facilitators:
Régine Romain (she/her), 
Six Travis (she/her) 
Kelly 'Greenlight' Thomas (she/her)

Essential Question:
In what ways can rest be a form of resistance to capitalism and white supremacy while opening a portal to imagine, invent and heal?

Target Audience:
Black folx and People of Color

Workshop Description: 
What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Tricia Hersey reminds us that our worth does not dwell in how much we produce. Many of us subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, destructive pace—feeding into the same system that enslaved millions into brutal unpaid labor for its own unremitting benefit. Rest is a fundamental human right.

Please join us for an interactive mixed-media exploration of Tricia Hersey's best-selling "Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto."  Rest is a means of resistance for everyone, however, Hersey centers Black people, specifically Black women because, historically and in the current day, their labor has been the most exploited and consequently have been most deprived of rest. Rest is a protest for the exhausted body.

This  workshop offers an open restorative space to consider Hersey’s further insights on self-care vs community care, rest as reparations and the liberating power of reclaiming one’s DreamSpace. Participants are welcome to engage in deep breathing exercises, restorative yoga, 1:1 dialogue and group discussions as well as writing for personal reflection.

Facilitators:
Cathleen Antoine-Abiala (she/hers)
Erin Dunlevy (she/hers)

Essential Question:

• How has our RJ practice transformed in the last year?
• In what ways have new enclosures emerged?
• What possibilities are made available to us in this most recent context?
• What new needs and obligations have emerged during the school year, and what role can restorative justice have in meeting those needs and obligations? 

Target Audience:
Everyone; especially those who serve youth

Workshop Description: 
This workshop is designed to support school leaders as well as community-based practitioners in the process of deepening their approach to restorative practices to intentionally disrupt and dismantle institutional racism in our schools and communities. The session will explore the ways in which restorative justice practices can either uphold or dismantle inequity in schools, as well as address how circles, as the central practice of a restorative model, can function as a healing, culturally responsive teaching strategy and community management model that de-centers whiteness and values the culturally authentic narrative of every community stakeholder. Rooted in the scholarship of Maisha T. Winn, we’ll explore the theory of "Enclosure Spaces" and take a close look at what that concept means in the context of the last few years (i.e. impact of Covid lockdown, recent school shootings, etc.) and collectively we’ll reimagine how RJ might create connection and liberation for young people and educators within the sociopolitical context of our times.

Facilitator: 
Paul Forbes (he/him)

Leading with Hearts and Mind

Essential Question:
Why are we not seeing more progress and traction in the area of DEI and racial justice? Why does it feel like we are barely making incremental changes and merely "tinkering around the edges"?

Target Audience:
Everyone

Workshop Description: 
To truly commit to equity and racial justice in schools and communities, we must first be willing to examine and address our bias-based beliefs…"the work behind the work". During this interactive and engaging session, participants will learn about implicit bias and how implicit bias manifests daily in our personal and professional life. Participants will come to understand how we can hold egalitarian values while simultaneously behaving and creating policies that do not reconcile with those egalitarian views and we will see how that can then lead to inequitable and disparate outcomes. 

While we cannot eliminate our implicit biases, participants will learn 5 strategies that can be implemented to mitigate the effects they have on our practices, policies, procedures, and behaviors.

Facilitator: 
Megan Ohlssen (she/her)

Essential Question:
How might we advance equity and inclusion through anti-ableism?

Target Audience:
Educators, coaches, leaders, system leaders, & families

Workshop Description: 
Ableism permeates our schools. Despite increased intention around diversity, equity, and inclusion, students with disabilities exist at the margins of our vision, design, and commitment. This is perpetuated by a broader education community that has grown accustomed to othering disability. We need to confront the systems, practices, and beliefs that nurture ableism to advance equity and cultivate spaces of belonging for all students.