This one-day session focuses on incorporating restorative practice processes to enhance the development of healthy relationships and sense of community within youth programming. Restorative practices, a new field of study in the social sciences, utilize informal and formal processes to build/strengthen relationships to reduce conflict, deepen learning and support community building. This workshop will explore and highlight strategies which integrate social and emotional competencies to build, strengthen and repair relationships.
The participant will be able to:
- Define restorative practices
- Explore and develop the self-awareness/self- management competencies to effectively apply restorative practices
- Integrate social emotional learning using a restorative practices model
This workshop aligns with core knowledge and competencies for youth work professionals that have been developed by the National Afterschool Association (NAA) and the Ohio Afterschool Network (OAN).
The NAA core knowledge content areas addressed:
- Child/Youth Growth and Development: Knows the typical benchmarks of growth and development and uses this knowledge to provide a program that meets the multiple needs of children and youth.
- Learning Environments and Curriculum: Creates a high-quality learning environment and implements age-appropriate curricula and program activities.
- Interactions with Children and Youth: Recognizes the importance of relationships and communication in the practice of quality child and youth care, and implements guidance techniques and strategies to support children and youth individually and in group experiences to develop self-regulation, self-concept, coping mechanisms, and positive interactions with their peers and adults.
Intended audience: program coordinators, front-line youth workers