Using Restorative Circles to Bring It All Together

Format

Poster Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

North Carolina State University

Second Presenter's Institution

NA

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Meet & Greet Poster Reception (Harborside)

Strand #1

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

College students are trained in youth advocacy methods to serve as one-on-one advocates to at-risk 4th-8th graders in area Wake County schools for an entire year. these advocates help these young people develop life skills, and we use restorative circles as a process to assist young people reflect and engage together to broaden these skills.

Brief Program Description

Our objective with this poster is to share more about how we in "Students Advocating for Youth" at NC State University employ the art of restorative circles within our work with our student partners in at-risk situations to help them better process their feelings and reflect on their thoughts. Intended audience will include other higher ed professionals, elementary and middle school administrators, teachers, and counselors.

Summary

New to “Students Advocating for Youth Village” this academic year, we are introducing the practice of restorative circles and equity driven titles with our elementary student partners. Formerly we referred to our college participants as “mentors” and our elementary and middle school partners as “mentees”. In an effort to change power holding titles (mentor/mentee) we are choosing more equal power titles (partners). To further drive the partnership experience, we are changing our physical posture from sitting across from our students to sitting beside and amongst the students for whom we advocate. To start and end our one and a half hour partner sessions, 2-3 groups of partners will sit together in a circle. What we call the “beginning circle” will serve as a transition from the school day to the partner experience. This will offer a chance for elementary students to express concerns from the day before moving on to the next thing as well as practice asking each other questions about their well-being. After the beginning circle, college and elementary partners will break into their individual partner groups to work on personalized activities. At the end of the time we will have what we call a “debrief circle”. This time is specifically meant for elementary partners to use their voice to speak about the work they are doing to develop skills they’ve identified as needing improvement. Our poster presentation will provide a model for how we’ve implemented these changes, provide updates on the strategies we’ve chosen, and next steps for our efforts to advocate for youth through college and elementary partnerships.

Evidence

Since this initiative is brand new to the 2019-20 academic year, we won't have any evidence until our presentation. However, we plan to include the accrued data to that point at the presentation time.

Biographical Sketch

The presenter has directed "Students Advocating for Youth," (SAY Village) at NC State University since 2005. He has been working in higher education student affairs for twenty years.

Keyword Descriptors

restorative circles, youth advocacy, elementary youth, middle grades

Presentation Year

March 2020

Start Date

3-9-2020 4:45 PM

End Date

3-9-2020 6:00 PM

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Mar 9th, 4:45 PM Mar 9th, 6:00 PM

Using Restorative Circles to Bring It All Together

Meet & Greet Poster Reception (Harborside)

Our objective with this poster is to share more about how we in "Students Advocating for Youth" at NC State University employ the art of restorative circles within our work with our student partners in at-risk situations to help them better process their feelings and reflect on their thoughts. Intended audience will include other higher ed professionals, elementary and middle school administrators, teachers, and counselors.