Restorative Practices: Building Belonging, Repairing Harm, and Strengthening Community

The Restorative Practices Institute is a transformative three-day professional learning experience designed to strengthen educators' capacity to build inclusive, relationship-centered learning environments where every student and adult feels valued, connected, and supported. Through an inside-out approach grounded in Cultural Proficiency, participants explore how beliefs, assumptions, lived experiences, and mental models influence the ways we build relationships, respond to conflict, and create conditions for belonging.

Participants examine how personal narratives and organizational systems shape school culture, discipline practices, and community engagement. By developing greater self-awareness and cultural responsiveness, participants learn how restorative practices can serve as a powerful framework for building trust, strengthening relationships, repairing harm, and creating equitable learning environments where all members of the community can thrive.

Aligned with California's Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) priorities, this institute supports efforts to:

• Increase student engagement, connectedness, and belonging
• Strengthen positive school climate and culture
• Reduce exclusionary discipline practices and strengthen relationship-centered responses
• Improve student wellbeing and social-emotional development
• Build culturally responsive and restorative school communities
• Strengthen family, community, and stakeholder engagement
• Advance equitable outcomes for historically underserved student groups

Participants will leave with practical restorative tools, facilitation strategies, community-building structures, and implementation plans that can be immediately applied in classrooms, schools, leadership teams, and community settings. This learning experience is ideal for educators, administrators, counselors, student support staff, community school practitioners, and community partners committed to creating schools where relationships are at the center of learning and growth.

Day 1: The Inside Journey: Examining Beliefs, Relationships, and Identity

Participants begin by exploring the internal systems that shape how we engage with others. Through the lens of Cultural Proficiency, participants examine identity, bias, trust, assumptions, and the stories we tell ourselves about people and communities. Together, they explore how these narratives influence relationships, belonging, and our responses to conflict and harm. The day focuses on developing self-awareness and understanding how our internal beliefs impact the cultures we create.

Day 2: Examining Systems: Building Community and Understanding Harm

Participants shift from the individual to the collective, examining how school systems, policies, and practices can either strengthen connection or contribute to exclusion and harm. Through restorative and culturally proficient frameworks, participants explore the role of storytelling, empathy, and community voice in building stronger relationships across differences. Participants experience Community Circles firsthand and learn how restorative structures can foster trust, elevate marginalized voices, strengthen collective responsibility, and create pathways for addressing harm in meaningful ways.

Day 3: Designing for Action: Implementing Restorative Practices for Sustainable Change

Participants apply their learning to the design and implementation of restorative systems that support prevention, intervention, and repair. Through collaborative planning and problem-solving, participants explore how restorative practices can be embedded across multiple tiers of support, including proactive Community Circles, responsive Harm Circles, restorative conferences, and mediation processes. The institute concludes with action planning focused on creating sustainable systems that strengthen belonging, accountability, healing, and equity within schools and communities.

Dates: November 17-18, 2026 
Times: 8:30am-3:30pm 
Location: TBD