2024 Bridge Conference

Ensuring refugee and other newcomer students and families feel welcome in their school environments is foundational to their academic success and their longer-term economic and social success. While newcomers have their own agency and resiliency factors that affect their successful resettlement, schools and community-based organizations (CBOs) have their own vital role in creating a sense of welcome to facilitate integration. This workshop will aim to equip schools and community-based organizations with skills and strategies for creating welcoming spaces responsive to the cultural and social-emotional needs of refugees and other newcomers.

Caring for yourself is essential to supporting the well-being of young people. In this interactive workshop, Space Between, a Seattle-based organization facilitating human and school transformation through mindfulness, and their research partner, foundry10, will share their latest research as well as strategies for cultivating and sustaining personal mindful practice. Participants will learn about why practitioner SEL and healing is essential to caring for youth, experience guided mindful practices, and engage in small group discussions focused on identifying and overcoming barriers to your practice.