2024 Bridge Conference

In this workshop, participants will gain practical strategies and essential tools to transform their educational programs into nurturing and responsive environments for individuals who have experienced trauma. Attendees will learn how to implement trauma-informed care principles, fostering a culture of understanding, safety, and support. This session will provide actionable steps to equip your staff, ensuring they are well-prepared to meet the unique needs of your youth participants.

We will build on the participants' baseline awareness that we all operate in systems that were built to oppress BIPOC or neurodiverse youth. Some of us were formally trained to serve all youth within these systems. Some of us are lucky enough to have awareness of the ways we think and operate that perpetuate the damage these systems have done. This session will help all participants see ways to manage the systemic pressures and internal biases that we all have. Even if we don’t know exactly what we’re thinking when a bias is at play, we can create activities and build relationships with staff, students and leadership that will help us identify, set aside and understand the impacts of bias. The key is to see that we are all learning: educators, students, executives and administrators. We are all experts in our experiences of the lessons presented and have a wealth of experience outside the classroom. When we come to teaching with an expectation that teachers are experts we are less capable of learning how to improve our methods according to the students’ needs. We want to attract participants from all levels of education, whether they are certificated, experienced teachers, administrators, non-profit executive leadership or funding partners who can support program development or implementation.

As shifts in global migration continue, schools and community organizations are welcoming a diverse range of newcomers coming to the U.S. through the resettlement program. This session will delve into the emerging groups arriving in Washington, helping participants build a stronger understanding of these newcomers and the unique factors that shape their resettlement experiences. Participants will explore essential approaches for addressing the backgrounds, strengths, and challenges these populations bring, while also learning how to navigate key resources and data to remain informed about demographic trends. The session aims to empower educators and administrators to tailor their strategies at all levels—from individual classrooms to district-wide planning.

Are you a youth worker who values restorative practices, youth voice, and growing equitable and connected program spaces? This workshop is for those who are excited by the liberatory possibilities of community circles, by the why, and are looking for guidance on how. Moving beyond the programmatic foundations of emotional safety and self- and co-regulation, we’ll link individual practices like developing agreements, using mistakes as opportunities for repair, and solutions vs consequences into a scaffolded process to implement community circles in youth programs. This workshop also provides specific strategies to teach these higher-order SEL practices to youth.

Data is not objective. It is influenced by Perspective, Motivation and Data Source. The perspective and motivation of data collection has been based within predominantly white institutions. Participants will explore how biases, including racial bias, influence collection and use of data in continuous quality improvement practices and systems.

Audience: Individuals who assess programs including program/site managers and directors, funders, external assessors.