August 18-20, 2026 | New York City
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM daily
Coffee, snacks, and lunch provided
Courageous dialogue. Authentic identity. Justice-centered leadership.
Middle and high school students are navigating identity, relationships, media influence, and increasing social complexity in real time. Building Brave Communities equips secondary educators with an experiential, research-informed curriculum to facilitate courageous dialogue, navigate conflict, and center belonging in their classrooms. Through hands-on practice rooted in Girls Leadership’s SEL framework, participants build the confidence and skills to create learning environments and build brave spaces where adolescents can show up authentically, engage across differences, practice accountability, and lead with empathy and agency.
Who This Training is For
This training is for school leaders, teachers, counselors, coaches, youth-serving professionals and anyone who holds space for middle and high school students.
What You’ll Experience
During this training, participants will actively practice facilitating brave spaces, explore identity and media influence, and engage in mindfulness and self-compassion routines. Through self-reflection, group dialogue, kinesthetic learning, and hands-on facilitation activities, educators rehearse strategies for courageous dialogue, boundary setting, and justice-centered action. Participants leave feeling grounded, connected, and confident in their ability to immediately make use of Girls Leadership’s SEL curriculum in secondary learning environments.
What You’ll Receive
- A comprehensive Social Emotional Learning framework for grades 6–12, developmentally scaffolded across middle and high school.
- Organized around Girls Leadership’s five SEL domains: Brave Space Groundwork; Mindfulness + Self-Compassion; Self-Awareness + Identity; Relationship Skills + Community; and Justice + Action.
- Each lesson includes clear objectives, materials, facilitation guidance, and structured reflection and debrief questions.
- Every lesson explicitly names gender and racial implications, grounding the content in the lived experiences of girls and gender-expansive youth.
This comprehensive 6–12 curriculum, co-designed and tested with youth, is grounded in lived experience and built to authentically engage students in identity exploration, courageous dialogue, and leadership. When educators share a common SEL language and curriculum, students experience greater consistency, trust, and belonging across classrooms and school spaces. And when identity, power, and justice are intentionally centered in that work, student leadership deepens and community grows stronger and more resilient for everyone.
Why Building Brave Communities
Middle and high school are critical stages for identity development, the need to belong, and develop confidence. When educators share a common SEL language and set of practices, students experience greater trust, consistency, and accountability across spaces – creating conditions where self-advocacy, resilience, empathy, and leadership can be practiced and strengthened. This training encourages adults to center student voice and leadership, while examining how gender, culture, and power dynamics shape their experiences and relationships.
“I really loved the play aspect, it gave me the opportunity to be a part of a program again and it gave me a new perspective of how to interact with the youth I work with. Something else that really stuck with me was how if we focus on meeting the needs of the most marginalized youth then all of the youth are being served.” – Building Brave Communities Participant
Cost
$750 – Sliding Scale. Price includes food and beverages, and the comprehensive Girls Leadership SEL curriculum.
We recognize that access to professional development funding varies. Our sliding scale offers the opportunity to pay the amount that aligns with the funds that you have available to cover the cost.
Reserve Your Spot | August 18-20
Group registration and pricing available. Please contact us for more information: info@girlsleadership.org.
Have Questions?
If you’re not sure whether this training is right for you, or if you need additional information before registering, please email us at info@girlsleadership.org and we will get back to you.
