In-Person Professional Development NYC

A group of educators plays a game at In-Person Professional Development NYC

COLLECTIVE BELONGING: SEL STRATEGIES FOR GENDER + RACIAL EQUITY

Join Girls Leadership this winter in New York City for a three-day professional development training. In this training, you will experience, share, and practice social-emotional learning (SEL) tools and strategies that promote gender and racial equity to support you in creating spaces where every student feels like they belong. You will receive a robust SEL curriculum, designed with the needs of the most marginalized girls in mind, that will prepare you to support all of your students.

We will create a powerful community of collective belonging, where participants give each other permission to show up with authenticity and compassion for self and others. Our community is where we practice wellness, tap into our bravest selves, take risks, make mistakes, laugh, learn, and grow. 

 

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Who is this program for?

  • Professionals who work with girls in grades 5–12.
  • Teachers, coaches, counselors (in private practice, school, etc.), program staff, formal volunteers, etc.

What is Collective Belonging Professional Development?

  • It’s an experiential three-day training with a duration of 20 hours.
  • It will bring professionals together to develop skills, strategies, and mindsets to address social-emotional learning, cultural responsiveness, and trauma-informed best practices through a gender and racial lens. 
  • It will prepare participants to implement the Girls Leadership curriculum for grades 5–12 in their spaces.

Participants will:

  • Create a powerful community of caring adults committed to supporting the wellness, leadership, and power of themselves and the young people you teach
  • Examine your own relationship with social-emotional skills to effectively model strategies
  • Identify bias as it shows up in your work with youth and take steps to interrupt it
  • Gather in identity-based affinity groups to process your individual learning, support others, and prepare to take learning back to your community
  • Engage in culturally responsive mindsets and practices and identify ways to implement
  • Understand trauma/trauma responses and experience creating a healing-centered environment
  • Recognize signs of compassion fatigue and ways to take care of your own mental health
  • Experience the Girls Leadership curriculum as a participant and facilitator
  • Laugh together, eat good food, and experience many of the games from the Girls Leadership curriculum
  • Receive a PDF curriculum to make the training easily actionable in the year ahead

 

 

SAMPLE DAILY SCHEDULE

Day ONE

9:00 a.m. Welcome, Grounding, & Opening

9:30 a.m. Introductions

10:00 a.m. Community Contract

10:30 a.m. Debunking Safe Spaces & Brave Space Making

12:00 p.m. Lunch & Energizer

12.45 p.m. Social-Emotional Learning & Girls Leadership Way

1:30 p.m. Implicit Bias & Educator Bias

3:15 p.m. Importance of Play & Curriculum Samples

4:00 p.m. Day One Ends

Day TWO

9:00 a.m. Welcome, Grounding, & Opening

9:30 a.m. Check In 

10:00 a.m. Bias Intervention with Scenarios

10:45 a.m. Culturally Responsive Mindsets

12:00 p.m. Lunch & Energizer

1:00 p.m. Practical Use with Girls* & Gender Expansive Youth

1:45 p.m. Compassion Fatigue

3:00 p.m. Addressing Compassion Fatigue

4:00 p.m. Day Two Ends

Day THREE

9:00 a.m. Welcome, Grounding, & Opening

9:30 a.m. Check In 

10:00 a.m. Trauma Informed Care / Healing-Centered Engagement

11:30 a.m. Lunch & Energizer

11:00 a.m. Four Pivots & Healing-Centered Approach

11:45 p.m. Dreaming & Imagining [“The Cure”]

1:00 p.m. Day 3 Ends

 

CURRICULUM

Our gender and culturally responsive middle school curriculum focuses on five domains with lessons aligned to developmentally appropriate outcomes at three levels: Introductory, Developing, and Advanced.

It was developed in partnership with middle school girls in grades 6–8 from across the country, including Girls Athletic Leadership School in Denver and Los Angeles, The Young Women’s Leadership Schools in the Bronx and Astoria, and United Playaz and West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center in San Francisco to support the development, testing, and iteration of our lessons.

  • Each participant will receive an electronic and hard copy of the Girls Leadership curriculum
  • The Girls Leadership curriculum is culturally responsive and trauma-informed
  • The ratio of practice and activity versus instruction is 2:1 for optimal collaboration
  • Lessons are developmentally appropriate and adaptable for grades 5–12 (Introductory, Developing, and Advanced)
  • Lessons cover five domains (Mindfulness + Self-Compassion, Identity + Self-Awareness, Diversity + Social-Awareness, Community + Relationship Skills, Advocacy + Action)

 

FACILITATORS

New York Program Manager Catherine del Castillo, New York Program Director Jalesa Washington, and New York Program Manager Shataya Gilstrap

 

PARTICIPANTS TELL US

“Amazing interactions, positive energy, and left a space open for positive communication and team building.” – Specialist, Promise Academy Charter Schools

“The training helped me put a name/title to some of the work we have been doing; it allowed me to put a different lens on and see things about myself I may not have been aware of or have paid attention to. It put me in a space to think deeper and dream bigger than I have. I thank you!” Assistant Director, PS 154

“Great energy and insightful information. It felt like they practice what they preached. They allowed us to create a brave space and go through/grow through what we were learning & relearning.” – Assistant Director, The Armory

100% of Girls Leadership Professional Development Training participants would recommend the training to a friend or colleague.

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can I receive credits for this professional development? 

If your supervising organization approves this professional development to meet CEUs, we can approve documentation that certifies your hours of participation.

Who is the professional development for? 

The sessions are designed for educators, administrators, district leaders, youth-serving professionals, counselors, and formal volunteers who work regularly with girls in grades 5– 12.

Can I train others to teach the curriculum? 

Completion of this professional development does not authorize individuals to sell the program or train others to teach it.

What do we mean by “collective belonging” and why does it matter? 

When girls feel seen and feel like they belong in a community, they feel like they can show up authentically, be fully present, do their best work, and learn. You will get to experience this in an intentional way, so you can recreate this experience for your girls and all of your students.

 

COVID SAFETY GUIDELINES

COVID-19 Safety and Preventative Measures  

With the safety and wellness of all participants and facilitators as the highest priority, Girls Leadership Professional Development will run in accordance with the most up-to-date COVID guidance from the local health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Outdoor space will be utilized and indoor mask-wearing will be recommended if it is not required by the local health department or the CDC. Facilitators will all be fully vaccinated, and we require that training participants show proof of vaccination by the start of the program.