2023 Down South Restorative Justice Conference

Combining Nonviolent Communication and Restorative Practices at an Alternative School

As schools everywhere struggle to have more safety and less disciplinary issues, Success Academy/Second Chance have an exciting story to tell. This year, they have become a 100% NVC/Restorative school. This means that everyone in the community, starting with teachers and staff, have been trained in NVC processes and are asked to incorporate them in all of their interactions. These NVC skills are especially useful when addressing discipline issues in the schools' restorative model. This presentation will provide participants with a taste of NVC and then school officials will provide information on how they adopted this model and the outcomes they are seeing as a result. What they have put in place is a process that can be replicated in other school organizations. It has the potential to transform educational systems allowing conflict to be used to create connection resulting in considerably less discipline issues and greater time for learning.
Janelle King is the Executive Director of Connection First, Inc., and will be running a recently funded young adult restorative justice program in Leon County. She has 10 years of restorative practices experience, serving as the Restorative Practices Coordinator for Boulder Valley School District as well as the Restorative Practices Specialist for the Florida Department of Children and Families. Mrs. King is a licensed trainer through the International Institute for Restorative Practices and trained in Nonviolent Communication. She obtained her master’s degree in criminology from Florida State University in 2017.
Amy Alvis holds a Master's in Special Education as well as in Educational Leadership and is currently the principal at Ghazvini Learning Center (GLC), an alternative public school in Tallahassee, Florida. GLC serves students who have been expelled to an alternative setting and students who have had significant trauma that has affected their education causing them to fall behind in academic credits. While for the past 7 years she has served as principal for the most at-risk populations, her 23-year career in education has seen her in various roles and began in the classroom as an ESE (Exceptional Student Education) teacher. Amy’s passion for, and work in, Restorative Practices led her to a partnership with Dr. Cindy Bigbie of the Bigbie Method in 2018. In her work with the Bigbie Method Amy has helped the most at-risk populations learn empathy, accountability, and interpersonal skills through the use of Non-Violent Communication. Each day at GLC she seeks to restore relationships between students and staff and between students and their peers to empower a stronger community.