Restorative Youth Sports- continued

With a grant from the Edward M. Armfield Foundation, we returned to our site-based Restorative Youth Sports practice in partnership with Dr. Michael Hemphill, associate professor, UNCG Department of Kinesiology, and his team. The workshop focuses on teaching personal and social responsibility through sport, physical activity, and physical education.

Participants rave about the interactive nature of the workshop with the strong emphasis on student-led “restorative conferences and circles” that promote SEL skills building, restorative language (affective questions and statements) and efforts towards building relationships and checking in/checking out. Storytelling is fundamental for healthy social relationships. To feel connected and respected, we need to tell our own stories and have others listen. For others to feel respected and connected to us, they need to tell their stories and have us listen.

When asked why the Armfield Foundation supports the program, Mindy Oakley, executive director, commented as follows: “We invest in the restorative youth sports partnership because it is an innovative way to build relationships and connections within schools, and the program gives students a new set of tools for conflict resolution whether in or out of school.”

New Strategic Partners

Kellin Foundation

Kellin’s mission is to build resilient children, families and adults through behavioral health services, victim advocacy and community outreach. Thanks to the generosity of the United Way and ESSER funding, Kellin will provide an abundance of trauma-responsive programming through their Community Resilience Model (CRM) skills training to students, families, faculty and staff at Dudley and Smith High Schools. This programming represents hopefully the first of many joint ventures between the two organizations.

Verizon

Thanks to the outreach of Tiffany Jordan, community engagement specialist, Verizon and CISGG have joined forces to provide critical work at Dudley and Smith next year in a ramped-up, case management model directed specifically to students who have demonstrated difficulty returning to school on a normal basis post-Covid and remote learning. The activity will be heavily on the side of attendance monitoring and evaluation, incentives and rewards, and resources to address factors involved in below average attendance rates.

Wise Guys

The Wise Guys program consists of an evidence-based curriculum, approved for implementation and replication by NC DHHS Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiatives, and listed as an approved curriculum under the North Carolina Healthy Youth Act as determined by the NC Center for School Health Training. The Wise Guys Foundations program uses lessons and activities that are modified and adapted from the Wise Guys curriculum. Project Alert and TND evidence-based, nationally recognized substance abuse prevention curricula.

For more information, please go to www.cisgg.org. To donate, please click on the link: Donate!