Neutral Zone’s 3-day Train-the-Trainer in Restorative Practices and Circles is an intensive, experiential institute designed for educators and youth workers who have already completed the 2-day Intro course and are ready to train and coach others. The training deepens participants’ understanding of restorative practices while building concrete facilitation skills, with a focus on planning and delivering active, participatory workshops. Across three days, participants practice leading portions of the Intro curriculum, receive feedback on their presentation and circle facilitation, and examine how their own social identities and lived experiences shape their effectiveness as trainers and culture-builders.

• Day 1
  • Reflect on the purpose for community building and provide strategies for community building
  • Reflect on our own social identities as it relates to facilitation and restorative practice
  • Reflect on our own lived experiences, thoughts, and abilities and identify the areas where we will be most personally effective as a trainer and the areas where we need to work to improve to better support others in training.
  • Identify the parts of an active-participatory workshop and explain how the parts scaffold and meet adult learning need
• Day 2
  • Examine the areas for being an effective trainer and identify our strength and areas where we need to grow
  • Identify and name effective facilitator skills and demonstrate use of LARA/LAPA strategies
  • Examine some cooperative grouping and learning strategies for possible incorporation into training
  • Consider some questioning frameworks as a way to build in effective reflection into training
  • Articulate some of the ancient and modern contexts of RP to help trainees have a grounding in what they are training
  • Consider areas of resistance that may be encountered in training and ways to address the resistance
  • Create a plan for a peer presentation
• Day 3
  • Deliver training in one component of RP training, with a partner, and incorporate feedback from peers to improve teaching and learning
  • Identify the important aspects of training and coaching others and apply those ideas to a personal implementation plan
  • Reflect on ToT program and identify how you plan to use what you’ve learned going forward in next 3-6 months

Location: McKenny Hall at Eastern Michigan University (3rd floor); Ypsilanti, MI 48197