Our trainings and workshops focus on our core concepts. We train in a wide variety fields and settings both domestically and internationally in half-day and full-day formats.
All Akoben trainers have advanced degrees, extensive experience in their field and in presenting on Akoben’s core and specialty topics across the globe. All of our sessions are rooted in a restorative methodology. We believe that only 10% of the work is done in the workshop; we are committed to helping our audience be prepared to do the other 90% in their own settings.
Please take a look at some of our workshops listed below. If there is a topic that you don’t see on the list, please complete the interest form and we will contact you shortly.
Developing a Restorative Approach Part 1 (DRS-100)
Relevant Audience: educators, leaders, law-enforcement, human services professionals
Description: A core team member from Akoben will work directly with staff to teach and apply best practices in Restorative Practices. Participants will understand the importance of connection before content, the Social Discipline Window (a powerful framework for analyzing one’s use of authority) and two immediate practices that they can use to increase social capital and build community: affective statements and restorative questions. Through activities and thought-provoking discussion, participants will have a deeper appreciation for the value and implementation of a restorative approach.
Developing a Restorative Approach Part 2 (DRS-200)
Relevant Audience: educators, leaders, law-enforcement, human services professionals
Description: This workshop continues where Part 1 leaves off. After a brief review of core content in Part 1, we will dive deeper into what it means to have a Restorative mindset and approach as well as develop two additional practices: re-integrative shaming and circles (both proactive and responsive). Participants will leave this session with a strong understanding and powerful framework for building community, connection and holding others accountable.
Being Trauma-Informed and Restorative: Two Keys to Success (TIR-100)
Relevant Audience: educators, leaders, law-enforcement, human services professionals
Description: This dynamic workshop combines two of the most powerful concepts found in Akoben’s work around relationships, community and service: Trauma-Informed Care and Restorative Practices. Through interactive activities and discussion, participants will: understand the impact of trauma on the lives of youth, adults and staff; describe how being trauma informed aligns with Restorative Practices; and how some practices are NOT trauma informed. We will also identify culturally sensitive approaches to working with trauma and practices that build social capital throughout your organization and community.
Equity in Restorative Processes (EQR-100)
Relevant Audience: teachers, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: This session explores Restorative Practices through an equity lens by: (1) discussing the alignments between restorative practices and equity, (2) offering considerations for viewing restorative processes through an equity lens, and (3) inviting participants to avoid derailments when discussing and interrupting systemic inequities.
Strength-Based Approach in the Restorative Classroom (SBA 100)
Relevant Audience: educators, leaders, law-enforcement, human services professionals
Description: The intentional, proactive development of community is critical within a restorative pedagogy. Using a strengths/assets-based approach to student learning has been shown to improve outcomes for students. This professional development experience takes a look at the intersection of these two powerful teaching strategies and explores how to achieve this challenging balance while accomplishing the many demands of the classroom. Through interactive discussion and questions, participants will deepen their understanding of the power of a restorative community, examine their own beliefs around change and growth and learn practical tools to develop asset-based community in their practice.
Restorative Practices in the Unlikeliest of Places (RPU-200)
Relevant Audience: educators, administrators
Description: This workshop is for those who have embraced and appreciate the core set of restorative practices tools, including affective language and dialogue circles, but are now ready to consider where else restorative philosophies may fit. RP in the Unlikeliest of Places develops a fundamental concept, stated pointedly by James Comer: “No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.” Participants can expect to explore just how meaningful relationships can be built through classroom instruction, grading and attendance policies, evaluation systems, and other unexpected places. The classroom instruction portion of the workshop places particular emphasis on reading, writing, and vocabulary acquisition, since the skills associated with each are readily used in all academic areas. Participants should come prepared to role play a bit and to plan for future real-life application of the concepts earned.
Why Do These Kids Keep Acting Up: Understanding Behavior Through a Trauma-Informed Lens” (TIC-200)
Relevant Audience: teachers, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: There is a lot of talk about Trauma Informed Care but what does it really mean? What does a school/agency look like when it embraces a trauma informed approach? This fun and interactive workshop is intended for staff serving youth and have a desire to learn more about trauma and the impact that it can have. Participants will leave with an understanding of the impact of trauma on behaviors, discuss practices that they can implement to be trauma informed, and to challenge our beliefs about why kids “act-up”. This workshops helps your staff to approach disciplinary practices more restoratively and effectively.
Emotions in Restorative Practices (ERP-200)
Relevant Audience: educators, leaders, law-enforcement, human services professionals
Description: Designed to reinforce the knowledge gained in our “Developing a Restorative Approach” training, this workshop explores the role of emotions in facilitating restorative processes. Through video, a case study exploration and role play, participants in this trainings will review affect, the Compass of Shame, and dive deeper into how they show up in our circles.
Circles: A Powerful Way to Connect and Heal our Community (CIR-200)
Relevant Audience: educators, leaders, law-enforcement, human services professionals
Description: Circles facilitate conversation and encourage full participation, but there are optimal ways to utilize this process that promote truly meaningful communication. Through video, practice, discussion and interactive activities, participants will identify effective methods for using proactive and responsive circles to build community, establish norms and address behavior and relationships. Useful in any setting from education and human services to organizational management.
We Owe All Children Their Innocence: Practices for Ending the Adultification of Black Girls (ABG-100)
Relevant Audience: educators, school leaders, law enforcement, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, human service professionals
Description: In June of 2017, the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law published the first study focused on the adultification of Black girls. It exposes some alarming adult perceptions of Black girls including misconceptions that they need less nurturing, protection and support. The report also suggests that these skewed adult assessments are linked to disproportionate rates of punitive action and disparate treatment of Black girls in public systems, specifically education and juvenile justice. Participants of the We Owe All Children Their Innocence workshop learn strategies for stopping the practice of adultification, but also do the inner work necessary to apply those strategies with fidelity. Activities centered on anti-Blackness and oppression help participants trace adultification to its roots, so that it can be unearthed and destroyed at the source. Participation in this workshop requires the completion of a few pre-workshop readings.
Building a Stronger School Community: One Relationship at a Time (SSC-100)
Relevant Audience: teachers, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: Relationships are a decisive factor in the development of a positive learning environment. This workshop will challenge your staff to clearly define what is and what can be their school community. We will also explore how to build a framework for strengthening relationships through connections with students, adults and among the students themselves. Deep self-reflection and small-group circles are balanced with interactive activities to build skills in relationship building, even when it’s tough.
As Tough As We Need to Be: Classroom Interventions to Build Accountability and Community (CLA-100)
Relevant Audience: teachers, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: In this engaging workshop, participants will have an opportunity to explore their own current practice, evaluate what is working and what is not, and develop an explicit framework for building and strengthening a sense of connection and community in the classroom; the critical factor that ties together best-practice in all classroom management strategies. Through hands-on exercises specifically designed to foster self-reflection and exploration in practical, real-life situations, participants will take away tangible tools to help them exercise their authority in a manner that proactively builds community, effectively responds to disruptive behavior and creates a classroom culture that feels safe and is conducive to learning. The connection between teaching-style and impact on brain states with a particular focus on improving learning outcomes will also be presented.
We Can Save Our Boys of Color: Best Practices from the Field (WCS-100)
Relevant Audience: teachers, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: As we struggle to turn the tide in the school-to-prison pipeline and disproportionate disciplinary practices affecting at-risk youth, especially Black and Latino boys, we desperately need innovative and alternative interventions. There are no magic pills or shortcuts in this work. However, with a comprehensive and “cocktail” approach we can build a synergy between interventions to create a powerful plan of action to save our Boys of Color. This workshop will identify and build understanding in the implementation of five best practices in serving this population. These practices are applicable within the school, community, and criminal justice environments.
We Can Save Our Boys of Color: Restorative Practices as a Key Element (WCS-101)
Relevant Audience: teachers, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: By confronting maladaptive behavior, taking accountability, displaying empathy for those harmed, and making things right for ourselves and teaching our boys to do the same, we have had tremendous success in changing life narratives and trajectories. This workshop will present the restorative approach within the context of both alternative and traditional school settings, with a special design for our boys of color. Participants will explore how notions of culture, manhood, hope and bias affect our restorative practices work with our boys.
Understanding Youth in Poverty (UYP-100)
Relevant Audience: teachers, clinicians, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: Many of our institutions struggle to effectively serve youth (and their families) in poverty. At best, we are working hard to make our services and ourselves accessible to them, often without great success or engagement. This interactive workshop will have participants appropriately identify the faces of poverty, outline the particular challenges of families in poverty and confront their own notions of social class and privilege. Through activities and thought-provoking discussion, participants will have a deeper appreciation for the necessity of dynamic services for these amazing youth and how we can best meet their needs.
Awakening the Dynamic Spirit of Black Boys (ADS-100)
Relevant Audience: teachers, clinicians, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: Our Black Boys should be assets in our communities and organizations, however, too few environments have been able to fully and positively engage and connect with them. Across nearly every indicator of social progress and positive development, our Black boys are struggling. This hopeful and interactive workshop will empower participants with the facts around the challenges from and facing our Black Boys as well as the critical elements of a customized plan for awakening the dynamic spirits of these youth.
Calling on the Village: Working with the Family and Support System (FSS-100)
Relevant Audience: teachers, clinicians, social workers, school leaders, discipline staff, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement
Description: There are no social institutions more significant in the development and transformation of individuals and society than the family and personal support system. Practicing meaningful and empowering engagement with these institutions is the work of all those serious about making positive change in the lives of those they serve.
