Event Date: Saturday April 1, 2017
Event Time: 8:30am - 3:00pm
Event Location: Roosevelt High School, 3436 W. Wilson Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625, Chicago, IL

Please note: This is a free event for all. NEIU and Roosevelt High School students, faculty and staff will receive free lunch.

All others may purchase lunch at the forum for $8.50. This will be paid directly to "The Local Pizzeria," the caterer for the event, at the time of purchase.

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Forum Theme - Healing in Education, Resilience in Action

In the wake of a new administration, we are bombarded with executive orders and appointments that call for, among other things, a Muslim ban, immediate construction of a 1,900 mile wall along the Mexico/US border, a call for sending federal troops and immigration authorities into Chicago communities, and, the appointment of a grossly unqualified, inexperienced billionaire to head the Department of Education. These overwhelming situations add to the state-sanctioned violence students, parents, communities of color, community advocates, and others, already experience through police brutality, attacks on undocumented immigrants, the steady dismantling of public education, an erosion of healthcare, lack of affordable housing, lack of economic opportunities and environmental racism.
 
In light of these conditions we, the People’s Education Movement, invite you to join us for a day of solidarity, healing and organizing. This year’s theme signals an intentional decision to acknowledge the pain and trauma created by unjust laws and policies and, to work towards nurturing the health and well-being of our students, ourselves and our communities. This is critical in order to sustain organized efforts to challenge and resist policies that exploit us. We agree with poet Jamila Lyiscott that, “healing is not the absence of pain, it is the decision to act in the service of your development rather than your defeat.”
 
We intend to share curricular resources that help educators engage in healing practices that foster sustainable, long-term movements for justice. The first part of the day will focus on merging healing, grounded in the histories and cultural knowledges of ancestral wisdom, with educational practices that help students process multiple forms of trauma. The afternoon will be dedicated to workshops that build upon healing and develop strategies to organize. Participants will receive resources from all the workshops to take with them. We believe it is critical to make these curricular resources accessible to all and assist survival strategies as social services continue to disappear.  

All workshops address various forms of trauma and and propose paths towards healing.

Workshop Topics:
The Neuroscience of Trauma - Teaching and Healing Strategies
Restorative Justice Practices in Schools and Communities
Peace Diet Implementation- Healing Through Nutrition
Trauma in School-Settings
Community Mental Health/Self-Care
The Role of African and African Diasporan Culture in Liberatory Education
Urban Agriculture
Discovering Your Narrative to Change Life
U-Medics - Emergency Gun Violence, First Responders Skills
Working on Womanhood (WOW) Counseling
Participatory Action Research in the Classroom
Economic Justice- Community Controlled TIF Funds
Islam for Educators
Masculinity and Boys of Color
Examining the Impact of Trauma Among Immigrants and Refugees