Workshops for Not In Our Town and Not In Our School

Safe, Inclusive Community Workshop

This full day workshop for leaders and community members will introduce core practice and ideas based on NIOT’s twenty years of aggregated knowledge from cities across the U.S. The Workshop will be designed with local leaders based on priorities.

Here are some topics :

• Part 1: Understanding the Landscape
• How do we create a culture of inclusion? Best practice guidelines from the field
• Story telling as a tool for Inspiring Action and Engagement: Films will be used throughout the workshop
• How do we support our children? Helping youth stand up to bullying and intolerance
• Part 2: Developing an Action Plan
• Standing up to Intolerance: Strategies for Individuals and Community Wide Action
• Needs Assessment: How do we determine our community needs for response and prevention
• Intro to Gold Star Cities: Overview of Action Steps
• Overcoming Obstacles: Naming the Challenges and Seeking Solutions

Not In Our Town: Intro to Gold Star Cities

Creating Measurable Goals for Building a Safe, Inclusive Community

This program is for communities seeking sustainable solutions for preventing hate and intolerance and creating an inclusive atmosphere for all residents. Key strategies from the Gold Star City Program will be introduced throughout the program. (One or two day workshop).

Learn how to:

• Create a Successful Ongoing Team to Build Inclusion
• Join with School Leaders and Students to Stop Bullying
• Work with Law Enforcement and Community Groups to Report and Prevent Hate Crimes
• Implement Pro-Inclusion Activities with Local Media, Business and Civic Groups
• Build a Sustainable Structure
• Measure Your Results

Not In Our School Workshops

The workshops focuses on how to immediately respond to bullying and hate incidents using the NIOS model. Each session provides participants with materials and an introduction to the NIOS Inclusive Schools program. This program includes evaluation protocols for measuring outcomes.

Responding to Bullying, Hate and Intolerance: Not In Our School 

Participants will actively be guided through a process, working together to create an action plan for instituting their unique localized NIOS campaign. They will learn strategies for sustaining attitudinal and behavioral changes to reduce all forms of social cruelty, and increase kindness and amplify student's voice on their campus. Film and media are used throughout, and lesson guides for films are provided to participants.

This workshop includes:

• An overview of different groups of students who are often targets of bullying, students with differences (race, gender, sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation, appearance, and disabilities) and how to facilitate discussions and lead activities aimed to address and reduce stereotypes
• NIOS tools and models for designing and completing a site needs assessment that meets the anti-bullying legislative requirements and addresses particular issues of bullying and intolerance on campuses/districts
• Best practices in training staff and students to identify, prevent, and intervene in face-to-face bullying and cyber-bullying situations
• Models for school clubs, assemblies and other activities
• Strategies for role-playing that help bystanders learn to become upstanders
• Hands-on work with action plans, learning to create leadership teams by drawing from student and community groups as well as educators

Intro to Inclusive and Identity Safe Schools Workshop

The Inclusive and Identity Safe School Program includes a comprehensive set of structured activities for middle and high schools. Focused on bullying prevention and school-wide initiatives, this program helps school leaders create an inclusive school climate. Implementation and evaluation tools are incorporated into the program. With this guide, teachers can help students learn to promote kindness and empathy, reduce bullying, become “upstanders” rather than bystanders, and develop compassion and acceptance of others.

The program walks educators through a process for initiating a campus climate change, provides educator training, in-class lessons, and campaign activities that can fit within class schedules and curricular goals. The Not In Our School model combines a whole-staff effort with an emphasis on organizing and innovation led by students themselves.

The Inclusive and Identity Safe Program offers a two-year model that is designed to work flexibly within a school’s implementation capacity. The model is meant to be sustainable, and ongoing, featuring measurable outcome benchmarks. The action steps for this sustained effort are included in the workshop materials.

This program is designed to integrate easily with other school climate initiatives, including PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support), SEL (Social and Emotional Learning), Second Step Violence Prevention Program, and bullying prevention efforts. NIOS is complementary to the Facing History and Ourselves curriculum, providing action steps for students who are immersed in the FHAO lessons to build and reinforce upstander behavior.

This workshop includes:

• An Introduction to Identity Safety and Inclusion Program Research and Principles
• An overview of different groups of students who are often targets of bullying, students with differences (race, gender, sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation, appearance, and disabilities) and how to facilitate discussions and lead activities aimed to address and reduce stereotypes
• NIOS tools and models for designing and completing a site needs assessment that meets legislative requirements and addresses particular issues of bullying and intolerance on campuses/districts
• Outline of Program Plan
• Best practices in training staff and students to identify, prevent, and intervene in face- to-face bullying and cyber-bullying situations
• Strategies for role-playing that help bystanders learn to become upstanders
• Hands-on work with action plans, learning to create leadership teams by drawing from student and community groups as well as educators

NIOS for Parents: Building Empathy at Home and School

Designed as a two hour session for parents and caregivers, NIOT proposes scheduling multiple sessions per community. NIOS can offer an interactive session for parents in English or bilingually in Spanish that introduces parents to issues of bullying and intolerance. Parents will have interactive discussions to explore the impact of bullying and stereotyping in their children’s lives and will discuss the importance of building empathy and intercultural understanding in their children. They will also learn ways to support their children and to prevent bullying among siblings and friends at home. Parents will learn how to partner with schools to foster safe and inclusive environments as well as advocating for their own children.

This workshop includes:

• Overview of statistics and impact of bullying and intolerance
• Discussion of effective ways to prevent and address bullying in schools
• Introduction to Building an Identity Safe and Inclusive Environment at home and school
• Ways parents can support students who are victims, bystanders or perpetrators of bullying
• How to advocate for children and partner with the school on anti-bullying initiatives