Introducing: Radical Wellness for Education Leaders

APPLY NOW:

Radical Wellness for Education Leaders

We are pleased to announce a new training space: Radical Wellness for Education Leaders*.  This is a transformative and healing space for education leaders that supports their development of more human-centered workplaces and lives. We will be exploring questions like: What does radical wellness mean for education spaces? And what can leaders do to support healing and wellness? Apply now to join our inaugural cohort of Detroit-based educational leaders to deepen your leadership practice at the intersection of individual and collective wellness. 

*Education Leader = Anyone in traditional (i.e. schools) or nontraditional (i.e. afterschool/youth development) education spaces that hold a leadership or administrative position (i.e. principal, dean, Manager, Director etc.) 

Complete this short application by November 12, 2021. 

Details: 

What to expect: 

• Support for those in leadership roles to embrace humanizing and transformational practices in their schools/organizations and their own lives

• Increase the resilience of educators, lowering rates of burnout 

• Deep relationships that will support leaders throughout their career 

• Explore the intersection of power, leadership, and systemic change at the individual and institutional levels

• Support the implementation of a policy, practice or structure that sustains a wellness-centered culture

Commitment and Dates: 

This is an eight month long program from December 2021-June 2022 with monthly meetings (see dates below) in addition to offline readings, reflections and one-one conversations. The majority of meetings will be virtual with potential in-person sessions planned for the spring. Participants will receive a generous stipend and individual coaching sessions. 

Who should apply: 

We are seeking participants that identify as education leaders in the city of Detroit. We define education leaders as anyone in traditional (i.e. schools) or nontraditional (i.e. afterschool/youth development) education spaces that hold a leadership or administrative position (i.e. Principal, Dean, Manager, Director etc.). Applicants should be interested in reflecting on their leadership, reimagining what wellness means and shifting conditions in their education spaces to be more humanizing. If you have any questions, please reach out at pie@alliedmedia.org.  

APPLY HERE BY Nov 12!!

Live Session Program Dates:

• December 4, 2021: 12:00-3:00pm (zoom)

• December 5, 2021: 12:00-3:00pm (zoom)

• January 16, 2022: 1:00-3:00 pm (zoom)

• February  20, 2022: 1:00- 3:00 pm (zoom)

• March 20, 2022: 10:00am-4:00pm (in person)

• April 10,  2022: 1:00- 3:00 pm (zoom)

• May 15, 2022: 1:00- 3:00 pm (zoom)

• June 5, 2022: 11:00am-2:00pm (in person)

It’s Okay to Go Slow

It’s Okay to Go Slow: 

Reflections from Rida 2020

“Empowering, humanizing, deeply moving, doable in the world of 2020 screen time overload!”

— 2020 Rida Participant

Like so much of 2020, the Rida Institute looked and felt different this year. We carried a theme of community care as we ventured to move Rida online. We gathered 24 educators from Detroit and across the country to create a community of support during an uniquely challenging year. The most notable change while moving online was slowing down and spreading the annual intensive retreat across four weekends in the fall instead of one summer weekend. Over those first four months we cared for each other as we managed the challenging beginning and end of the first semester of school during a pandemic.

Reflections from a Facilitation Fellow: 

“As adults we don’t have the luxury to be curious… to stop to ask questions. But real collaboration comes from curiosity ”

— Kiarra, PIE Facilitator

Another major change included hosting our first Rida Facilitation Fellow, Kiarra Ambrose who joined us on the Rida 2020 journey. Kiarra is a Rida alum, educator extraordinaire and Math Training and Support Coordinator at Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD). The goal of the fellowship was to support Rida Institute while investing in and growing the skills of the fellow. After Rida ended, Kiarra reflected that she gained a deeper understanding of humanizing facilitation practices including being more intentional about the ‘what’ and ‘why’, asking powerful questions and prioritizing people being present in the space. Her top lessons include: 

• It’s okay to go slow 

• Less is more 

• Let things unfold by holding space 

• Let people take what they need 

She is bringing her lessons into her work at DPSCD when creating training and development opportunities for math teachers. In particular, PIE’s core practices of connection and somatic centering are now routine in her work in the Math Department. The introduction of these techniques have been impactful and well received among her colleagues. Kiarra has seen more engagement and increased participation with the math teachers she supports. She has received positive feedback from participants who have vocalized appreciation for the shift in the learning environment. Since starting to use these practices, participants have built a stronger sense of community allowing them to be more vulnerable to make mistakes, push each other and change their minds. A radically simple shift continues to have a profound impact within her department. See above for Kiarra’s tips on humanizing adult learning spaces.

Root System Mediation

ROOT SYSTEM MEDIATION:

“I hope to offer this practice for folks to engage with art as a resource for themselves in processing grief and aligning with their humanity when faced with circumstances that ask them to push past it.

Art can serve as a vehicle for fostering a deeper connection with oneself and cultivating the capacity to attend to our needs.”

- Cyrah, Lead Teaching Artist

An Offering to Pause and Process: 

There seems to be a common feeling of depletion and exhaustion. We are over a year into a deadly pandemic while navigating a seemingly endless onslaught of terror; fueling tragedy and trauma around us. It often feels like there is little space to process our emotions and the compounding grief we are experiencing, especially if we are unable to access traditional ways of processing. Our Root System Mediation offering was created by Lead Teaching Artist Cyrah Dardas as an invitation to acknowledge our grief by carefully creating a container and ritual to process our emotions through embodied drawing. 

This drawing mediation intends to bring awareness to hidden root systems. While reflecting, we notice the patterns and networks within all living things around us like wondrous trees. We are reminded of the strength and support within our complex root systems and honor interdependence and interconnection as a way to tap into our innate aliveness and inherent resilience. It is a portal to reconnect us to our shared humanity in a context that continuously asks us to disconnect from ourselves, each other and the natural world.

What Is A Drawing Mediation?

“Meditative drawing has been an important tool for me as an organizer, an educator and frankly just as a human living in this world, to center and regulate myself.
”

— Cyrah

A drawing mediation is a reflective tool for kinetic relaxation. Firstly, it creates space to process emotions in a safe and healthy way. Using art as a process, the practice of drawing mediations focuses on the healing power of drawing while engaging both the mind and body. The goal is not the end product but to reflect, regulate and replenish through the joyful act of creating. The intention is to use it as a practice in which you find new meaning and depth with each engagement. In doing so, we might find new awareness around our inner voice and other voices within us stemming from our ancestral lineages to our social context.

How To Engage: 

Download the drawing prompt here and follow the suggested guided steps.

Steps:

1) PAUSE:

Create a calm, comfortable space.

2) PROCESS:

Envision the root system supporting the tree. Consider:

- What would the roots of the tree look like that support its structure?

- How might the roots beneath the tree mirror the top of the tree?

Using a pen or pencil, draw the root system that you are visualizing beneath the tree.

3) REFLECT:

- What makes up your root system?

- Where does it live inside of you?

- What is its form?

- How has it informed the way you have grown?

- How does it support you?

4) REPEAT:

Continue to make space to come back to this practice.

“ I think about root systems as the things that aren’t so surface about who we are. Yet what everything is built upon. By examining those things you can become more aware of them yourself”

— Cyrah

For More Resources Check Out: