The Center’s Student Leader Workshops empower schools to confront the problems of degrading language, bullying, and harassment.
Each workshop engages 30-40 students who have social influence. These leaders participate in a full-day, highly interactive workshop that focuses on the damaging impact of bias, prejudice, harassment and degrading language.
Center trainers guide the students to understand the effect of the negative language that they use and hear, and see themselves as essential to shifting school culture. Most importantly, workshop participants become skilled at intervening in low-key ways when other students use degrading language. Through discussion, role-playing and other creative exercises, Center trainers help students develop the leadership skills necessary to influence their peers to treat all students with civility and respect.
Students who participate in the workshop bring their knowledge and skills back to school and model them for others, engaging with their peers to create a climate in which every one in their school feels physically and emotionally safe and ready to learn.
Two to three faculty or staff members attend the workshop and serve as ongoing resources for the student leaders.
