K-16 University Partners Meeting: School Safety and Conflict Resolution

Posted by on April 02, 2013

We are excited to announce that PHENND and the School District of Philadelphia are holding their first K-16 University Partners Meeting on Wednesday, May 1st from 3:30PM-5:30PM at 440 North Broad Street. The themes of our first meeting are positive school climate, conflict resolution and community building.

The PHENND University Partners Meeting is a new initiative that PHENND has created in collaboration with the School District of Philadelphia and the Office of Family and Community Engagement to facilitate the sharing of ideas, resources, curricula and ‘manpower’ that will help address critical needs in public schools. Monthly University Partner meetings will increase communication regarding School District priorities and ensure dialogue between key stakeholders from universities, schools, community organizations and the School District. Lastly, University Partner meetings, through networking and dialogue, will strive to promote new and expanded partnerships in a democratic, equitable way.

Chief Inspector Cynthia D. Dorcey from the Office of School Safety will present School District goals regarding school climate and safety partnerships. The Office of School Safety currently supports several key partnerships including: Safe Corridors, Parent Patrols, Parent Truant Officers and a Parent Help Desk. In addition to these partnerships, there are numerous intervention and prevention services which are provided through community organizations. Please read the full list of Safety Programs here: Safety Program Organizations

From the university perspective we will hear from Dr. Cynthia Belliveau. Dr. Belliveau teaches conflict resolution, classroom management and peer mediation in the Department of Psychological, Organizational, & Leadership Studies in Education at Temple University. As part of her curriculum, she has partnered with numerous Philadelphia schools to create collaborative service-learning models for high school and college students.

In addition to teaching at Temple, Dr. Belliveau most recently taught conflict resolution skills to newly inducted teachers as part of the CRETE (Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education) program. CRETE is a collaboration of universities, agencies, and conflict resolution education organizations dedicated to infusing conflict resolution education and social and emotional learning into pre-service and in-service teacher education. CRETE educates teachers, administrators and other school staff in conflict resolution education and social and emotional learning to help educators constructively manage conflict, create positive learning environments, and develop students’ conflict competence and social skills. CRETE is a national and international project housed at Temple University.  Cynthia also works to partner Temple University Students  with Parkway Northwest Peace and Social Justice High School. Through this partnership, college and high school students work together to develop and promote peer mediation and conflict resolution techniques. 

Attendees will have the chance to ask questions to both university and District representatives, network with peers and obtain concrete knowledge regarding how to support school safety and climate initiatives at Philadelphia public schools.

Who should attend on May 1st?
•    University faculty, staff and students who have established conflict resolution, peer mediation and community building programs on campus and in the community.
•    Non-profits and community programs which address conflict resolution, peer mediation and community building who can utilize college students (undergraduate or graduate) as staff or volunteers.
•    K-12 teachers, administrators and staff who have created and established conflict resolution, peer mediation and community building programs in their schools and who need support from outside partners.

Over the past three years the PHENND K-16 Network has grown and changed. Currently, K-16 Committee Meetings develop innovative approaches to partnership in the areas of service-learning, non-profit collaborations and college access. Three times a year we gather as a larger network of university, non-profit and school partners to learn new skills, develop new ideas and network in order to better serve students in Philadelphia schools. We are excited to be able to add University Partner meetings as a new service to the K-16 community.

We hope you will join us. Please RSVP here: University Partners RSVP