Restorative Practices Training of Trainers

Student Conduct and Community Standards and Residential Life are pleased to offer a once-in-a-decade opportunity to participate in a training-of-trainers for those looking to expand their knowledge and skills around restorative practices. The three-day training of trainers will be capped at 20 participants to optimize opportunities for learning and practice and because of the limited space, we ask that you submit an application (click on the website link below) in order to be considered. Priority will be given to those who foresee staying at UMBC for three or more years. Through the training of trainers, we are hoping to restock our team of restorative practices facilitators who can train others, act as circle-keepers, and help us continue to grow the restorative practices movement at UMBC.

Day One: Developing a Race-Conscious Restorative Mindset

Facilitator: Bobbi Sherrod

A restorative mindset is a perspective characterized by self-awareness, social-awareness, and relationship skills that support co-powering and community building. It is a paradigm that supports problem solving that honors conflict as a normal and potentially productive part of relationships. It is the foundation for all restorative practices. Using Afro-indigenous wisdom, Womanism, and Black feminism -- a Restorative Mindset provides the tools for radical self-examination to identify and address personal biases and harmful perspectives with the goal of building cultural competence.

Days Two & Three:

Facilitators: Lauren Mauriello and Associates

The train-the-trainer program equips restorative practitioners with the knowledge and skills to effectively develop other UMBC community members in the fundamental values and principles of restorative practices. Participants will learn to deliver a model curriculum with fidelity. The curriculum covers a range of topics including restorative foundations, concepts, processes and theories. Participants will learn and practice leading training activities on restorative leadership, restorative questions, restorative circles, and the use of fair process in decision making and agreements. Participants will engage in various activities to reinforce their learning. Emphasis is placed on training methodologies and instructional techniques based on adult learning best practices including self-reflection, storytelling, self-assessment, modeling, circle facilitation, and the use of fair process to make decisions and reach agreement.

Bobbi A. Sherrod (she/they) is a Baltimore native and proud mother of two. Her use of endarkened feminist epistemology in restorative justice and abolition centering the lives, experiences, and art of Black girls, Black women and femmes is enlightened by her lived experience as a Black American girl growing up in Baltimore and the Carolinas. Her B.A. is in English Language and Literature and her M.S. is in Negotiations and Conflict Management. As the Restorative Justice and Practices Program Director for Restorative Response Baltimore, Bobbi is responsible for all restorative practices research, policy work, school implementation and training. They work directly with caretakers, community members, and school staff coaching them through the cultural shift of being carceral to being connected and restorative. Barbara trains administrators and teachers, facilitates conferences, and assists with city-wide and state-wide restorative practices policy. Through experiential and learning circles, Barbara educates school communities including youth on the use of restorative justice for building relationships and navigating conflict with African-Indigenous wisdom and practices. A poet and essayist by desire, her website, MillennialMochaMoms provides space for Black millennial mothers to share their maternal experiences and build community. Her writing is featured in the first restorative justice anthology centering Black and non-Black practitioners of color, Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing our Realities and in the digital media publication, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. Bobbi is a Doctor of Education Candidate at Morgan State University studying Urban Educational Leadership with a focus on policy and administration. Her research focuses on Afro-Indigenous Restorative Justice and Practices, fugitive pedagogy in school-based restorative justice, Black women who use restorative justice and practices in urban education, and the quality of restorative justice and practices programming for Black girls and femmes.

Lauren Mauriello (she/her) is an adult educator, researcher, and consultant offering expertise in restorative approaches to leadership, restorative skills building, and restorative practices implementation to enhance the quality of educational, community, and workplace environments.  Her research on attitudes toward restorative practices, the efficacy of restorative practice in creating a sense of community, and the use of RP to enhance flourishing furthers our understanding of the possibilities and hurdles associated with RP implementation. Lauren has held administrative roles and faculty positions at public and private universities in the DMV area including UMBC where she worked on the team which brought RP to UMBC, and served as an administrator in Residential Life, Student Conduct, and Title IX. She has served on the faculties at Towson University, UMBC and Notre Dame of Maryland University. Lauren presently directs strategic learning and development activities to improve the quality of work, leadership and culture for a large, international non-profit which conducts medical research, provides education and training programs, and supports health-related initiatives. Lauren earned a Ph.D. in education policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and an M.Ed. in counseling psychology/college student personnel administration from James Madison University.