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Oakland Unified School District

Spring 2025 4 Pivots Series

Tuesday, January 28th, 4-6pm > HUSTLE to FLOW

The first step in transforming how we show up in our schools is to move from hustle to flow, which enables all other pivots.  We need to move away from reacting to crises, by centering in our bodies and enabling the dynamic response that comes from flowing where there is energy and momentum.

Healing Together invites you into a nourishing circle for reclaiming our flow! While our ancestor’s hustle brought us here, it is our flow that liberates us and those coming. Come experience somatic, rest & healing practices for bringing our more present, more nourished & more embodied selves to our schools and our communities.

Participants will be able to: 

  • Engage daily, simple & enlivening practices to support flowing when our nervous systems are bound up in hustle in school systems
  • Offer themselves, their bodies and those around them more compassion, witnessing and care as we move from hustle to flow

Ames Paulson, Healing Together Director, is a social entrepreneur, facilitator, writer, speaker, trauma survivor, and mental health advocate working at the intersection of healing and social justice - helping to disrupt cycles of violence, fear, hate, and injustice, heal individual and collective trauma, build community resilience, and democratize access to healing resources in the Bay Area and around the world.

xochicoatl bello (they/elle), Healing Together Program Weaver & Facilitator, is a diasporic reindigenizing two spirit artist, tradesperson, cultural bearer, educator, facilitator, and healing practitioner. They are committed to cultivating cultures of healing by restoring our connections to the sacredness of self, each other, Earth, and ancestors through circle practice, ceremony, Indigenous technologies, art, and agricultural traditions.

Tuesday, February 18th, 4-6pm > LENS to MIRROR

The most important pivot we make is turning toward our own healing and self-transformation work.  Only through modeling how we want the world to be will we be able to be in authentic relationship with our students.

The work of building Beloved Community – a world where we all belong - in our schools and communities is no simple task. What is the work we must do in our own hearts, families and communities to be in integrity with the changes we are seeking from larger systems? How does our own healing and fierce vulnerability impact our ability to create change in the world around us?

Participants will be able to: 

  • Understand the history and depth of the concepts of Beloved Community and Fierce Vulnerability

  • Understand the impact of trauma on our ability to create long-term change

  • Identify short term, medium term and long term practices to incorporate healing into education and organizing work

kazu

Kazu Haga is an international nonviolence trainer, practitioner and student of nonviolence and restorative justice based in the Fruitvale neighborhood of East Oakland. His work blends spiritual practice and trauma healing with nonviolence resistance to create systemic transformation. He is passionate about bringing about a world where all people remember that we belong to each other.

Tuesday, March 25th, 4-6pm > TRANSACTION to TRANSFORMATIVE RELATIONSHIPS

In the hustle of schools, we can slip into reproducing dehumanizing habits rather than taking the time to build meaningful relationships that can transform all of us.  In recent years since the pandemic, conflict amongst adults and youth has increased in our schools.  It's time to strengthen our skills in conflict repair toward building beloved community.

With the OUSD Restorative Justice team, leaders in the national field of RJ practice in schools, participants will learn practical tips and techniques for effective communication and the prevention and management of conflict in productive ways.

Participants will be able to: 

  • Understand what activates them and develop strategies for effective responses
  • Use a conflict toolbox to support understanding and working with conflict, whether it's theirs or others
kyle

A son of Oakland, Kyle McClerkins is a longtime leader in facilitating restorative justice in OUSD elementary, middle and high schools and part of the OUSD Restorative Justice Team.

david

David Yusem is the OUSD Coordinator for Restorative Justice and a member of OUSD's Racial Justice & Healing Taskforce, with years of experience in community mediation with the SEEDS Community Resolution Center.

Tuesday, April 22nd, 4-6pm > PROBLEM to POSSIBILITY

Sometimes we can get stuck in the problems in our schools and district, rather than focusing on what's possible.  This limitation is often part of our trauma, and can impede the progress of racial healing.

The “problem to possibility" pivot reminds us of our ability to vision past obstacles. Connecting mindset, manifestation, and innovation, we are pushed beyond merely identifying or fixating on a challenge. Instead we are invited to be generative and inspired towards paradigm shifting.  Come explore and practice freedom dreaming - our schools, community, and profession depend on us actualizing critical hope and a new way forward in the field!

Participants will be able to: 

  • Understand the concept of freedom dreaming, while also aligning on barriers to this pivot
  • Engage in somatic practices and a visual arts manifestation activity that inspire critical hope for our schools and community
  • Leave grounded and connected to colleagues and the larger transformation underway
lindsey

Lindsey Fuller (she/her/sis) is the Executive Director of The Teaching Well, a national leader in supporting educator wellness and sustainability.

 

This series is supported by OUSD Health & Wellness and the Kaiser Foundation.