Summer 2025 Racial Healing Summit
Join us for 2 days of deep community-building and practicing the 4 Pivots in person this summer!
This summit is inspired by Dr. Shawn Ginwright's framework of the 4 Pivots we can make as leaders and educators for social justice and racial healing. The 4 Pivots help us approach our work and the changes we wish to see in healthy, mindful and visionary ways, leading to deeper transformation for our students, families, colleagues and schools.
Location: Oakland Academy of Knowledge Multipurpose Room, 8755 Fontaine Street
REGISTER HERE by June 6, 2025!
We encourage site teams to come together when possible!
All OUSD staff and community members are welcome to participate.
OEA Members can submit timesheet hours upon completion of the series in the Exit Ticket for payment at the Professional Development rate, OR submit for Professional Growth Units for advancement on the salary scale.
SEIU & AFSCME Members who are 10-month should submit an OT/ET form. Other members can check in with their Supervisor to see if they are eligible to submit an extra/over time form online if these times fall beyond contract hours:
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Please list Mara Larsen-Fleming, Health & Wellness Director as the approver & supervisor.
SCHEDULE & WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS:
Day 1 | Monday, June 16
9am Registration & Breakfast
9:30 - 10:30 > Grounding Together in Community in the 4 Pivots w/ Freedom Community Clinic
We will ground our spirits in community and why the 4 Pivots are important for our Oakland schools to nurture racial equity and healing for our school communities.
10:45 - 12:30 > Pivot #1: Hustle to Flow w/ The Teaching Well
In this workshop, you will have the opportunity to name the very real possibility of burnout in pursuit of social justice. Together, we will consider the costs of that burnout both to the individual as well as the collective. But don’t worry, we promise to offer a variety of somatic practices to create more flow in your social justice hustle.
Participants will be able to:
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Acknowledge the real possibility of burnout in pursuit of social justice
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Address signs of burnout through a variety of somatic practices
Jill Thomas is a tenacious teacher and coach who has been with The Teaching Well since its adolescence. As a former OUSD employee, Jill creates and holds space in ways that invite growth, healing, and accountability, which set the foundation for dreaming and productivity to co-exist. Always reflective of how she shows up as a white woman, Jill is a trusted co-conspirator in dismantling white-supremacist culture, shifting ways of learning toward collective liberation, and social responsibility.
Natalya Wade is a Mindful Support Specialist with The Teaching Well. Shas worked in immigration law and served families seeking Asylum, U-visa, VAWA, and DACA status. As a former English and Ethnic Studies educator and school administrator, Natalya has worked in K-12 education for over 10 years with the belief that school communities have the potential to transform systemic trauma through the affirmation of our identities and collective legacies.
12:30 - 1:30 > Lunch + Wellness Activities hosted by Freedom Community Clinic
Energizing Dance & Movement Workshop: Come move your body in self-expression, confidence, and regulation through rhythm and flow! All bodies welcome.
Herbal Wellness Drop-In Table: Come learn about different herbs and their healing properties, and bring some home!
1:30 - 3:30 > Pivot #2: Lens to Mirror Affinity Circles & Deep Listening
OUSD staff have been participating in affinity circles since 2020 and before to process and heal within racialized communities, in order to re-engage with the collective community from a place of power. We will practice in groups where we can resonate in common experiences, listen across differences, and notice what comes up for us as we work toward beloved communities where we can all speak our courageous truths and be seen.
Participants will be able to:
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Practice in affinity space to heal ourselves as educators
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Share across differences to elevate our hopes and visions for our educator community
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Practice deep listening with ourselves and with others
Lailan Sandra Huen brings over 20 years in education, youth development, institutional transformation, and community organizing to her role as a Racial Healing coach in OUSD's Health & Wellness Department. She worked in OUSD's Office of Equity specializing in antiracist learning, progressive education policy reform, youth-led participatory action research, targeted equity strategies, and culturally responsive practices.
Day 2 | Tuesday, June 17
9am Registration & Breakfast
9:30 - 10:30 > Somatic Mindfulness & Calming the Nervous System
Freedom Community Clinic will facilitate a workshop on mindfulness - specifically the practice of somatic healing and tools to calm the nervous system when under stress. The workshop will guide participants through body awareness, mindfulness practices, and breath to release stress. Simple tools that can be used with students will be shared.
Participants will be able to:
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Practice self-regulation tools that can be used with themselves and with students
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Engage in a safe space to strengthen community connection and resilience
10:45 - 12:45 > Pivot #3: Transactional to Restorative Relationships
Participants will explore what activates them and develop strategies for effective responses in conflict resilience and repair. The facilitators will provide a better understanding of what conflict is, how it happens, and the opportunity inherent in it. A conflict toolbox to support understanding and working with conflict, whether it's theirs or others, will be shared.
Participants will be able to:
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Identify what activates them and focus on strategies for response
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Understand Conflict Styles and how they impact relationships
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Engage with and learn from the other attendees on issues around conflict
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Access multiple learning styles to support their best understanding of conflict, healing and repair
David Yusem and Kyle McClerkins have led the Restorative Justice movement at OUSD for over 14 years. Between the two of them they have experience with site-based RJ and district-wide RJ implementation. With others, they have developed a model and supported a framework for RJ training, coaching and implementation that has become a national model.
12:45 - 1:45 > Lunch + Wellness Activities hosted by Freedom Community Clinic
Gentle Movement: Trauma-Informed Yoga will offer stretching for all bodies.
Herbal Wellness Drop-In Table: Come learn about different herbs and their healing properties, and bring some home!
1:45 - 3:30 > Pivot #4: Problem to Possibility w/ The Teaching Well
In this workshop, you will learn ways to cultivate critical hope by grounding your attention in the possibility, not the problem. Together, we will acknowledge how the problem hooks us into focusing on it and sometimes limits our capacity to see another way forward. Be ready to let your imagination create a new vision as Angela Davis said, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
Participants will be able to:
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Reframe negative talk by turning them into possibilities using the “Duality Declaration” framework.
Facilitators: Jill Thomas & Natalya Wade (bios above)
SUMMIT PARTNERS:
The Freedom Community Clinic Healers Network exists at the intersection of ancestral wisdom and community care. Our mission transcends traditional healthcare by providing accessible, long-term, individualized healing services. We recognize that true healing is both deeply personal and inherently political—an act of resistance against systems that have historically marginalized our communities and disconnected people from their healing traditions. By reclaiming these practices and making them accessible, we participate in collective liberation of the body, mind, and spirit.
The Teaching Well partners with schools, districts, non-profits, and companies across the country to stabilize adult cultures and create thriving ecosystems that more effectively retain, support, and leverage the brilliance of their teams through stress resilience, connected communication, and collective care.
OUSD's Racial Healing work is made possible by the OUSD Health & Wellness Department and the Kaiser Foundation.
Please contact lailan.huen@ousd.org with any questions!