About The Restorative Project
The Restorative Project
believes connected school communities are safe and inspiring school communities
The Restorative Project (TRP) was founded in early 2021, but founder and executive director Andria Cole has been partnering with schools in the name of positive transformation since 2012. TRP reflects Andria's commitment to providing high-quality training and implementation support to school communities deeply invested in cultivating healthy school environments. We are intentional about seeking partnerships that support forcibly marginalized communities less likely to receive the resources and care necessary to their survival and that understand the importance of the family/kinship system to community transformation and health.
TRP partners with districts, schools, and individuals that share its values and understand the relationship between social-emotional health and academic achievement. We offer a variety of services including:
- Whole school restorative practices implementation support, including coaching + parenting support
- Restorative practices trainings + workshops
- Conflict resolution processes + support
- Relationship-building processes + support
- Culture + climate assessments + recommendations
- Transformational (also known as conscious, gentle or peaceful) parenting workshops to correspond with + support staff trainings +workshops
- Direct social-emotional support for students via our Green Zone and Saturday Prevention programs
What are restorative practices?
Restorative practices (RP) are a framework and set of tools for building, improving and repairing relationships. They are a community-centered, needs-based approach to cultivating healthy home, school, neighborhood and workplace communities. The faithful implementation of RP increases social and emotional intelligence, decreases high-risk behavior, and addresses harm effectively. RP strives to honor all voices (including and especially those voices that are traditionally and systematically silenced), to hold people accountable for their words, behaviors and actions, and to contribute to the repair of new and existing trauma. The consistent, school-wide use of restorative practices significantly reduces classroom disruptions, suspensions, and violence by centering the good of the community and its relationships, promoting social-emotional competence, encouraging trauma-sensitive decisions, and promoting cultural competency.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Schoolwide SEL is a systemic approach to integrating academic, social, and emotional learning across classrooms and the school building in collaboration with families and community partners. The schoolwide use of SEL fosters learning and promotes equitable outcomes for all students.
RP and School-wide SEL are distinct approaches to creating and sustaining connected communities, but are grounded in similar principles and often complement and fortify one another. The longterm. faithful implementation of "RP/SEL" requires the integration and support of children's family and kinship systems.