Conflict Resolution Program

by Lyons Sanchezconcha, a teacher at Huguenot High School and Conflict Resolution Facilitator

Regarding conflict resolution with adults: I feel that I can accurately state that this session changed my life in a positive way. I take my career pretty seriously and am constantly looking at ways to be better. I have used takeaways from the workshop pretty consistently throughout my time as a teacher and part-time coordinator of an after school program. In other words, this workshop is helping Richmond be better by training and empowering people who work in the various careers to be better equipped. I am truly grateful that I was able to be a part of the conflict resolution workshop, and learned so much. I am also a big supporter of the "trained becoming trainers" aspect of it. While my schedule has not allowed for me to participate all that often as a training facilitator, I am lucky to be able to. The times that I have facilitated have been great. I can go on forever about how great the work of RPEC is and I constantly do bring it up to others. I am excited for all of the work that this organization is doing in our community.

The culturally responsive circles training was yet another opportunity I had to share with the Richmond Peace Education Center. The content was well thought out and nicely incorporated to what we were covering. To be honest, I was not aware of what exactly the training would look like because I was a little uninformed about cultural responsiveness and it's' value in circles. That is definitely not the case now.

Perhaps one of the most amazing things about RPEC, is that while we learn a lot, the mentality is that we have all of this knowledge inside of us already and the trainings just help us get it out. This is truly amazing.

Regarding work with our youths: My first impression ever of RPEC was with a training that I translated with a small group of high-school aged students at Huguenot High School. I was quickly amazed at how intrigued the students were. At first glance, it seemed like the material would go in one ear and out the other for the group, but they participated and it works. This shows the strong need in the community. I was fascinated and suddenly invested in the work that RPEC is doing for our youths.

I facilitated a weekend youth training session that was very eye-opening. I think both the trainers and trainees took away a lot. It's curious to see many factors going in like constant breaks, combining different student backgrounds, ages, etc. that makes it clear that everything was very well thought out. I also am a big fan of the agenda meetings that RPEC does in order to solidify everything that is needed before the session. My favorite thing is to see the group of students transition throughout the weekend. It becomes apparently that the work that took place is not only very needed, but very successful. Facilitating youth training workshops have helped me be a better teacher.