School Crisis Recovery and Renewal

Memorialization & Commemoration Community of Practice: Wading Through Grief and Time

This page offers resources to help your school crisis recovery leadership through memorialization and commemoration.

Memorialization and Commemoration Community of Practice: Wading through Grief and Time

How do educators and school site leaders navigate memorials and lead schools in grief and healing? 

In May 2021, SCRR hosted two learning forums on memorialization and commemoration, centering educator and school site leaders’ voices of experience. During that programming, we heard that folks wanted space to discuss the intricacies of memorialization and commemoration in the context of school crisis recovery and renewal. 

This 5-session learning community will integrate lessons of trauma-informed leadership into the emerging work of commemoration and memorialization as means towards building humanizing and healing-centered school communities. 

Join us for a discussion about navigating the delicate and complex work of tending to grief within a school setting. Join our Memorialization & Commemoration SCRR Community of Practice. 

Who is this for?

Anyone with a role in school memorializations or commemorations and commemorations:

  • District and School-site Leaders
  • K-12 Educators
  • School-based Mental Health Professionals
  • Student Support Staff

Thank you to everyone who registered for this Community of Practice.

Registration for this Community of Practice is closed.

Materials from the Wading through Grief and Time Community of Practice (Fall 2021)

Materials from this Community of Practice can be accessed on the Memorialization and Commemoration Resource page.

Sessions

We invite you to join us at all 5 sessions; come to as many as you can!

Time: 1:00 – 2:15 pm PT / 3:00 – 4:15pm CT / 4:00 – 5:15pm ET

  1. Tuesday, August 31: Introduction & orientation to our Community of Practice
  2. Tuesday, September 21: How might educators navigate the concurrent experiences of present and past loss for themselves and their students? 
  3. Tuesday, October 12: How might our definitions of healing and wholeness impact our ability to grow beyond the paralysis of grief and loss? 
  4. Tuesday, November 2: How might honoring the cultural traditions of our school communities support the memorialization and commemoration for students and educators?  
  5. Tuesday, November 30: How might school leaders create spaces for joy and celebration within spaces of grief?

For more information

Please contact Alica Forneret, SCRR Community of Practice Project Manager, if you have questions about this community of practice.

Facilitators

Oriana Ides is the School Mental Health Training Specialist at CARS and Field Coach with the School Crisis Recovery & Renewal Project. Oriana approaches healing the wounds of trauma and oppression as core elements of social justice.  She has worked with young people across life course from elementary school to college, and has served as teacher-leader, school counselor, classroom educator and program director.  She is committed to generating equity within school structures and policies by focusing on evidence-based mental health techniques and institutional design.

Yesmina Luchsinger is a Health & Equity Technical Assistance Specialist for the Center for Applied Research Solutions and a partner of the School Crisis Recovery & Renewal Project.  As an educator and mental health professional, she is recognized for her passion in the areas of equity, resilience, school safety, and campus grief support. She also brings the unique experience of state education systems social wellness response during the COVID-19 pandemic. An Arab-American and daughter of an immigrant, Yesmina is currently living in downtown Phoenix on the ancestral homelands of the Akimel O’odham (Pima), Pee Posh (Maricopa), and Tohono O’odham peoples.

Priming Resources for Conversations on Memorialization and Commemoration