#069 Precious Lives: Changing the system from within
Episode #069
“I know technically we couch the work that youth workers do as youth development but I call it purpose finding work in terms of helping people understand who they are,...
“I like to fight, I’ve always fought. It let go of all of your anger. I felt really happy to get all the emotions into your fist. Now I can’t stop.”
Within the last couple of years, Milwaukee Public Schools changed its policy around expulsion. In the past, students expelled for violent behavior would sit at home, often unsupervised, without help. Now, when kids get expelled, most for fighting, students get the opportunity to go to an alternative school, like Southeastern Education Center. Southeastern Education is a behavioral reassignment school for 6th through 8th graders operated by the nonprofit youth services agency Pathfinders. There are many tools built into the curriculum to stop fighting, and prepare kids to return to their regular MPS classes.
Learn more about this story with a companion piece written by Annysa Johnson at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Marquette University Peace Works runs a cognitive restructuring exercises at Southeastern Education Center, a behavioral reassignment school for students expelled from Milwaukee Public Schools.
PHOTO CREDIT: Rick Wood for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If you are interested in exploring if the Peace Works program will be a good fit at your school, please contact Sherri Walker at (414) 288-8445.
