Brave Space Groundwork for Improved Outcomes for System Involved Youth

Dr. Kendra Carr, Hénia Belalia, Jalesa Washington, & Catherine Del Castillo

Training Description

Brave spaces are the environments in which system involved youth can feel heard, seen, valued, and supported as they explore challenging social-emotional topics. This is differentiated from "safe spaces" in that there is inherent risk and conflict involved in developing our identities and sharing them with others. We will experience and use practices, lessons, and activities that cultivate a brave space for system involved youth and families and identify how brave spaces foster community and accountability as well as mitigate harm especially for foster youth and system involved youth who are disproportionately youth of color.

Learning Objectives

● Collaboratively explore and define brave space and it’s meaning;

● Experience and use practices, lessons, and activities that cultivate a brave space for system involved youth; and

● Identify how brave spaces foster community and accountability as well as mitigate harm for system involved youth and families.

Agenda 

10:30-10:45am  Opening, Grounding & Introductions

10:45-11:00am  Brave Space Foundation

11:00-11:30am  Brave Space in Practice

11:30-11:50am  Centering Racial & Gender Equity

11:50-12:20pm  Trust Building

12:20-12:30pm  Closing

Meet Our Trainers

Dr. Kendra Carr

Kendra joins the Girls Leadership team after almost a decade of work as an administrator at an all-girls school in Oakland, CA. She is deeply committed to girls programming that addresses the needs of all girls, especially those at the margins of society. Love, community, humility, equity, and a commitment to liberating action are the values that guide her work with youth. For the last 15 years, Kendra has served in various roles within the field of education and youth development, and has worked with elementary, middle, high school, and community college students and their families.

Kendra received a B.S. in Political Science with a minor in Ethnic Studies from Santa Clara University and a M.A. in Education with a concentration in Equity and Social Justice from San Francisco State University. She received her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Saint Mary’s College of CA.

Henia Belalia

Hénia Belalia is currently a guest and a settler on occupied Ohlone territories. A French-Algerian native, raised between the inner-cities of Paris and her ancestral village, she moved to the Bay Areas as a youth.

In her former life, she was a theatre director and the co-founder of the sociopolitical theater troupe Teatrofilia in Zaragoza, Spain. Today, she is a Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner (and eternal student), and firmly grounded in the belief that art can be used as a tool for liberation. For the last 10+ years, she has been involved in community organizing around racial, social and environmental justice issues including migrant rights, prison solidarity, land defense, indigenous sovereignty, and community self-defense. She has been working with youth for close to 20 years, mainly in after school programs, but also in the classroom, through community-based organizations and as a summer camp counselor (that one time!). Most recently she designed and facilitated a full media-literacy-meets-social-justice program for self-identified teen girls and gender expansive youth.  She is a published writer and a conjurer of stories from the margins. She loves stories and the process of storytelling, especially those from voices who’ve been systematically erased, invisibilized, or stolen across generations. In her free time, she most enjoys spending time with the land, in circle with loved ones, attending concerts (or being backstage as a stage manager for said concerts), and cooking up recipes passed on through her grandmother.

Catherine Del Castillo

Catherine Del Castillo was born and raised in New York. She has been a storyteller all her life thanks to her parents who always encouraged her to play with cardboard boxes. She grew up doing theatre in her local church, school, and her friend’s backyard. Catherine earned her BA in Theatre Education from Ball State University and her Masters of Arts in Applied Theatre from the CUNY School of Professional Studies. Catherine worked as a teaching artist developing and facilitating her own curriculum for over ten years in a variety of settings such as after-school programs, summer camps, homeless shelters and museums. She has taught for various agencies such as Roundhouse Theatre, Educational Alliance, the Creative Arts Team, New York City Children’s Theatre and Greenwich Music School. Catherine specializes in devising and facilitating interactive dramas around issues that directly affect communities and directing original theatre with youth. As the Education Specialist at Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education in the Bronx, Catherine wrote Literacy and STEM curriculum, trained a staff of over forty teachers and organized special events. During her time there, she was instrumental in working to increase the program’s performance and earn an “above standard” rating from the Department of Youth and Community Development. Before joining Girls Leadership, Catherine was the Manager of Tour and Academy Programs at George Street Playhouse where she developed arts integration curriculum, spearheaded outreach to families and schools and implemented professional development for teachers. She also directed Project IMT, a student-led original play that centered the voices and experiences of undocumented communities.

Catherine serves as an Alumni Ambassador for Ball State University with the mission of making college admissions more accessible to BIPOC students. In her spare time she enjoys reading fantasy novels, baking and writing poetry.

Jalesa Washington

Jalesa joins Girls Leadership after being an educational administrator and teacher for over 8 years. She

loves inspiring and empowering youth and adults to achieve both their personal and professional goals

by building an authentic relationship with individuals. She achieves this by leading with love,

compassion, empathy, humility, and respect. Being a product of the NYC public school system, she

believes in the importance of seeing individuals as who they are and using emotional intelligence to

spark greatness in youth. Jalesa’s passion of developing self-awareness within individuals has blossomed throughout the years and has developed greatly during her time as an educator and Girl Scout troop leader. Paired with her

background in fashion and entertainment, she is known as a fashion extraordinaire who impacts and

encourages through style as well. She has been featured on Humans of New York for her interactions

with her students and has been a panelist at various events, highlighting the benefits of social emotional

learning and culturally responsive education strategies. She holds a BS in Human Ecology from the

University of Maryland Eastern Shore and a MAT from the Relay Graduate School of Education. When

Jalesa is not fulfilling her God-given purpose within her work, she enjoys dancing, journaling, spending

time traveling alone, and traveling with friends and family.

This course meets the qualifications for (1.5) BBS CEUs for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.