In 2019 the Vermont Agency of Education offered two grant opportunities to support the development of the restorative approach in Vermont schools—one to fund a consultant or a collaborative to offer free support, training, and technical assistance (including this website) to selected schools, and one to fund specific schools’ or districts efforts to implement restorative practices using consultants and trainers of their choice. This website serves as a resource for ALL schools regardless of whether their application was approved or not and will be maintained as a central resource long after the grant period expires.
These grant allocations were the result of several legislative hearings where experts in the field, alongside educators and students, spoke to the need for a restorative approach in addressing not only issues of equity in schools but the need to develop learning environments where everyone experiences safety, respect, belonging, voice, and accountability.
This work in Vermont represents a tiny portion of what is happening all over the country and the world to change how schools meet the social, emotional, and ethical needs of their school communities. We are therefore deeply grateful to all those who are already doing this work and so graciously share their knowledge as well as to the First Nations people from whom the principles of this work originated.
What Is RISE-VT?
RISE-VT project coordinator Amy Wheeler-Sutton explains more about the project’s goals, which schools they’re currently working with, and how restorative approaches work.
CDCI Connects on: RISE-VT
Dr. Valerie Wood hosts an episode of the podcast that looks at the recent RISE VT project: Restorative Approaches Implementation for School Equity in Vermont. Her guests are collaborators on the project: the CDCI’s Amy Wheeler-Sutton, and UP for Learning’s Lindsey Halman.
To find out more about RISE-VT, visit go.uvm.edu/risevt.
As of July 2023, financial support for this website has been provided by the Conflict Transformation Collaborative at Middlebury College
UP for Learning is a Coordinator and fiscal agent of the VTRAC