Missouri Developmental Disabilities Council A Community Restorative Justice Summit

You are invited to a one-day virtual summit!

A Community Restorative Justice Summit
Wednesday, August 2, 2023
8:30am – 4:15pm

Restorative justice, or RJ, is a way to support students in schools instead of punishing them. Schools that get trained in restorative justice:

• Teach Students How to Have Healthy Relationships
• Teach Students How to Connect with People in their Community
• Are Safer
• Have Less Bullying
• Have Less Violence

The one-day virtual summit will cover topics, including:

• The Importance of Cultural Awareness
• The Importance of Knowing the Communication Differences in Black Youth with or without Cognitive and Communication Disorders
• Concepts of Restorative Justice
• Best Practices to Avoid Civil Rights Violations
• Appropriateness of Restorative Justice
• Types of Restorative Justice
• Reed Technique in Interviews
• Best Practices to Avoid Charging Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities as Adults
• And More

Juvenile Forensic Speech-Language Pathologist, Child Language Disorders Specialist, Associate Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Creative Culture Consulting, LLC

Meet the Presenters: 

Leigh Anne McKingsley
Senior Director of Disability and Justice Initiatives
The Arc of the United States

Josh Branch
Program and Attorney Manager, Disability Initiatives 
The Arc of the United States

• personality characteristics that make them more susceptible to justice involvement;
• how a person’s disability may be used against them as victims and defendants;
• concerns around interrogating youth with IDD;
• trauma informed responses;
• and solutions to hold justice involved youth with IDD accountable while also building stronger community outcomes.

Summit Agenda

8:30am – 9:00 am – Summit Opening
9:00am – 10:00am – Dr. Shameka Stewart
10:00am – 10:20am – Break
10:20am – 11:20am – Dr. Patrick Schwarz
11:20am – 12:20pm – Lunch Break
12:20pm – 1:20pm – Leigh Anne McKingsley and Josh Branch
1:20pm-1:40pm – Break
1:40pm – 2:40pm – Leigh Anne McKingsley and Josh Branch
2:40pm – 3:00pm – Break
3:00pm – 4:00pm – Leigh Anne McKingsley and Josh Branch
4:00pm – 4:15pm – Summit Closing

The goal of this project is to disrupt the School to Prison Pipeline for students of color with developmental disabilities. The project creates restorative justice trainings for educators, school resource officers, and other community members. Due to these trainings, students will have a better chance of being treated fairly.  Students should not be referred as often to the juvenile justice system.

This project should result in students of color with developmental disabilities better access to a quality, equitable education. A focus of the trainings will be on supporting students rather than punishing them.