Post submitted by Kimmie Fink, Welcoming Schools Consultant

HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools is proud to announce another district-wide facilitator training, this time in South Florida. Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Broward County Schools, the fourth and sixth largest school districts in the nation, respectively, are the latest to make a system-wide commitment to implementing the Welcoming Schools approach to ensure safe, respectful and welcoming schools for all students to thrive—socially, emotionally and academically.

The four-day institute takes place from June 11-14 at the Lauderdale Manors Early Learning & Family Resource Center in Ft. Lauderdale. Leading the training are HRC Welcoming Schools Program Director Johanna Eager, Deputy Director Cheryl Greene, Expert Trainer Toni Smith, and Welcoming Schools Facilitator and Director of School Outreach for Time Out Youth Rebby Kern. Ten participants from each district joined the training to learn how to facilitate Welcoming Schools training modules to staff in their respective school districts.

In addition to providing this essential training, both Miami-Dade and Broward are demonstrating their dedication to this work through their strategic plans in which Welcoming Schools is embedded into the fabric of each district. They plan on piloting the program with a handful of schools this fall and to expand it in coming years. The potential to make a difference in the education and lives of the students in South Florida is enormous -- the two districts serve more than 616,500 students.

The District-Wide Facilitator Training is open to any district that would like to increase its internal capacity to provide Welcoming Schools training to their staff. If you would like to bring the Welcoming Schools Facilitator Training to your district, please contact us.

HRC Foundation's Welcoming Schools is the nation's premier professional development program providing training and resources to elementary school educators to:

• Welcome Diverse Families;
• Create LGBTQ and Gender Inclusive Schools;
• Prevent Bias-Based Bullying;
• Support Transgender and Non-Binary Students.