Learning InspirED sponsored a three-day Student-Led Restorative Practices (SLRP) training, coordinated by AJ Crabill, that convened students from eight school districts across Ohio representing urban, suburban, and rural communities. This program develops student leaders equipped to foster relationship-centered, restorative school cultures through dialogue, accountability, and collective care.
Video courtesy of Warren Local Schools.
Student-Led Restorative Practices (SLRP) was a transformative three-day training program led by student leaders from five districts, guided by AJ Crabill and sponsored by Learning InspirED, focused on community building and conflict-resolution skills.
Through increasingly challenging exercises that require vulnerability and authentic sharing, students developed the capacity to lead their peers and take ownership of their school's climate rather than relying on adults to resolve conflicts. The program put student voice and agency at the center of how schools function — empowering young people to make meaningful decisions about their learning environment, facilitate healing conversations, and create positive change in their communities.
A whole-child approach
SLRP employs a whole-child approach centered on:
- Building and maintaining healthy relationships
- Developing empathy across diverse lived experiences
- Creating shared language and understanding across community divides
- Preventing conflict through authentic connection
- Responding to harm with compassion rather than punishment
By program completion
Fully engaged student participants will be able to:
- Lead community-building circles in their schools and communities
- Facilitate peer mediations
- Conduct restorative conversations that address harm and restore relationships
- Model cross-cultural unity and collaborative problem-solving
- Apply restorative principles to transform school culture
This training creates intentional space for students from diverse backgrounds, who would not typically interact, to build relationships and leadership capacity together. Participants develop both practical facilitation skills and meaningful cross-district connections, demonstrating that young people can achieve the unity and healing that often eludes adults.
Learning InspirED provided fiscal sponsorship and organizational support for this transformative leadership development initiative, investing in youth-led cultural change across multiple school communities.