Safe and Supportive Learning Environments

Our flagship professional learning offering is the SSLE Essentials, a nine-part professional learning series for K–12 staff and leaders. 

The SSLE Essentials consists of practical and manageable modules that bring together the most important pieces of research, frameworks, practices, and lenses that help create and sustain safe and supportive learning environments. 

The series can be delivered on-site or virtually, which includes synchronous learning and peer collaboration as well as asynchronous experiential practice and reflection. 

View the info brief for more information, including our scope and sequence.

What You Will Learn:

With the facilitation, coaching, and consulting from our multidisciplinary and highly skilled staff, we will help you learn how to:

• Reflect on and adapt practices to shift values, attitudes, mindsets, biases and beliefs on personal/individual, interpersonal/collective, and structural/systemic levels.
• Understand sustainable systems and structures to promote effective implementation, scale-up, and ongoing improvement.
• Lead improvement efforts that meaningfully engage staff, students, and families as equal partners to co-create equitable conditions for learning.
• Tailor your implementation of SSLE initiatives so your efforts are working together to achieve desired goals.

Who Will Benefit:

• Teachers 
• School and District Leaders (Administrators, Coordinators, Directors) 
• Supports and Services Personnel (Counselors, Psychologists, Social Workers, Nurses) 
• Regional and State Education Agency Leaders 

Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Essentials

This series can be delivered on-site or virtually, which includes synchronous learning and peer collaboration as well as asynchronous experiential practice and reflection.

Educational staff and teams best suited to successfully participate the SSLE Essentials Virtual Professional Learning Series have the following practices, systems, and supports in place:  

• Close working relationships with districts (for regional/state teams), schools (for district teams) and educators (for school teams) and a solid understanding of their needs, challenges, and strengths as they relate to school climate;  
• Culture of collaboration, reflection, and growth; and  
• Leadership support for staff members to attend sessions, work collaboratively between sessions, try out new strategies and practices, and share learnings and takeaways with colleagues.  

Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Deep Dives

In addition to the Essentials, our team offers our virtual Deep Dives series, designed to benefit educators in LEA, SEAs, or related agencies who wish to explore more deeply the topics covered in Essentials. We offer six synchronous 90-minute sessions via Zoom (first session is 2 hours) with approximately one hour of practice and reflection between sessions, with course materials posted on Canvas Learning Management System.  Time commitment per Deep Dive: 9.5 hours (synchronous); 15.5 hours total.

Topics include the following:

• Creating a Culture of Care: Personal, Collective, and Systems Wellbeing Practices for Staff and Leaders
• Centering Racial Equity in Safe and Supportive Learning Environments
• Talking About Race as Healing Practice: Collective Practices to Develop Resilience
• Applying an Equity Lens in a Reflective Cycle: Systemic Practices to Effect Lasting Change
• Centering the Adaptive and Relational Elements of Restorative Practices for Implementation Success

What Makes Our Services Unique

Rather than adding another framework or program to pre-existing SSLE-related efforts, our offerings are designed to help you synthesize and apply a broad cluster of research-based content and culturally responsive practices. We emphasize collaboration and local contexts and prioritize educator-friendly language that removes stigma and simplifies similar or overlapping concepts.

As new research and evidence-based frameworks emerge dynamically in the field, our Resilient & Healthy Schools and Communities team developed our approach iteratively with districts and state education agencies across the country, subject matter experts and field professionals, including a state education agency’s community of practice supporting school and district administrators.

Cost: Costs vary based on the needs of each client and the services selected.

To schedule sessions or see additional service details, please contact us at SSLE@wested.org.