OCU’s Intention Room®: An Introduction w/ Hawah Kasat

As a restorative justice-centered alternative to in-school suspension, the Intention Room™ delivers an effective strategy for preventing long-term out-of-school suspension, truancy, violence, mental health issues, and offers the potential to interrupt the school to prison pipeline.

The concept of the Intention Room emerged in 2017 in Washington, DC through One Common Unity educators’ frustration at the severe lack of healing and restorative practices for students. Shortly after, the city enacted the Student Fair Access to School Act, legislation that limits the amount of time that students can be suspended. Now educators are grappling with how to maintain discipline without the threat of extended suspension.

Through the Intention Room alternative, students can re-activate their joy of learning and take concrete steps to become their best selves. This starts with an intentional, trauma-informed alternative to punitive discipline; one that builds students’ self-esteem, sense of agency, and empowers them to lead the lives they are capable of.

In this introduction, the founder of One Common Unity, Hawah Kasat, explores the current need for Intention Rooms and their impact to date.

Learn more at: https://onecommonunity.org/intention/

#IntentionNotDetention

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