Student Focus Groups
One Love Foundation
Over the last several years, Kate Blair has worked extensively with the One Love Foundation to provide leadership trainings and workshops for high school students around healthy communication and relationships. Some of this work has been targeted specifically at sports team captains to spark discussions about creating a positive, inclusive sports culture at Frontier.
Grant Bialek is currently leading the School Climate Group in the middle school. The group meets weekly to discuss ways to create a more inclusive atmosphere in the middle school. The long term goal is to expand this group to include the high school and create dialogue and mentorship between the high school and middle school.
Website: One Love Foundation
Franklin County Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Youth Summit
In May, the School Climate Group, the GSA, and other interested students will attend the first Franklin County Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Youth Summit at Greenfield Community College. Kate Blair, Grant Bialek and Kelsey Cropp have all served on the planning committee for this event.
BRAVE Schools Project
A group of counselors, teachers, and administrators are currently participating in the Brave Schools project through the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding. Part of the project is creating a student group, which will overlap with the School Climate Group, and become a sustainable, student-driven part of restorative practices and anti-racist discussions in the school.
2020 - 2021 Student Discussion Groups
Tom Schiff has over 35 years of experience working with men and boys on issues of health, abuse, violence, sexual harassment, sexism, and homophobia as an educator, counselor, and consultant. He has served as a trainer and consultant for organizations ranging from public school systems to small local non-profits to the NFL. Tom was the founding director of the UMass Amherst Men and Masculinities Center and serves as an Adjunct Professor for both the Social Justice Education and the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programs at UMass. He is a 2018 recipient of the Innovative Initiative Award from the Men and Masculinities Knowledge Community of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators for his work with Phallacies.
Mixed gender Frontier Student focus groups are training to be peer leaders. Discussion groups on topics ranging from sexism to racism are preparing students to have these conversations with younger students in the Frontier Regional and Union #38 middle and elementary schools.
Through an awareness of intersectionality, we gain a deeper preceptive of the differences and similarities among us.
