Seeds of Change: An Unconference

In just a few days, Deep Center’s Healing Schools Initiative and Georgia Southern’s School of Education will host an event drawing together educators throughout Chatham County to learn, network, and share their hopes and concerns for their schools and communities. Welcome to Seeds of Hope: A Change Makers Unconference.

At a traditional conference, participants might expect to sit quietly in rows while listening to hours of lectures. Not so at Deep’s Unconference. “Presenters who are educators themselves are presenting on things they’ve done in their classroom spaces. Then there’s an interactive component where participants try it out. There’s less sitting and more interacting with the topic being presented,” said Sadé Campbell, Deep’s Assistant Director of Restorative Practices and Culture. “The Unconference is participant-led. It centers participants as experts and gives more autonomy to the people who attend.”

And when our education system’s future is at stake, reclaiming educator agency and autonomy is vital. Building better systems for youth and adults alike is an urgent and ongoing concern, but educators often find themselves left out of the conversation. One highlight of the Unconference will be the world café, in which participants will join in an interactive conversation about creating the schools and communities Chatham County deserves to have. “Lots of the time educators are in reactive mode, putting out fires and solving problems. We want to set aside some time to be hopeful and imaginative together,” said Mel Kutner, Deep’s Director of Restorative Practices and Culture.

The Unconference will also feature stories from youth and educators on navigating complex identities in school spaces, such as neurodivergence or being multilingual, allowing participants to learn about and from one another. The Unconference’s keynote session will bring participants together with Omkari Williams, former Savannah resident and author of Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World (Without a Bullhorn). And because Deep always believes in the power of creativity to break down barriers, art-making sessions will encourage participants to think about themselves in new ways.

The Healing Schools Initiative works every day to support and center the educators of our community, especially through sessions like the recent Teach-In and the Deep Writing Project. The Unconference is an extension of that commitment to our community. Sadé explained, “It’s a chance to highlight the work educators are doing and provide educators with a network. Sometimes educators feel they aren’t the experts in the room and someone else is always telling them how to do their jobs. We’re saying that you’re the expert, you know what’s best for your classroom. We didn’t have to hire somebody from the outside to tell you how to do your job—these are your neighbors and your colleagues presenting at the Unconference.”

The goals of the Unconference are both small enough to touch individual educators and classrooms and large enough to impact entire school systems. “The Unconference is about community-building and power-building, giving educators a chance to connect with and learn from one another, one where they are centered as the experts and also in their full and complex humanity,” Mel said. And Deep hopes to share lessons learned from the Unconference, especially from the world café, with local school district leadership. Change in education relies on momentum, and the Unconference is ready to push the ball forward.  

Seeds of Hope: A Change Makers Unconference will take place on Saturday, November 4th, 2023 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Georgia Southern University Armstrong Campus.

The Unconference is free for all attendees. To register, click here.

To learn more about Deep’s Healing Schools Initiative, click here.