WHO WE ARE

SchoolWideRead

SchoolWideRead (SWR) is a culturally responsive framework for BUILDING literacy, community, scholarship, and social justice. Through the integration of research-based Culturally Responsive & Sustaining Educational (CRSE) approaches and adaptive models of Restorative Practice, SWR brings teachers, support staff, administrators, young people, families, and community members together to the same table to explore the ways in which the social realities of ideologies and systems (racism, colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, colorism, classism, ableism) have shaped and been shaped by us. And through, intergenerational sharing of lived experience and creative solution-building, learning communities are transformed and activated into bodies of social change. More importantly, SWR creates a space for equity, healing, and building new relationships and ways of being, with ourselves and others.

SchoolWideRead cofounders, Zena Robinson-Wouadjou and Vanessa Emile share the belief that language- the word- in all its forms, offers us the power to access and express the fullness of our beings and provides us with a window to see into the complexity of others and the world we share. In addition to their 20-plus years of experience and expertise in Literacy, English Language Arts, and English Language Learner instruction, Vanessa and Zena are both seasoned Restorative Practitioners and trained in the mindfulness practices of Yoga and Meditation. Their deep commitment to both social justice and healing-centered teaching and learning invites the members of each learning community to speak truth to power while affirming the social-emotional wellness of all.

MISSION

SchoolWideRead (SWR) creates Culturally Responsive & Sustaining Educational (CRSE), Healing-Centered practices and spaces for critical literacy engagement and school culture improvement. SWR seeks to amplify the voices of historically and currently underrepresented youth through intentional work in and with school communities and youth organizations that are committed to serving and uplifting culturally and linguistically diverse young people with respect for their unique gifts & abilities.

VISION

SchoolWideRead Envisions...

Youth engaged in learning environments that embrace their cultural, intellectual, and developmental ways of being, knowing, and understanding--- becoming the servant leaders who will answer the call for social justice and community care.

School and Organizational Leaders revolutionizing learning spaces, centering school-wide culture through culturally responsive literacy and restorative practices.

Staff, Families, and Communities coming together with young people and school leadership, contributing their voices and perspectives to intergenerational discussions, planning, and service.

Our World honoring the power of literacy and the traditions of restorative practice, creating new pathways to empathetic leadership, collective healing, and liberation.

VALUES

The Power of the Word
spoken, written, thought, sung, read, signed, seen, heard, and felt

Language Justice and Sovereignty

as an integral part of self-determination and free being

Restorative Practice

as a traditional way of knowing, connecting, and being in a community, and as medicine for modern conditions of disconnection

Social Justice

as a recognition of what full humanity means, looks, and feels like, and as an acknowledgment of our collective responsibility to challenge and deconstruct the ideologies and systems (racism, colonization, ableism, patriarchy, classism) that seek to dehumanize and perpetuate systemic inequality

Compassionate Leadership

as a means and an end
Intergenerational Sharing

as the first model of teaching and learning, a way of transmitting community history, culture, and values, a healing-centered response to the construct of the "generation gap"

Let’s Work Together

Get in touch so we can start working together.