Our Approach
INDIVIDUAL CHANGE
Rebound is a community-based program that helps young people build resilience during a time of stress.
Together, students and staff work through three key program phases:
01.
— Regroup
A suspension disrupts students’ routines, education, and family. Our first goal is to provide a calm, non-judgmental space where students and families can sort things out. Our first gaol is to attend to the immediate safety and logistical questions of the family, and to make immediate connection back to school for coursework.
02.
— Reflect
Suspensions are a result of a combination of factors, some of which a student can control, and some that they cannot. Strengths-based program activities help students to identify their own areas of responsibility, as well as areas in which they may need to advocate for themselves to create the school environment that they need. We look to find the underlying root of the behaviors that have led to a suspension, providing short and long term strategies for overcoming obstacles.
03.
— Reconnect
Young people need a variety of supportive adults around them in order to succeed. As a student’s time at Rebound ends, we focus on helping them reconnect with trusted adults at school. Some students will also be referred for longer term follow up. Some, such as mentoring, mental health, substance use treatment, give students tools to overcome specific. obstacles. Others help them build on their strengths by taking advantage of school teams and clubs, college planning, arts programs, or summer opportunities.
SYSTEMIC CHANGE
At Rebound, we believe that changing high and racially disparate suspension rates requires sustained effort effort on the part of leaders who control policy and resources. As a community organization working alongside a large system, we are committed to use our position to help schools meet their goals of creating behavioral change in positive ways. The roots of racial disparities in suspensions are deep, formed by a history of racial injustice that has extends itself through every aspect of our community’s present. As such, we support schools, parents, community groups, and leaders whose commitment to social and economic justice leads them to name inequities and work toward solutions.