Ep 83: Being Safe Enough Not to Bully

Listen in as Julie and Ginger talk to Ginger Lewman about Bullying. Ginger Lewman is a national consultant & keynote speaker with ESSDACK, a non-profit education service center based in Hutchinson Kansas. She holds a Master of Science in Psychology and Special Education and Gifted Education, With 30 years in education, she inspires and helps all levels of educators figure out the hard hurdles for innovative teaching and learning. Why do people bully? There are many reasons but Ginger boils it down to the messages we hear as kids and feeling a lack of safety, dignity and/or belonging. Ginger encourages us to get upstream and gives great strategies and tools and states that these and other tools are best utilized in an environment steeped daily in the foundation of the science of trauma and resilience-building and utilizing restorative practices whenever conflict arises anywhere. “Once we become unafraid of our own stories, we all become safer.” ~ Steve Halley Resources: www.stopbullying.gov https://www.essdack.org/ Peaceful Schools and Families: https://www.essdack.org/psf Favorite takeaways: It is difficult work for someone who is hurt, for someone who has hurt other people to move toward conflict. They’ve got to listen to them and they can only do that if I feel safe. When we’re talking about bringing people into circle toward conflict this is an opportunity for each person to examine what their role has been. It’s not just “you did it”, it’s “we are experiencing this and this is not good for any of us in our community, this isn’t about you just cleaning up what you did wrong”. It’s all of us.