2023 Down South Restorative Justice Conference

Combining Nonviolent Communication and Restorative Practices at an Alternative School

As schools everywhere struggle to have more safety and less disciplinary issues, Success Academy/Second Chance have an exciting story to tell. This year, they have become a 100% NVC/Restorative school. This means that everyone in the community, starting with teachers and staff, have been trained in NVC processes and are asked to incorporate them in all of their interactions. These NVC skills are especially useful when addressing discipline issues in the schools' restorative model. This presentation will provide participants with a taste of NVC and then school officials will provide information on how they adopted this model and the outcomes they are seeing as a result. What they have put in place is a process that can be replicated in other school organizations. It has the potential to transform educational systems allowing conflict to be used to create connection resulting in considerably less discipline issues and greater time for learning.
Cindy Bigbie, Ph.D. (aka Dr. B) is the creator and president of The Bigbie Method, a world-wide company helping individuals, schools, and organizations to create and maintain connection, even in times of conflict. The Bigbie Method brings a performance-based approach to what most people think of as "soft skills" such as: empathy, speaking non-judgmentally, creating connection, and fostering emotionally safe environments.

Dr. B has a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems Design and extensive experience in the field of program evaluation. Her years of research and evaluation in governmental and educational institutions provide an upfront, in-depth understanding of the need for instruction and processes related to emotional intelligence and learning how to build connections in all our current systems and communities.

As a result, she has been on a personal mission to learn and then teach others Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication process. She is a Certified trainer in the NVC process as well as in NVC Mediation. She has trained directly with Marshall Rosenberg the founder of NVC and with John Kinyon, the developer of NVC Mediation. She has extensive training experience in teaching NVC and using the process in her own life.

Dr. Bigbie has also focused on bringing Restorative Practices to all segments of society: our schools, governmental institutions, and businesses, she is a Licensed Trainer from the International Institute for Restorative Practices in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and she has also trained with the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, Maryland. She was recently recognized as one of Tallahassee’s 25 Women to Know because of her restorative practices work. She has also been recognized at the national level for her work as the recipient of the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice 2019 Dennis Maloney Award for Youth-Based Community and Restorative Justice. Currently, she owns and operates Optimal Performance, Inc. (OPI) and is the creator of The Bigbie Method.

In May 2023, Dr. B launched an Amazon best-selling book, "My Link to Mildred: Interrupting the Epidemic of Trauma via Nonviolent Communication". The book is a combination of personal narrative, information on brain research and trauma, an overview of Nonviolent Communication, and a compelling case for how NVC can reverse the trauma and violence epidemic.