Washington Building Leaders of Change (WA-BLOC)

WA-BLOC’s Restorative Justice team offers an alternative to punitive, exclusionary discipline practices. We are responsible for delivering restorative practices to improve outcomes for youth, staff, and families. The Restorative Justice team provides restorative circle, mediation, mentoring, and de-escalation support to both groups and individual students as needed. The Restorative Justice team also helps coordinate and facilitate school-wide training for staff and students. Our work is the beginning of creating and implementing sustainable Restorative Justice systems at Rainier Beach High School.

WA-BLOC collaborates regularly with our local community to cultivate and facilitate school/community-wide ‘social justice' events. These events, like our annual “B.L.O.C. Party” collaborate with 40-50 community organizations, leaders, activists, and student leaders to host an array of interactive workshops to uplift and affirm the identities of black and brown youth and mobilize our community in the work of justice.

Since COVID-19 hit, our work has expanded to include hot meal distribution to RBHS families through our “Feed The Beach” initiative. For the wider Rainier Beach community, we have begun a series of "Black Healing Circles" that promote both mental health and resilience.

School Partners:

(Seattle Public School District)

• Rainier Beach High School