Collaborative Curiosity & The Unstuck Protocol

Workshop description: Whenever we perceive something as inaccurate, unexpected, or unjust, we get stuck. We judge. We freeze, flee, or fight – sometimes a little, other times, a lot. Being stuck is not a problem; it’s an opportunity. It’s an in-the-moment chance to prevent small misperceptions from escalating into a cycle of big problems and differences in opinions from generating distrust.

This transformative approach to communication and inclusion empowers person-first, whole-community collaboration. Collaborative Curiosity pushes beyond the WHY we need inclusive living and learning environments; it’s a novel, no-cost practice for HOW TO communicate without judgement, to prevent stress from becoming distress and disagreement from being divisive.

Why this workshop: The simplest way to reduce the cost of intensive, expensive services is to decrease the need for them. Now more than ever, we must find more effective ways to respond to the first sign of communication, information, academic, adaptive, and social gaps. The benefits of this nonpartisan approach are applicable regardless of what happens in kitchens, school board meetings, town halls, legislatures, executive offices and courts.
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Learn How to:

• Respond to the first raised eyebrow.
• Think about maladaptive behavior as ineffective communication and reduce the need for discipline.
• Increase the effectiveness of evidence-based methodologies; there will always be problems that need solving!
• Shift from merely trauma-sensitive to neuroceptive-responsive environments.
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  Who Should Attend:
• K-12+ general and special educators, administrators and support staff
• Parents & young adults
• Related service providers
• Community and business leaders
• Civil and disability rights advocates and attorneys
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  A minimum suggested donation of $25 will cover the building fee and refreshments. You can preorder a lunch by May 20 for $15, or bring your own. Please consider making an additional contribution to compensate our amazing neurodiverse staff and help Jennie spread this work.
  Please let us know if you require any accommodations and food restrictions.
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  Why This Workshop:
  Towns can’t count on Federal protections and our states may not have the ability or the willingness to step up. If you think our systems are inefficient and expensive now, the combined economic, medical, social, educational and judicial costs without safety nets will be exponentially greater than anyone can imagine. Even if we turn the tide on the broken town and state budgets and the haphazard dissembling of Federal services, civil rights and safety nets, it will take decades to recover. Regardless of what side of the red-blue line you're on, the shifting of our resources – hearts, minds and wallets – to combat and defend these issues is taking away from maintenance, preventative interventions, and restructuring – which surely will create additional costs later.

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About Your Lead Presenter, Jennie DunKley, the Creater of Collaborative Curiosity

Jennie has been a special education advocate and consultant for over 25 years representing hundreds of families, attending over a thousand IEP meetings. She served as past chair and is a current representative to the Massachusetts Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP). She was a core stakeholder contributor for DESE’s IEP Improvement Project and on the SpedEx Advisory Committee (a DESE-funded alternate resolution program). A long-time, past Board member of SPaN, she founded the School Fair, Same Side of the Table forum, and co-founded of the Family Grant and IEP Clinic programs. In 2012, Jennie designed and coordinated the implementation of a transition program at the Ivy Street School. She is a member of COPAA's Government Relations and Social Racial Equity Committees.

A long-time senior trainer for The Federation, she also presents locally and nationally on numerous aspects of the special education process for advocates, parent groups, service providers, families and school staff – always promoting a steadfast focus on the “I” in every IEP. She was a co-instructor for COPAA’s SEAT 3.0 “The Business of Advocacy” and created and taught “Autism and the Law” for AANE’s Massachusetts Professional Educator Autism Endorsement.

Her training includes advanced programs at William & Mary Law (ISEA) and Suffolk Law Schools, the COPAA and OSEP-developed Special Education Advocacy Training (SEAT 2008) with a practicum at the Disability Law Center, the Federation of Children with Special Needs (FCSN) Parent Training Institute, and Wrightslaw.

Jennie's latest work, Collaborative Curiosity, the Unstuck Protocol & the Special Education Process, represents the culmination of insights gathered in her years as a special education consultant and from her prior career in crisis management, marketing and communications. This reimagined practice is being delivered in multiple venues to advocacy, related-service and parent groups, and as PD for school staff.

Jennie is a Special Education Surrogate Parent and an enormously proud parent of a young adult on the autism spectrum – her contributor, co-presenter and the student voice of Collaborative Curiosity, Sam DunKley.