2026 Bridge Conference

Lay the foundation for creating a safe, healthy, and respectful environment. Utilize proactive group management strategies to set students up for successful group behavior, focusing on building rapport, attention getters and signals, rules and consequences and more. Playworks supports K-5 students at recess. This session is directed toward recess staff, and out of school time staff who support play at their site.

Step into a Peace Circle and experience how restorative practices transform the way we respond to harm. In this interactive session, you will sit in circle, hold the talking piece, and practice the core elements of circle keeping so you can keep circles in your own school or program. Through a hands-on activity, you will examine the difference between accountability and punishment and rethink what it means to repair harm rather than simply punish. You will leave with
practical circle keeping tools, a framework you can apply immediately, and a felt sense of how circles work. Designed for educators and youth-serving professionals who want restorative options that build community, strengthen relationships, and keep young people connected.

Join middle school youth and educators, as they share insights from DOOL, a schoolbased program that builds inclusive communities, shifts power-dynamics and inspires communitycentered change. This is an engaging, interactive, and inspiring workshop that models shared power and youth leadership. Prepare to leave with new tools that can help you to transform your youth program communities and systems for the better.

Youth-adult partnership is often treated as the ultimate goal—but is it always the most appropriate way to work with youth? In alignment with the theme "The Art of Being Water," this interactive session invites participants to explore the fluidity of Hart’s Ladder of Youth Engagement. We will move beyond the rhetoric of "youth voice" to examine the full continuum of involvement, from adult-led to shared leadership. Through an experiential "gallery walk," participants will physically navigate the eight rungs of the ladder, identifying where their programs currently sit and how to move intentionally toward more authentic engagement. Drawing on field examples from Tacoma to the Pacific Islands, we will explore how to match challenge and responsibility to developmental readiness. Attendees will leave with a toolkit of reflective exercises and action plans to reduce tokenism and foster equitable, high-impact partnerships in their programs.

Every group of humans has moments when they are regulated and moving forward together, and moments when some or all of them are dysregulated for whatever reason and just "can't even!" Intended for all student ages, this workshop will lead participants through:
* Defining and recognizing regulated behavior in students
* Pre-emptive and classroom management strategies to maintain regulated behavior
* De-escalation strategies for when students begin to become dysregulated
* Follow-up processes to allow student community to move forward

Through small-group and full group activities and discussions, we will demonstrate strategies in action to help you keep your students be their most successful selves.

Reflection is the bridge between an event and a developmental milestone, yet many programs rely solely on verbal discussions that can exclude certain learners. In alignment with "The Art of Being Water," this session provides a fluid, multi-modal toolkit designed to reach every participant through artistic, tactile, and movement-based debriefing. Participants will explore the WSU 6-Step Activity Framework—from framing to real-world transfer—to ensure learning is a deliberate, repeatable outcome. We will dive into a curated "toolbox" featuring activities like Play Dough Sculptures, Group Poems, and Slam Dunk Suggestions. Attendees will learn to scaffold sharing and use brief "micro-debriefs" to maintain a group’s pulse. Every participant will receive a physical Toolkit containing reflection cards, object bags, and the WSU 103 activity guide to immediately elevate their program’s impact.