Schenectady High Cultural Brokers help resolve disputes

As Damonni Farley strides down the wide hallways of Schenectady High School, he often stops to dole out high-fives and hugs. He eyes a student and asks, “How’s it going?” or, “What’s up with you?”

He greets and chats with teachers and staff as he walks past, constantly building deeper ties and closer connections to the school community — and always with a big grin, a kind word or a joke.

But it’s his original deep ties and close connections that pulled Farley back into his alma mater, because he brings something to the table that many of the school’s faculty and staff cannot: a long history in Schenectady, plus an understanding of what many students go through when they leave school.

“I hesitate to call it a program,” Farley, 34, said of the school’s Cultural Brokers team, which started last spring. “It’s not a program — it’s a relationship.”

That relationship aims to bring community members — who have existing connections with students’ families and family friends — into the school to help resolve student disputes or prevent them from bubbling to the surface.

The Cultural Brokers team, which consists of Farley and a core of three or four volunteers, also makes home visits to meet with families and follow social media to look for problems that could make their way into the schools. The team constantly is on the lookout for emerging conflicts, tapping wide networks in town to tune school leaders into what’s going on outside of school.

The Schenectady School Board recently approved a position for Farley as the Parent Empowerment Center facilitator at about $50,000 annually. He said he reimburses much of the volunteer brokers’ expenses out of his own pay.

At least one member of Farley’s team is at Schenectady High on a daily basis.

This school year, the Cultural Brokers team has worked with nearly 40 students and has made more than 20 home visits to meet with parents and families. Last April, May and June, the brokers worked with nearly 60 students and made 22 home visits.

High School Principal Diane Wilkinson cited the brokers’ program as a major factor in reducing by about one-third the number of “altercations” at the school last spring versus the previous spring.

“There is no shortage of need,” Wilkinson said of students who could use greater support. “I know we do our best, but there is a lot of work to be done.”

Farley said he attempts to resolve problems by working with students to understand their situation. He engages adults who care for the students and gets everyone to “buy in” to a resolution to whatever the problem might be.

He also focuses on a student’s strength — “everyone has strengths” — and attempts to help build the support system that helps a student keep from sliding in school.

“We are making a plan with students, not for students; the student voice needs to be heard, to be understood and explored,” Farley said of his student-centered approach. “We want them to be steering the ship and help them get to where they want to be.”

Farley said the challenges of living in poverty emphasize every aspect of a student’s life. Single parents might be so busy with work, they don’t have enough time and energy to devote to their child’s schoolwork. Or maybe a family is running low on food or resources for basic health care.

Whatever it takes — a trip to the food pantry or a friendly nudge for a barber to get more involved in a student’s life — Farley is willing to pull all the strings he can think of outside of school to make life in school a little more successful.

Schenectady Superintendent Larry Spring, who helped play matchmaker with Wilkinson and Farley last spring as he looked for someone with a long history in the community to work in the schools, said the brokers’ program was part of a broader effort to get more schools closely connected to the communities they serve.

“We need to bring more people on staff that live in our community, that have connections to the community, that the community trusts,” Spring said.

Two weeks ago, Farley was making the rounds in the school — he likes to hit the cafeteria during lunch but mostly responds to texts alerting him to problems or checking in with students — when he dropped by the school’s peer mediation office.

In that office, led by school staff member Kashiff Thompson, students help mediate conflicts between other students. While separate initiatives, the brokers and mediators share the same goal of resolving student disputes as quickly as possible.

One of the students, who now works as a mediator, crossed paths with Farley’s team earlier this year when she and another student were itching to fight. The brokers helped cool tensions and connected her with the mediation program, where she now works easing other student conflicts, much like the one she once found herself in.

In Farley’s eyes, every avoided fight or empowered student is a victory and a step toward a school environment in which every student can live up to his or her potential.

“I’m impressed by the school’s ability to not … stifle innovation,” he said.

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