About Us
Our Mission
We believe that each and every stakeholder deserves to feel a sense of true belonging in their school. Every student, staff member, family, and community member will have a connection to their school through a balance between proactive and responsive approaches to building positive climate and culture and responsive approaches to student discipline that build lagging skills rather than attempting to punish behavior out of people.
Educational Experience
“Belonging is the step before achievement. Indeed achievement is built upon belonging. Once people belong, only then can they, without distraction, focus on achieving or fulfilling their unique potential. Maslow’s point was we need to belong in order to achieve.”
(Cobb & Krownapple 2019)
As the founder of Forest and Tree Consulting, I feel a strong responsibility to collaborate with our clients to create their ideal school climate and culture. I have been an educator for 21 years, working in three of the five largest school districts in Colorado. As an Elementary School Teacher, a Middle School Assistant Principal, an Elementary School Principal, a K-8 School Principal, a District Health/Prevention/Social Emotional Learning Specialist, and a District Restorative Practices Coordinator, I have seen the importance of creating a safe and welcoming school community to support each and every student.
Early in my career, I was fortunate to learn about and implement strategies around Restorative Practices, Emergenetics, and Trauma Informed Practices. These approaches and strategies have been crucial to building strong and positive relationships with students, teaching important social and emotional skills, and contributing to an overall welcoming and positive school climate and culture to make sure all students, staff, and families feel a strong sense of belonging in their schools.
From the beginning of my career, I have felt passionate about the importance of supporting stakeholders feel a sense of belonging. I left my career at the school level for district level positions to coach, consult, and train educational professionals in Restorative Practices, Emergenetics, and Trauma Informed Practices to expand this important work to the schools that I have been fortunate to support.
My hope is to continue this important work and support any school wanting to engage in climate and culture work, with the ultimate goal of supporting students, staff, families, and their communities to feel that important sense of belonging in their schools. All stakeholders play a vital role in a school’s success and I would be excited to be a part of engaging in this important work with you and your school.
Please take a look through our site to learn more about Forest and Tree Consulting’s offerings to determine what might best fit your school’s climate and culture needs. I am always happy to meet to discuss how we can tailor these training and consulting opportunities to best fit your community’s needs around creating and strengthening a supportive, fun, and belonging culture for each and every person.
I look forward to hearing from you and collaborating with you around this exciting work!
Sincerely,
Jason Starkey
Founder
Forest and Tree Consulting
forestandtreeconsulting@gmail.com
719-684-6377
”The opposite of belonging is fitting in. Fitting in is assessing a group of people and thinking, “Who do I need to be? What do I need to say? What do I need to wear? How do I need to act?” and changing who you are. True belonging never asks us to change who we are. It demands that we be who we are.”
-Brene Brown
