Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS)

About Us

Launched in 2024, the Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) at NYU Metro Center is dedicated to transforming learning environments into inclusive and supportive spaces. We partner with schools, districts, and communities to cultivate settings where students and educators can thrive. Through research-based guidance, specialized training, and data-informed strategies, we drive meaningful and lasting transformation in education.

Vision

The Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) at NYU Metro Center envisions schools as spaces of true belonging and pathways to opportunity for Black and Brown youth. We are dedicated to fostering environments where every student is supported with the resources and relationships needed to reach their fullest academic and personal potential.

Mission

The Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) at NYU Metro Center is committed to addressing the trauma embedded in educational systems and creating pathways for collective healing. Through a trauma-sensitive, healing-centered approach, we empower schools to break cycles of generational harm and foster resilient, supportive environments where all students can thrive.

NYU Metro Center's 2025 Summer Educator Innovation Lab

If you are passionate about reimagining education and committed to transforming learning spaces into sites of liberation, NYU Metro Center's 2025 Summer Educator Innovation Lab, hosted by the Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) is for you. This immersive experience invites visionary educators to step away from the ordinary and dream boldly into what’s possible. Grounded in Freedom Dreaming ....

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Graphics of two outstretched hands and a light bulb

Institute for Healing and Belonging Writings

Image captures a Woman standing on a beach with her eyes closed. The subject stands with her back to water, and her head tilted back. She wear a white sweater on a cloudy day. Her long curly hair moves subtly in the light wind sweeping across the beach.

Freedom Dreaming: Illuminating Pathways to Healing & Belonging in Schools

How can we reimagine not only what schools can be, but also what students and communities can achieve? In this blog post, Dr. Crystal Martin of the Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) at NYU Metro Center, explores the merits of educators employing radical imagination in their work.

This snapshot captures 3 panelists on stage during NYU Metro Center's 2025 Equity Conference. From left to right the panelists include Dr. Meisha Porter, Chauncy Young, and Darnese Daniels. Dr, Porter wears a white sportcoat sports blond hair. Chauncy. wears a white t-shirts and sports a full beard. Whilke Darenese wears a green mumu dress. Each panelists sits in a brown chair, on top of a blue rug.

Dreaming Toward Healing: Reflections from the Equity Now Conference Panel And A Call to Action

How do we create thriving schools for all our children? In this blog post, Dr. Wenimo Okoya, Director of the Institute of Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) at NYU Metro Center, dessiminates insights from her Equity Now Conference panel, and shares a call to action for educators to "reconnect" & "imagine again" through Freedom Dreaming.

Image captures two elementary aged Black school children. The children stand arm in arm with each other, as they engage the camera lens with a smile. The child on the left wears an orange t-shirt and very closely cropped haircut. While the child on the left wears a light purple colored shirt, under a blue denim jacket. She also has braids cascading down her face.

Healing Our Communities from Harm: The Importance of Centering Joy and Liberation in Schools

How do we build communities that nourish and uplift Black children? In this blog post Dr. Wenimo Okoya of the Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) at NYU Metro Center, illustrates the disproportionate harm caused by ongoing crises upon communities of color, and the significance of creating Welcoming, Healing and Affirming Schools for all of our children.

Our Team

Wenimo Okoya

Director, Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) at NYU Metro Center

wco7805@nyu.edu

Crystal Martin

Senior Equity Associate

cmm10128@nyu.edu

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