Lecturer
Kevin Jones is a lecturer at the IIRP and has spent more than 40 years working in the fields of social services, mental health, and education philosophy, with particular emphasis on working with youth and their families. He honed his practice through direct care and as an administrator in residential treatment programs, group homes, mental health organizations, and alternative schools. As a retired administrator, Kevin continues to work with Central Illinois at the Regional Office of Education #17 region to support restorative leadership team development. He has explicit experience training law enforcement, school resource officers, government officials, community leaders, security officers, and educators throughout Central Illinois, the United States, and Internationally.
Kevin is professionally trained in several behavior management strategies, including Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, and Trust-Based Relational Intervention. He serves on the boards of Not in Our Town and Project OZ in Bloomington, Illinois. Kevin also consults with the education department at Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, University of Illinois Springfield, and more.
Kevin was granted the Martin Luther King Jr. award by the Bloomington and Normal Human Relations Commission, honored with the Philanthropy of the Year award by the Illinois Prairie Community Foundations, and was nominated for the Grabill-Homan Community Peace Prize. He designs and implements professional development opportunities as well as coursework in the areas of applied restorative practice that includes topics such as social-emotional learning, trauma-informed, social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, connecting communities, classroom transformation, leadership, and more. Kevin earned a Master of Science in Restorative Practices from the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership Organizational Policy/Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from the University of Illinois