|
Session descriptions and links to related Adobe PDF documents (if available)
|
|
DAY 1 SCHEDULE — WED, OCT 18
|
| 8–9 AM |
REGISTRATION |
|
|
| 9–11 AM |
PLENARY SESSION [Central Moravian] |
|
|
Speakers: MARK FINNIS & PAUL MORAN
"Sefton Centre for Restorative Practices: Heading for a Restorative Community" (plus PowerPoint) |
|
Speaker: DANIEL VAN NESS
"An Invitation to RJ CitySM" |
|
Video: BURNING BRIDGES |
|
| 11:15–11:55 AM |
40-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Terrace |
Peacemaking Circles: A Case of Participatory Decision Making Among Teachers |
|
Miriam Zachariah |
|
This study, conducted by Miriam Zachariah in an inner-city school in Toronto, Canada, investigated how interactions among teachers can facilitate the development of professional communities in which teachers make decisions about peacemaking education. Teachers may be better able to support their students in making collaborative decisions and resolving conflicts if they are also engaged in a process where they have meaningful conversations about peacemaking in their own school. Peacemaking circles were introduced as a way to help teachers facilitate discussions about peacemaking education in the school and reflect on the implementation of circle processes in their own practice. The opportunity to choose their agendas for discussion increased the commitment of teachers in this study to implement peacemaking circles. Working together to develop a process and decision-making procedure that created a safe structure for interacting seemed to support the inclusion of more voices and encouraged teacher learning in working group interactions. |
| Moravian |
Family Group Decision Making in Working with At-Risk Youth |
|
Craig Adamson, Laura Rush |
|
This session will discuss how family group decision making (FGDM) is being used with the at-risk youth population, with issues ranging from juvenile delinquency to dependency. FGDM can be used in several areas including placements, “aging out of” the juvenile system, drug and alcohol abuse and with in-home programs. Extended families come together for the care of an individual and are empowered to make lasting decisions. The presenters find that this process is very well received by all participants, from family members to professionals. The prospective audience for this workshop is practitioners, counselors, probation officers, caseworkers and others who would like to hear how to engage families in a respectful way that empowers them to take responsibility for their members while meeting authorities’ basic requirements. |
| Brandywine |
The Usefulness of Restorative Practices in Drug Prevention |
|
Ivan Van Damme |
|
This workshop explores the role of restorative practices in preventing drug use in schools. There is a strong connection between the use of alcohol or other drugs and destructive and antisocial behavior in schools. Substance use causes people to feel unsafe. People sometimes make choices (to use or deal drugs) without thinking about the harm their behavior may cause. Allowing them to see how they affect others (and themselves) and giving them the opportunity to repair that harm will influence their future behavior. Engaging with people this way also rebuilds their relationships and social bonds. Restorative practices sets limits while still supporting and caring, clearly articulates norms for the whole school community, and reinforces mutual responsibility and accountability. Consequently, a climate of openness and connectedness thrives that prevents drug use. Finally, the workshop will explore the feasibility of using a restorative approach as a consequence of a positive drug test. |
| Monocacy |
A Norwegian Approach to Young Offenders Through Restorative Practices |
|
Johnny Steinbakk, Oyvind Andre Rengaard |
|
This workshop will present a Norwegian project for interagency cooperation and restorative practice in the Salten police district in northern Norway. Its objective is to stop offending, prevent reoffending and get young offenders back on the right track. The project has been going for about 1.5 years and already shows positive results. It offers parole contracts instead of traditional legal penalties and cooperates closely with the police, child welfare, schools, families, social networks and mediation services. Methods such as conversation and responsibility groups, mediation and community conferencing ensure that somebody takes responsibility for supporting youngsters in coping with their home, school, work and spare time. From 25 contracts, only five or six youngsters have reoffended. The presenters believe that restorative practices combined with close interagency cooperation is a good approach to juvenile crime. The Norwegian Ministry of Justice is financing the project and its evaluation, scheduled for early 2007. |
| Northampton |
Introducing Restorative Justice in Costa Rica |
|
Sara Castillo Vargas |
|
Restorative justice was barely known in the local Costa Rican legal-judiciary system. That system, with its wonderful stability, democratic principles and international reputation, did fairly well until the dream of the country as a peace paradise started to break. Poverty, children on the street, domestic violence, drug trafficking and corrupt politicians became part of the previously “always blessed” citizenry. The lack of adequate response and resources from government agencies and a weak community base have added to the despair we feel, as individuals and as a nation. Accepting an invitation to the conference “Construyendo la Justicia Restaurativa en América Latina” (September 2005) opened for me a window of possibilities, new approaches and above all, renewed meaning for the work I do. Now, a committed group of people is trying to open that window for others, regaining our faith and trust in “real justice.” The session will be about our journey. |
| Lafayette |
Tradition, Myth and Narrative in Building a Restorative Community |
|
Gill Boehringer, Jon Henning |
|
This session will begin by outlining the tradition and historical narrative of Bethany Children’s Home in Pennsylvania, USA. Founded in 1863, it was the first Civil War orphanage in Pennsylvania. The founder supposedly visited the Civil War battlefield at Antietam, Maryland, in 1862, leading him to admit orphans into his own home the following year. The narrative has endured and played a significant part in the development of Bethany’s policies throughout a century and a half. Gill Boehringer’s recent research in Pennsylvania and in Germany, the birth country of the founder, suggests that the narrative is largely a myth. However, he argues that the mythical nature of the narrative does not detract from what is an established tradition, and in a singular way, adds to it. Jon Henning, Bethany’s executive director, will discuss the nature of Bethany’s restorative community and the contemporary importance of the tradition upon which it is based. |
| Lehigh |
Using Restorative Practices to More Effectively Deal with Truancy Issues
(plus handouts) |
|
Brooke Atchley |
|
This session will examine the process of developing a truly collaborative process with the local school system and juvenile court system. We will look at the problem, how it was handled in the past and the current procedures. Cases and outcomes will be shared. Brooke will share with you the struggles and successes that Neighborhood Reconciliation Services in Tennessee, USA, has had with developing and implementing this groundbreaking program. She will share with you her experiences as the lead facilitator for these conferences and answer any questions. Come and hear how a small nonprofit organization has altered the way a city is handling a problem that affects the future of its citizens. You will leave with all forms and information needed to go home and examine the problem of truancy and how your organization can do something about it. |
| University |
Between Wholeness and Restoration |
|
Dorothy Vaandering |
|
This workshop will survey the current theoretical foundations of restorative justice and restorative practices and challenge those searching for greater theoretical clarity to consider the place of brokenness in understanding the effectiveness of restorative justice and practices. Using personal narrative as well as the insights of theorists Paulo Freire and bell hooks, this workshop explores questions of brokenness and at the same time uncovers the potential pitfalls that schools implementing restorative practices might encounter. |
| IIRP Front |
Community Justice Boards for Juveniles |
|
Mary White |
|
Led by an attorney from Yuma County, Arizona, USA, this session will discuss Yuma’s community justice boards program for juvenile first offenders. At the program’s initial conference, volunteers listen to child, parent and victim, then ask questions to discover the incident’s cause and the victim’s viewpoint. The consequences imposed teach accountability and build the offending child’s life skills. Later conferences include review of the child’s progress with child and parent. If consequences are completed, there is a mini-graduation celebrating success and no charges are filed. Eligible cases include first offenses for theft, curfew violation and disorderly conduct. Sample consequences include writing essays and apology letters, conducting a job search, attending GED classes, obtaining tutoring or counseling and completing community service. The program emphasizes intervening early and helping children to make better choices. |
| IIRP Back |
Working Toward Culture Change: The Journey of Calwell Primary School |
|
Kristy Sullivan, Kristy Woods |
|
Calwell Primary School (CPS) is a government school in Australia’s capital, with 370 students ages 5 to 12. Over the last three years, CPS has implemented a whole-school approach to restorative practices to build positive relationships and repair harm among students, staff and community. Calwell is one of five schools belonging to the Calwell Cluster. Our collective vision is for all students to share a common background and language when engaging in social interactions. This led the cluster to instigate two related projects. Project One focused on the professional learning and development of a relational approach to policy and practice in all cluster schools. The second project developed a curriculum for teaching values and emotional literacies. We will share our journey to becoming a relational school. This will include an overview of the projects and practical advice and strategies to implement restorative practices as part of a whole-school relational approach. |
| IIRP Library |
Developing Good Relationships to Play Active Roles as Citizens Through the National Curriculum |
|
Michael Kearns |
|
Restorative practices introduced to the UK youth justice system to deliver final warnings and reprimands underpin more effective methods of uniting family and carers and victims of crime, rebuilding community capital and reintegrating offenders. Partnership between agencies is a key element to successful outcomes and continuing support for those involved in preventing reoffending and providing victim support. Good practice is greatly enhanced when a restorative modality is built into systems. The author believes that the fractiousness and separation experienced by justice, education and family groups can be healed by restorative practices, building stronger links in family and community. |
|
| 12–1 PM |
LUNCHEON [Grand Ballroom & Colonnade] |
|
| 1:15–2:35 PM |
80-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Terrace |
Why the Real Justice Script |
|
Terry O'Connell |
|
The Real Justice script is well-known to those involved in the restorative justice movement. It appears, however, that many view this script as generally useful but at times inflexible and not suited to all situations. This workshop explores the script’s rationale and reveals how the script’s key restorative questions provide the foundation for a broad set of explicit restorative practices. It will explore the linkages between theory and practice, as these are the basis for shifting practice from a narrow programmatic approach centered on conferences to a much wider set of restorative practices that will not only enhance the quality of your conference but are able to be integrated into day-to-day practice. |
| Moravian |
Restorative Change Agency: The Challenges and the Joys! |
|
Belinda Hopkins |
|
Are you committed to helping an organization develop a restorative culture? Then you are a restorative change agent! Presenter Belinda Hopkins will share her own experiences of change agency in school settings based on her professional work and her doctoral research. Come and share yours and together we will explore what lessons are to be learned from each other’s experiences and whether there are some key principles, whatever setting we work in. |
| Brandywine |
The UK Experience of Using Restorative Practices in the Resolution of Workplace Conflict (plus paper, case studies, script for acknowledged harm, script for unacknowledged harm) |
|
Les Davey, Nicola Preston |
|
This session will give an overview of how restorative practices have been applied effectively across several very different workplace settings in the United Kingdom. The presenters have extensive experience in the practical use, training and implementation of such services. The session will cover the use of restorative practices in dealing with customer/public complaints, internal staff grievances, workplace conflict resolution and problem solving. They will give examples of the use of restorative practices where there is no clear-cut wrongdoer and/or person harmed. They will seek to demonstrate how conferencing is equally effective in addressing more complex situations involving varying degrees of responsibility among the parties in conflict. |
| Monocacy |
Restorative Practices with Adolescents in Home, Day Treatment and Group Home Settings |
|
Rev Rhodes, Craig Adamson, Rick Pforter |
|
The Community Service Foundation and Buxmont Academy in Pennsylvania, USA, comprise treatment programs with adolescents utilizing restorative practices. This session will review our agency’s services to youth in three settings: in the youths’ homes and communities, in our day-treatment school centers and in our foster group homes. The three program directors will present facets of each program, with details on the specific use of restorative practices in each setting. Examples of our agency’s movement to assimilate restorative practices into everyday vernacular will be reviewed. Treatment approaches will be shared, along with methods of building a positive treatment and workplace culture. Review of program content as well as interventions based on restorative practices will be highlighted. |
| Northampton |
Vermont Municipal Restorative Justice Centers and Programs |
|
Carl Roof, Lisa Rivers |
|
This workshop will provide information about Vermont’s unique commitment to a partnership among state government, municipal government and interested volunteer citizens for the establishment of a network of community restorative justice centers. These centers are funded and evaluated by the state, authorized and supported by the municipal government and established and directed by a citizen advisory board from the municipality. The restorative services are largely provided by trained volunteer citizens. Ideas and resources will be provided for those interested in replicating the process elsewhere. |
| Lafayette |
Educating the Educators: The Practical Application of Restorative Principles in UK Schools |
|
Mark Finnis, Paul Moran |
|
This session will further develop one aspect of the plenary session on the work of the Sefton Centre for Restorative Practice in England. It will take an interactive and practical look at how the center has developed restorative approaches in schools, looking at structural and organizational aspects of planning for change. Presenters will provide a detailed series of case studies illustrating how practices have been successfully implemented in schools. They will present evidence of how these approaches have impacted the culture of the schools involved. The session also will further demonstrate links to some of the other areas of work taking place in Sefton. The presenters hope to show how schools become schools of the community rather than schools in the community. |
| Lehigh |
Let's Visit RJ CitySM |
|
Daniel Van Ness |
|
Suppose that a city of one million people responded to all crimes, all victims and all offenders as restoratively as possible. What would its criminal justice system look like? RJ CitySM is a research and design effort to answer that question. It is a multiyear project directed by the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation at Prison Fellowship International in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. It has drawn on the expertise of a growing international group of restorative justice practitioners, researchers and advocates. The project’s purposes are to stimulate imagination and creativity within the restorative justice field, build deeper understanding of restorative justice among its proponents and generate programs and policies that can one day be implemented. This seminar will review progress to date on the project and give a glimpse of where it is likely to head. |
| University |
Building Community for Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems: Restorative Community Service and Time-Banking Interventions (plus narrative) |
|
Michael Marks, Peggy Sue Thorpe, Douglas Hamilton |
|
The workshop will review two pilot projects in upstate New York, USA, that feature restorative community service interventions as both reintegration and prevention strategies to maintain troubled youths in their home community. In the first, youths involved in the juvenile justice system are involved in “adopting a local organization.” This project is organized as a restorative community service project, following evidence-based positive youth development practices. After completion of their mandated service, youths are invited to serve as alumni and guide new participants referred from the court. The second project traces the development of a local time bank created to help youths “change their reputations.” The youngsters earn time-banked hours in service to other families, other youths, as a resource to the local Youth Advocate Programs (YAP) project and as an agent of change in their community. Preliminary project findings as well as implementation struggles will be shared during the presentation. |
| IIRP Front |
Creating Restorative School Communities: A Systemic Approach |
|
Bruce Schenk, Maureen Moloney, Stan Baker |
|
The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board in southeastern Ontario, Canada, is developing restorative practices in all of its schools. In adapting the framework developed by Real Justice Australia, this board is attempting systemic change through the creation of restorative schools. In addition to a growing use of restorative conferences to address specific incidents, the schools are engaged in practices enabling staff, students and parents to relate to one another in restorative ways. Partnerships have also been created with police services, court programs and other social service providers with an established protocol for referring community and school incidents to a restorative practice framework. During this interactive session, individuals at the forefront of these developments will share their experiences, challenges, and successes. Following a description of the process being used, including links to community partners, participants will discuss the opportunities and challenges in creating a system based on restorative principles. |
| IIRP Back |
Shaping Restorative Relationships Through Shame Awareness in Anger-Management Curricula |
|
Jane Pennington |
|
How can those of us familiar with restorative practices introduce the concept of “restorative shame” into anger management or victim awareness programs? Effectively illustrating the compass of shame to show how aggression, isolation, depression and addiction play out for wrongdoers can be challenging. However, if we are to truly honor our efforts to build restorative relationships, attention to shame dynamics is often key to changing wrongdoers’ perceptions. This interactive workshop will illustrate the hows and whys of incorporating shame theories into anger management and victim awareness curriculums currently being used with those who are incarcerated. |
| IIRP Library |
The Spirituality of Justice |
|
Lori Christine Young, V. Barry Young, Louise Young |
|
Many of us want to understand our spirituality on a more meaningful level. The Hebrew description of “spirit” is “life force.” By examining our understanding of “life force” and how we translate that into our life stories, this session will show that these very stories can give us alternative ways of healing the damage we do to each other in our local and global communities. Participants will have a chance to explore how this life force might already be active in their lives and how it might be challenging them to view issues of justice and injustice through the lens of spirituality. |
|
| 2:50–4:10 PM |
80-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Terrace |
Adapting the Australian Real Justice Framework to the Canadian School Setting |
|
Bruce Schenk, Terry O'Connell |
|
Moving a school community to a place where restorative approaches become the primary culture is challenging. The framework developed by Real Justice Australia provides effective rationale, language and tools that facilitate this process by fostering healthy behaviors and relationships. Real Justice is designed to reestablish significant relationships following behavioral incidents. It seeks to ensure that consequences for misbehavior have relevance, fostering individual responsibility and helping develop empathy. This is best achieved when teachers, students and parents engage one another in restorative ways. This workshop will focus on how this framework has been adapted to Canadian schools in the Kawartha Pine Ridge District in Ontario. It will provide opportunity for discussion about how this model can be adapted to various settings. Although in its infancy in Canada, this framework is on the road to fostering changes that will lead to a truly restorative school culture involving students, staff and parents. |
| Moravian |
Affect and Script: Building Blocks of Community |
|
Susan Leigh Deppe |
|
This session will show how restorative practices work by drawing on the affect and script paradigm of Silvan S. Tomkins. Participants will learn to identify the nine innate affects—biological programs triggered by patterns of neural stimulation—and learn how they motivate all of us. The affects combine with life experience to form scripts, powerful emotional rules of which we are usually unaware. Participants will examine the language of emotion, personality development, empathy, intimacy and some of the scripts by which people manage affects such as shame. Tomkins’s blueprint for emotional health will explain why restorative practices work. Participants will learn common emotional patterns in restorative practices and how healthy communities can help people change. A handout and reference list will be provided. |
| Brandywine |
Circles of Support and Accountability |
|
Lorraine Stutzman-Amstutz, Michelle Armster |
|
As communities seek to become stronger by using restorative processes within the legal system, within schools and within organizations, they must also seek to address the needs of the 600,000 inmates returning to our communities from prison. How can communities ensure that these men and women can be successful and at the same time address the needs of victims and the community? This workshop will look at ways to address this need as well as processes that have been used to do so through the use of circles of support and accountability. |
| Monocacy |
Walking After Midnight: One Woman's Journey Through Murder, Justice and Forgiveness |
|
Katy Hutchison |
|
Katy is not a professional practitioner or an academic—she is a mother with a compelling story. “The Story of Bob” explores the concept of grassroots restorative justice through a personal story. Incorporating a multimedia biography of her family and written material from the young man responsible for her husband Bob’s death, the presentation gives the audience unforgettable insight into the powers of forgiveness. Katy has spoken at many restorative justice forums across Canada and at “New Frontiers in Restorative Justice” at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. |
| Northampton |
Student Restoration Panels |
|
Lori Baker, Jeannie MacLeod, Carl Roof |
|
This session will provide information about Vermont’s unique school-based Student Restoration Panels, a restorative practice based on the successful adult Reparative Probation Program developed in Vermont. Participants will view a short DVD filmed at various high schools with interviews of participants, school administrators and teachers. Information and resources will be available for anyone interested in the training curriculum, including a resource guide for school staff. |
| Lafayette |
Communities Within Communities: A Partnership Between a School-Based and Court-Based Restorative Program |
|
Virginia Wiley, Christine McCardell |
|
This presentation will detail a unique working partnership between a school board’s restorative measures program and a community court-based youth justice circle program. The workshop will highlight the development and implementation of a formal, joint restorative measures protocol between the two organizations. It will demonstrate how this partnership serves to build capacity within both institutions, allowing for maximized delivery of restorative practice-based solutions for youth. Discussion will focus on both bridges and barriers encountered throughout the development process and will relate how this successful partnership, which recognizes each school as having its own unique culture, was achieved. It will demonstrate the importance of understanding that schools are actually small individual communities within the much larger community. |
| Lehigh |
Using Restorative Practice as a Catalyst for Systemic Change |
|
Lesley Oliver, Cheryl Bevan |
|
This session discusses the development of restorative practice across a number of areas. It will include the following topics and questions: How our restorative journey began—the challenge begins with the self; gathering restorative momentum and creating the initial impact; engaging people in meaningful dialogue—reflective thinking and respectful challenge; authentic sponsorship—the role of the district director; cascading the restorative experiences—who are the critical players?; restorative practice as a change agent—how do we use the school and other groups as change agents? Factors influencing success—sharing stories and cross-district engagement; barriers to change—What does resistance look like?; embedding the practice and sustaining change—who takes responsibility to keep it alive?; and evaluation, an added dimension—the beginning of new conversations. What aspects of restorative practice do we evaluate, and how? |
| University |
Family Empowerment: Where Do You Stand? |
|
Bradley McGarry |
|
This session will assist participants in evaluating their performance, beliefs and biases pertaining to family empowerment models and individuals they interact with as professionals. This session discusses whether family empowerment is simply a model that is used or more a way of thinking. This session also has participants evaluate whether they are creating token relationships that hinder progress or creating positive relationships and environments where individuals can be empowered to take responsibility for their lives. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own perspectives and contribute to discussions that will elicit new ideas for them to take home and put into practice. Individuals who attend this session will have the option to decide how much they would like to share with the group. |
| IIRP Front |
One Year On: Chard and Ilminster Community Justice Panel |
|
Val Keitch |
|
Val Keitch presented a workshop at last year’s IIRP conference in Manchester, England. She undertook the two-day facilitator training with Sandy George and was introduced to conferencing circles. Val has now integrated circles into the work of the Chard and Ilminster Community Justice Panel (England) as another tool for repairing harm done by offenders. This has proved successful and enabled the panel to widen its client base. The session will explore how this was done and examine some of the results so far, looking at case studies. The session will look at the barriers and discuss how they were overcome. |
| IIRP Back |
Response Ability Pathways: Restoring Bonds of Respect |
|
Larry Brendtro |
|
Response Ability Pathways—or simply RAP—provides essential restorative skills for success with all children and youth, including those presenting challenging behavior. RAP builds positive alliances between adults and young persons, creating climates of mutual respect. To meet life’s challenges, all children need adults and peers who respond to their needs rather than react to problem behavior. When problems arise, those involved work to restore harmony. Persons trained in RAP skills are able to support young persons on pathways toward responsibility. |
| IIRP Library |
Restoring Restorative Justice: Toward a Holistic Definition and Practice |
|
Zahra Dhanani |
|
This workshop will look at the continuum of restorative justice definitions and practice and explore the definition of a holistic approach to restorative justice, including looking at different models. Participants will explore restorative justice benefits, namely: (1) Cultural credibility: In a multicultural society like Canada, cultural versatility in programming definition and application is crucial. Narrow definitions of restorative justice may not offer the flexibility necessary for culturally appropriate practices. (2) The creation of well-being in all affected persons: The holistic approach favors neither victim nor offender; it strives for meaningful change in both. (3) The creation of community/social well-being: The holistic approach understands that change in community and society is a necessary part of restoring individuals. (4) The reduction of recidivism: The holistic model has the best chance of reducing recidivism because of its multidisciplinary and multilayered approach, aimed at healing crime and conflict in individuals and communities. |
|
| 4:30-6:30 PM |
WELCOME GATHERING [Grand Ballroom] |
|
Hors d'oeuvres and cash bar.
|
|
DAY 2 SCHEDULE — THURS, OCT 19
|
| 8–9 AM |
REGISTRATION |
|
| 9–11 AM |
PLENARY SESSION [Central Moravian] |
|
Speaker: ANAT GOLDSTEIN
"Restorative Practices in Israel: The State of the Field" |
|
Speakers: GAIL RYAN & CHRISTOPHER HEY
"Restorative Practices in the Souderton Area School District" (plus PowerPoint) |
|
Video: BEYOND ZERO TOLERANCE |
|
| 11:15–11:55 AM |
40-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Terrace |
Restoring Safe School Communities: Building Coherence in a Whole-School Approach |
|
Brenda Morrison |
|
Confused about how (and whether) different programs and practices fit within a restorative whole-school framework? In terms of bullying prevention programs, can restorative practices bridge the divide between the Olweus Model and the Pikas Method of Shared Concern? When is mediation restorative, and when is it not? Are some programs and practices more effective than others? The practice of restorative justice in schools is based on many models, across many countries. This session will begin with the basics of whole-school approaches to school safety and discipline, examine different models of how restorative practices have evolved within whole-school frameworks and develop a framework for moving ahead. Questions that have concerned both academics and practitioners will be addressed in this session. |
| Brandywine |
Modeling RJ CitySM: Lessons Learned (plus handout) |
|
Christa Pierpont, Eddie Howard |
|
The Restorative Community Foundation (RCF) was organized from a community study group’s efforts after a workshop with Dan Van Ness and Dennis Wittman in 2004. The 25-year success of the Genesee Justice model was reviewed in light of the RJ CitySM simulation model developed through Dan Van Ness’s offices. This workshop is designed to review what we’ve learned and what we are currently doing, primarily in Charlotteville, Virginia, USA. Many members of the RCF have worked with juveniles and their families. We have stretched the models to include changes within school disciplinary policies. We also see the wisdom in nonprofit, community-directed restorative practices that may or may not be controlled by community government organizations. This presentation will include tips and our experiences in mobilizing a community’s media, education, law enforcement, faith, community services and mental health leaders. |
| Monocacy |
Gateway to Opportunity: The City of Calgary's Response to Youth Diversion (plus handout) |
|
Janice Bidyk |
|
This session will highlight work completed by the Gateway Initiative through the Calgary (Canada) Police Service. The Gateway Initiative is intended to facilitate a connection between the police, young people, their families and appropriate community resources. Designed to intervene with youth who commit a chargeable but minor offense, the program complements diversion opportunities offered in Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act. The presentation will discuss the following points: The importance of partnerships to facilitate opportunities, timely responses to youth as a key to success, the need to involve the community, and putting legislation into practice to be user-friendly and helpful. Janice will highlight the successes that this program has offered the Calgary community in its ability to support an alternative to charging youth. Materials will be made available that focus on methods of making diversion programs user-friendly for your community. |
| Northampton |
Working with Children and Youth Who Have or Have Had a Loved One Incarcerated |
|
Frank Leonardi, William King |
|
The OK Kids Support Group, in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, was established to help children and youth understand and cope with the trauma and stigmatization of parental incarceration and to reduce the possibility of intergenerational criminal behavior. Children of inmates are basically doing time, facing many difficult hardships even though they are innocent of any crime. They are five to six times more likely to become involved in criminal behavior if there are no programs or activities aimed at intervention. A project of the Salvation Army’s Correctional and Justice Services, the OK Kids Support Group focuses on nurturing and protecting youths’ personalities and individual qualities. It allows them to explore their feelings around their loved one’s incarceration, focus on their strengths and be less conscious of their weaknesses. It helps them find ways to cope with their experiences and provides opportunities to learn new life skills. |
| Lafayette |
How to Win the Hearts of Professionals and Other Challenges Developing Israel's FGC Program in Youth Justice |
|
Anat Goldstein |
|
Representatives of different organizations joined together with the determination to introduce the family group conferencing (FGC) approach to Israel. In 1999, they established a steering committee and secured a budget for a limited FGC project. Struggling with opposing views and interests, they spent hours debating dilemmas such as: Should they give the victim the right to veto the FGC process or see it primarily as a means of rehabilitation? How can they prevent the offender’s self-incrimination? Should victim participation at the conference be a prerequisite? Which offenses should be included? How can they change attitudes among professionals and gain their support? They started at the top, having the commitment of the heads of the services. Yet they found that without the willingness of the field workers they received no referrals. How to get them to refer cases became a cardinal issue. The workshop will concentrate on these questions and their solutions. |
| Lehigh |
Implementing the Restorative Practices Model in Secondary Schools: A Three-Year Plan |
|
Christopher Hey |
|
Session participants will learn one method for creating a restorative community in secondary schools. Souderton Area School District, in Pennsylvania, USA, has adopted a three-year restorative practices implementation plan for its three secondary schools. Christopher Hey, assistant principal of Souderton Area High School, will share the district’s road map for immersing the schools in the culture of a restorative community. The session should help teachers and school administrators answer important questions, including: Does my school need restorative practices? Where do we begin? Can we start with baby steps? How can we convince staff members to try restorative practices? How can we bring restorative practices to multiple schools in our district? And how do we know if restorative practices are working? |
| University |
Sustaining Community-Based Restorative Justice Programs with Performance-Based Evaluation Data |
|
Russ Reetz |
|
Sustaining restorative justice programs is about answering the ever-increasing questions that funders pose. This cannot be done without data showing the program’s success. The Center for Policy Planning and Performance, in partnership with the Center for Neighborhoods, has developed an automated evaluation tool that stores qualitative and quantitative data about restorative interventions. We believe it answers the questions funders are asking. Participants will discuss these questions, learn the basics of data collection and be given a brief explanation of the evaluation tool. They will receive sample documents they can use for collecting data from victims, offenders, community members and others. If internet access is available, the online version of the tool will be demonstrated. Participants will be asked to evaluate the appropriateness of the tool for their programs and will have the opportunity to participate in a pilot study to collect data on the success of community-based restorative justice practices. |
| IIRP Front |
Getting to the Root of Cultural Competence: Critical Considerations for FGDM Practitioners |
|
Marcia Sturdivant |
|
This workshop will examine insidious social variables that influence practitioner perception, response and intervention strategies. The effect of practitioner perceptions on the response of families and their expected outcomes are critical components in the family group decision making (FGDM) process. Cultural competency involves a wide range of knowledge and skills. Even the most skilled practitioner has personal values and “baggage.” Ethnocentrism by both client and practitioner, classism and culture clash are issues that often go unrecognized but hinder client progress and practitioner efficiency. This workshop will examine biases of ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, gender and special population minorities and how they influence perceptions. Questions for consideration: What are the cultural patterns, values and lifestyles of ethnic minorities? What are my own values? How do I work competently with families who differ from my experience? This will be an interactive workshop. Participants will leave with contemporary, useful tools for culturally competent FGDM practice. |
| IIRP Back |
Restorative Community Service |
|
Craig Adamson, Jerry Bradley |
|
This session will discuss how Community Service Foundation and Buxmont Academy, in Pennsylvania, USA, moved from a punitive approach to a more restorative process pertaining specifically to community service projects. Even when community service is court-stipulated, there are approaches that can be utilized to make such service meaningful. This session will include a discussion by practitioners of how we made the change, along with an inspirational video of projects. |
| IIRP Library |
Addressing Underage Drinking and Drug Possession Using Restorative Practices |
|
Amanda Nagl, Lowell Richardson |
|
The Estes Valley Restorative Justice Partnership in Colorado, USA, was initiated as a community group conference model designed primarily to deal with misdemeanor juvenile crimes involving a victim and an offender. However, more than 72 percent of the referrals in the program’s first year were drug and alcohol charges that seemed to have no victim. This trend continued, with similar percentages, over the next two years. In order to survive, the organization created a conferencing program that has produced an 80-percent success rate for drug and alcohol offenders, meaning that they completed their conference and contract and have, to date, not reoffended within the county. This was done in a rural setting where the closest drug and alcohol resources, such as classes or screenings, are more than 45 minutes away, over a mountain canyon highway. This session is designed to share the process and the results. |
|
| 12–1 PM |
LUNCHEON [Grand Ballroom/Colonnade] |
|
| 1:15–2:35 PM |
80-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Terrace |
Actively Living Reconciliation and Restoration: The Restorative Framework and Faith Communities |
|
Bruce Schenk, Terry O'Connell |
|
Faith communities regularly speak of the importance of being places where people experience reconciliation and healing. They desire to be communities where core spiritual values such as these are lived out. Unfortunately, this is not always what happens. Too often disagreements, broken relationships and various harms are not effectively addressed, resulting in rifts in the fellowship. This workshop will focus on how the restorative practice framework can be applied in faith community settings such as churches, mosques and temples, and how this framework can give expression to the values that promote strong, healthy relationships and foster healing and restoration in faith settings. Participants will be encouraged to share their views about how restorative practices can enhance and build the life of a faith community and its members, including those who have been seriously affected by incidents of harm. |
| Moravian |
Down Country Roads, from Small Towns to Inner Cities: Restorative Justice in Illinois—See How It Works |
|
Sally Wolf, Karen Lambert, Edith Crigler, Gary Balgemann, Elizabeth Vastine, Robert Spicer, D. Marie Goff, Donald Goff, Patricia Zamora |
|
Collaboration with communities has produced different restorative practices in very different Illinois communities. Learn about accountability conferencing (FGC model), peacemaking circles, victim-offender dialogue, community panels and neighborhood boards: how they work in different geographical and cultural settings. This workshop will look at collaboration, planning and strategies developed for creating a statewide initiative and identify local collaboration efforts, implementation of practices and outcomes measurement. Participants will learn: (1) how restorative justice in Illinois uses practices that are appropriate for each community, whether small town or inner city; (2) how communities have found the right fit by using accountability conferencing, peacemaking circles, victim-offender dialogue, peer juries, community panels and neighborhood boards; (3) how each practice works in a given community; (4) how outcomes are measured in each locality; and finally, (5) how the Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice Initiative collaborated with community, agency and system people to implement change. |
| Brandywine |
An Introduction to the New IIRP Serious Offenses Seminar Resource Kit |
|
Ted Wachtel |
|
Does restorative justice conferencing work with serious crime? IIRP president Ted Wachtel will introduce participants to a new thought-provoking, interactive, “do-it-yourself” seminar package, which provides video and print materials and instructions for groups to examine the use of restorative conferencing in response to murder and sexual abuse. The session will show excerpts from the videos Facing the Demons—winner of Australian TV’s 2000 Logie Award for “Most Outstanding Documentary”—about a restorative conference held in response to a homicide, follow-up interviews with some of the conference participants, and Kathy’s Story, a young woman’s account of long-term sexual abuse and her journey toward healing, via restorative conferencing. The Serious Offenses Seminar is valuable for people working in victim services, courts, corrections, probation, parole, counseling, therapy and faith institutions, as well as for students in a wide variety of disciplines. |
| Monocacy |
The Pennsylvania Story: The Implementation of Balanced and Restorative Justice
(plus article, additional PowerPoint, system monograph) |
|
Andrew DeAngelo, Susan Blackburn, Paul Werrell |
|
This workshop presentation will discuss the statewide movement to advance the balanced and restorative juvenile justice model in the Pennsylvania juvenile justice system. The model embodies the mission statement: “Pennsylvania juvenile justice: community protection, victim restoration and youth redemption” and poses different goals, roles, practices and procedures that affect all juvenile justice stakeholders, which include crime victims and community members. Presenters will examine the results of these changes from a statewide perspective with examples of local program policies, procedures and programs that serve to highlight the model in action. |
| Northampton |
Positive Youth Development, School Connectedness and Restorative Measures: Theory to Practicea |
|
Nancy Riestenberg |
|
Restorative measures can be aligned with the broader area of healthy youth development and school connectedness as a means of implementing the elements youth need to engage as they grow to adulthood. The Konopka Institute for Adolescent Health uses Dr. Gisela Konopka’s lifetime study of youth and their developmental needs to present a framework for working with youth, as well as a list of common components for successful youth programs. This paper will discuss school connectedness, formal school discipline practices and their outcomes, and through a series of stories, examine restorative measures and positive youth development to illustrate the strengths of both. Finally, recommendations for school and youth programs regarding restorative measures will include suggestions for future research and evaluation. |
| Lafayette |
Enhanced Student Achievement in a Restorative Practices School Culture: One School's Journey from Sydney, Australia |
|
Lyn Doppler |
|
Positive effects on student achievement have occurred at Rozelle Public School, a diverse inner-city primary school where restorative practices have been embedded as a way of learning and being together. Improved learning outcomes are achieved when restorative practices form the relational basis for quality teaching and learning, with all stakeholders being valued and included. Explicit, Socratic questions form a cooperative framework in which children can become empowered, self-directed and engaged learners. Culture change has occurred through a whole-school approach to relationship building with restorative practices at the foundation and not just as an intervention for problematic students or situations. This relational approach has been embedded within sound pedagogy and has resulted in excellent student achievement in both standardized and school-based assessments. As principal for the past five years, the presenter has been heartened to see data revealing students whose well-being, engagement and academic results have been enhanced. |
| Lehigh |
Restorative Practices + Parenting Education + Wellness Principles = Empowerment |
|
Olivia Campbell, Tracey Smith-Diggs |
|
The workshop will present the parallels of restorative principles, parenting education and wellness practices. All practices are holistic in their approach. Come explore how relationships begin with a foundation of a nurturing parent-child relationship and how that foundation extends to the community of humanity. We are all connected! Participants will learn how collaborative communication methodology focuses on healing and integrates the following: parenting education, nurturing parent-child relationships, restorative principles, community and humanity, wellness practices and wellness/self-care. Learn how all frameworks provide opportunities for personal responsibility, self-care and restoring relationships, how combined practices and interactive comprehensive curricula can be used for a variety of populations and how practiced skills can assist in increasing self-empowerment. |
| University |
Building Social Capital: Restorative Practices in UK School Communities |
|
Nicola Preston |
|
This session will look at the rapidly developing use of restorative practices in school communities in the UK. In addition to being a school governor, the presenter has trained school staff and assisted in the implementation of restorative practices in a number of different school settings, as well as carrying out some research in this area. The session will look at the importance of developing and building relationships using restorative practices and language, as well as dealing with conflict and harm. |
| IIRP Front |
Restorative Spaces for Offenders: A Journey Toward Healing and Balance |
|
Barbara Toews, Lotta Rao |
|
This session brings together the fields of restorative justice, trauma and ecology to introduce a vision for restorative spaces for people who have criminally offended. With a foundation in restorative values, restorative spaces are environments that not only promote accountability but also create the opportunity for offenders to do their own personal healing and regain balance in their lives. Radically different than prison, these restorative spaces challenge the current trend toward incarceration and the nature of that incarceration in the United States. These spaces further challenge society to transform itself into a restorative community that values every member. This session will also explore what we learn about such a society by examining restorative spaces. This session draws on existing literature and international practices, as well as the work of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. |
| IIRP Back |
R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Program |
|
Rose-Marie Stewart |
|
R.E.S.P.E.C.T. is a program brought into conception by Jennifer Arnold. Creation of the manual was brought about under the direction of Jackie Allan. The R.E.S.P.E.C.T. program is based on seven essential values: responsibility, empathy, self-sufficiency, productivity, empowerment, cooperation and tolerance—hence the acronym R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Even before we begin to indulge in the seven values we try to instill a sense of self-respect in the youth. We truly believe that if you can teach youth to respect themselves, the people around them and their community, then they have far less chance of committing a crime against someone or something that they now respect. After five years of running the program, we checked through the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to see how many of the kids had had an altercation with the law. Ninety-five percent of them had never been involved with the law and none had had a charge laid against them. |
| IIRP Library |
Talking Circles for Schools and Communities (plus handout) |
|
Phyllis Boernke, Suzan Nolan |
|
Have you sat in a circle of equals? Has ceremony and ritual opened your heart and helped you find a voice? Have you told your story? Has someone listened? Has someone truly heard you? Has someone offered support and assistance? Have you done the same for another? This experiential session promises all of this and more. To learn to create healing circles, one must be in a circle. Based on training provided to staff and administrators at a Cheyenne River Indian reservation school, this session shows participants how to call a circle in respectful ways; to honor traditional ways; and to create a circle that is healing, supportive and committed to honoring all and strengthening the community. |
|
| 2:50–4:10 PM |
80-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Terrace |
Challenges in Creating a Restorative Culture in a Youth Custody Facility |
|
Michael Maguire, Ron Cameron, Bruce Schenk |
|
In 1999, Brookside Youth Centre, in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, piloted the use of restorative conferencing in Ontario’s secure-custody facilities for youth to address peer-on-peer violence. This workshop will provide an overview of the evolution of restorative practices at Brookside, which has resulted in an institution consciously moving toward being a restorative practice-based facility. Not only does a restorative practice framework support a zero-tolerance policy on violence, but it also grounds and strengthens a “relationship custody” approach with young persons. This interactive workshop is designed to promote discussion regarding the challenges and opportunities involved in changing the culture of a youth custody facility to a restorative milieu. Factors such as the role of vision, leadership, capacity building, legislative support and the history and culture of the institution will be outlined. If the goal is to reintegrate young persons into the community after custody, how can restorative practice facilitate this important work? |
| Moravian |
Youth Violence Intervention: Restorative Conferencing in Inner-City Albany, New York (plus handout, statistics and eForum article) |
|
John Cutro |
|
A documentary is in the works of a recent conference dealing with a street brawl after a high school basketball game in Albany, New York, USA. Several combatants participated in a conference 11 months earlier connected with a slashing incident. We will present and invite discussion on a developing practice we call Youth Violence Intervention Restorative Conferencing. The model combines serious offense restorative conferencing with culturally competent assertive outreach and intervention within fragmented inner-city and school communities. Successful implementation challenges facilitators to set aside personal bias about what constitutes disruptive behavior, embracing a broader range of behaviors as both acceptable and necessary for the free expression of emotion, effective communication and relationship transformation. Frustration with the initially slow pace of scripted process sometimes spontaneously empowers participants to create more efficient off-script processes that cut to the chase, achieving similar positive results. |
| Brandywine |
Building Restorative Justice in Rural Communities as a Family Mission |
|
D. Marie Goff, Donald Goff |
|
Session content is based on the experiences of this husband and wife team of community builders, as they have worked in southern Illinois communities in the United States and with the system(s) there toward the goal of making restorative justice the norm. The Goffs will share southern Illinois&Mac226; small-town/rural experiences with implementing restorative justice practices by: promotion (stirring interest) where media is fragmented and limited; developing informed and trained community activists to mobilize community action; building community relationships and developing networks of collaboration where provinciality rules; assisting, facilitating and/or implementing restorative practices in a variety of settings (i.e., neighborhoods, corrections, schools, courts and businesses); training committed restorative justice practitioners; and finally, creating the support to sustain restorative practices. |
| Monocacy |
Overcoming Resistance to Whole-School Uptake of Restorative Practices |
|
Peta Blood |
|
This workshop builds on the previous work of Peta Blood and Marg Thorsborne that has focused on understanding the complexities of implementation of restorative practices in schools. This session will develop a deeper understanding of how to move people to a place where they are more likely to adopt and incorporate changes in practice needed for a whole-school approach. |
| Northampton |
Transforming School Culture: One Classroom at a Time |
|
Connie Fenton |
|
Participants in this workshop will discuss the relevance of restorative practices in the school setting, both proactively (talking circles), as demonstrations within the established curriculum, and as formal conferences when a school offense has occurred. |
| Lafayette |
Designing Restorative Responses: One Size Does Not Fit All |
|
Alana Abramson |
|
Restorative justice is a philosophy based on values. Restorative practice seeks to bring to life those values and include the voices of persons harmed, those who cause harm, and the communities who care about them. From her practical experience in the field, this presenter has come to see that crime affects people differently and that when we focus on the needs of the people directly affected, we can design a process that best meets those needs. During this presentation, she will tell the story of Restart, a creative and restorative approach to the complicated issue of graffiti in Vancouver, Canada. Also, she will share the model of designing restorative responses that has been practiced in North Vancouver with great success with adults and youth. Together, participants can discuss the endless possibilities of processes based on values with the recognition that one size does not fit all. |
| Lehigh |
Nonaggression Contracts in Restorative Schools (plus text) |
|
Hans Oostrik, Jan Ruigrok |
|
Working with nonaggression contracts can be an important extra within the continuum of interactions as described by Ted Wachtel. These contracts are made with students who can’t stop being destructive or aggressive and thus cause damage to themselves, others and the system. In the contract, the student declares what behavior he is going to stop and describes how to meet his needs in a constructive way. If he falls back into this undesired behavior, he performs a self-chosen problem-solving sanction that meets his needs. An effect of this process is that he contributes to the community and earns the respect of his fellow students. When working with contracts, an important role is given to everyone who is or was a victim of the undesired behavior. In this interactive session, participants get acquainted with the ideas of nonaggression contracts and learn to master them so they can immediately put them into action. |
| University |
Bringing Restorative Justice into Academia |
|
Donald Haldeman |
|
As a graduate professor at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, the presenter has been able to create and implement a minor in restorative justice. The minor consists of four core courses: restorative justice theory, restorative justice practice, victimology and victim-offender mediation. The university’s graduate criminal justice program attracts high-level criminal justice professionals, and the minor was developed to introduce them to restorative justice values and principals. The classes are all facilitated in circle format using a combination of “healing” circle and “wisdom” circle formats. The classes are innovative and extremely interactive. To enter into a circle is to find one’s voice and reconnect with empathy and compassion. Since being instituted three years ago, these courses have received some of the highest student evaluations at the university and have brought restorative justice principles into the workplace. |
| IIRP Front |
Bringing Peace, Healing and Promise to Both Sides of Violence |
|
Wendy Cohen, Karen Berryhill |
|
In this session, two women will share the journey of how they lost their children to murder and how they strive to heal and restore their lives in the aftermath of tragedy. Both believe in restorative justice and are working to implement it in their situations. This session will cover their individual stories and the obstacles they encounter in their struggles to be heard in a system that seldom honors the survivors of violent crimes. It will be a unique opportunity to ask questions and gain insight into the lives of families who live with murder as a part of their daily reality. Find out what they need to “make things right” above and beyond the punishment phase for offenders. Discover the hearts of two mothers whose friendship has enabled them to move from isolation and depression to moments of hope and restoration. Learn the basic principles for empowering survivors. |
| IIRP Back |
Restorative Practices and Domestic Violence: Doing It in a Different Context |
|
David Mathews |
|
This session will examine a process for integrating restorative practices with domestic violence services. It takes into account the significant history of grassroots movements to maintain a high priority given to the victims of intimate partner violence, hold abusers accountable and involve community stakeholders. In addition, strategies and methods for using restorative practices in other contexts outside of the criminal justice system will be discussed. At the Domestic Abuse Project in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, we are integrating restorative practices with our domestic violence services carefully and without excuse. There are four threads being woven together that currently guide our work: cultural accessibility and relevancy, family focus, strengths base and restorative practice integration. This presentation will describe how these threads are being woven into the overall services of this domestic violence program to enhance services and better accomplish the mission of the organization. |
| IIRP Library |
Re-membering the Educator |
|
Dolores McAdams, Judy Hoffman, Elizabeth McAdams-Brightman |
|
Participants will have the opportunity to incorporate Robert Kegan’s technology for language transformation in order to better prepare themselves and their staffs to implement the benefits of restorative practices. Robert Kegan, Ph.D., is professor of adult learning and professional development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The workshop incorporates his techniques as a foundation for implementing restorative practices, focusing on skills that bring about behaviors of responding rather than reacting. The exercises in this session are designed to aid participants in defining their personal map for growth and implementation of restorative practices. Their completed map will provide them with a focus for implementing restorative practices for themselves, their colleagues, their students and their school community. |
|
| 4:25–5:05 PM |
40-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Terrace |
Restorative Justice at the United Nations |
|
Paul McCold |
|
IIRP graduate school founding faculty member Dr. Paul McCold will review the efforts by the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to encourage the United Nations to adopt restorative justice as a preferred criminal justice approach for member states. The UN now expects member states to report on their progress in implementing restorative efforts, which has stimulated interest in a number of countries new to the ideas. Dr. McCold will describe the role of the UN congresses on crime prevention and the UN Crime Commission in establishing policy guidance. He will then lead a discussion about the possibilities of restorative practices for the work of the International Criminal Court and other UN efforts in the wake of mass violations of human rights. |
| Moravian |
Differentiating Discipline in Schools Through Restorative Practices |
|
Judy Mullet |
|
This session explores the student-community-discipline match for healthy schools by outlining a restorative discipline approach to promoting socially responsible behavior among middle and high school students. Restorative discipline is based on restorative justice theory and fills the relationship gap in current school discipline practices. Carol Tomlinson’s principles of “differentiated instruction” frequently guide curriculum and instruction practices in today’s schools. By extending her principles into the realm of student social behavior, “differentiated discipline” emerges as a real option for promoting restorative justice in school contexts. Workshop participants will role-play restorative practices, which give voice to those affected by harmful behavior and encourage accountability through reflection and collaborative planning. |
| Brandywine |
Mature Justice: Developing Restorative Practices for Serious Young Offenders |
|
Danielle Sered |
|
This session examines a critical gap in standard practice for restorative justice programs. Typically, programs that serve serious and/or violent offenders do not include youth, while those that do serve youth frequently exclude serious and/or violent offenders. This session will suggest that not only are restorative justice initiatives adaptable to the needs of this often excluded population, but they also can and should be used as a tool to reduce the unnecessary imprisonment of young people and to proactively support victim healing and recovery. We will ask: Do young adults pose unique challenges to existing restorative models? How can we better meet the needs of victims in these cases? And what can youth development work teach us about these issues? The session will examine a range of innovative ways in which restorative justice models can be adapted to accommodate the needs of serious young offenders and their victims. |
| Monocacy |
How FGDM Can Help Your Agency |
|
Susan Grol, Tricia Hackman |
|
This session will address questions about whether family group decision making (FGDM) can cut costs for your agency. Questions such as the following will be addressed: Will out-of-home placements decrease? Should this service be done in-house or vendored out? What will be the annual cost of in-house implementation? What are the pitfalls? How many workers will be needed, and what are their advance training needs or qualifications? The discussion will be interspersed with anecdotal information on lessons learned thus far, as well as humorous insights from the presenter’s experience with family meetings. The presenters’ practice is centered on public child welfare; however, they believe the model will work well in every human service area. |
| Northampton |
Linking Restorative Practices to Drug Education and Student Assistance |
|
Rodney Skager |
|
The session will present the Beyond Zero Tolerance model, which incorporates drug education, student assistance and restorative practices. The session will explain the rationale for replacing deterrent punishments (barring from extracurricular activities, transfer, suspension and expulsion) for drug and other school offenses with restorative practices aimed at reintegrating offenders back into the school and community. The importance of honest, balanced information and an interactive process in drug education for teenagers will be stressed. |
| Lafayette |
Barriers to Circle Conferencing in a Social Context |
|
Laurie Besant |
|
The presenter, Laurie Besant, will discuss his work in Darlinghurst/King’s Cross, Sydney, Australia, with a community center called Rough Edges, a ministry of St. Johns Anglican Church. The center reaches out to marginalized and disadvantaged people in the community. Laurie will discuss how he has applied the restorative conferencing process and restorative justice principles to deal with difficult behavior, how they have responded to and respected people’s right to say no to participating, and how people have responded to the process. |
| Lehigh |
The Community Within and Without: The Practitioner's Role in Developing Community in Restorative Justice |
|
Mark Griffiths |
|
This session will highlight the role of the restorative justice practitioner in developing community. Throughout a restorative process or intervention, the practitioner is acting and reflecting on practice. There is a dialogue going on within the practitioner and without to other stakeholders and the participants. How the practitioner manages the inner and outer dialogue and the resulting decisions and actions will have an impact on process and outcomes. This paper will examine some key incidents in the presenter’s experience over the last ten years, in the context of critical reflection and restorative justice theory, referencing the research work of Gorden Bazemore, John Braithwaite, and Dennis Sullivan and Larry Tifft, in particular. |
| University |
Restorative Justice: A Transforming Model |
|
Joyce Zavarich |
|
This presentation will explore the practical application of restorative justice principles within the context of the university course “Perspectives on Oppression and Liberation.” This unique course includes 15 maximum-security inmates from Graterford Prison, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and 15 Villanova University undergraduates. It has been taught for three semesters at the prison. We will consider how this small group of such divergent people came together to form a restorative community. Through this community, the human dignity of all was recognized and affirmed. |
| IIRP Front |
Restorative Practices: A Part of Your School Culture |
|
Cindy Schoen |
|
This session will focus on a practical approach to incorporating restorative practices into your school. Hear testimonials from teachers and students, receive handouts on useful tools already in use and hear one school administrator’s perspective on her push to bring restorative practices into her school. Hear how she challenged her staff to move to a restorative approach when working with middle-level learners, as well as success stories of students and parents using conferencing to impact the thought process of young adolescents. |
| IIRP Back |
Breaking the Blame Chain: Restorative Practices in Hungary |
|
Vidia Negrea |
|
When a society loses the “secure frame” of control imposed by a non-democratic regime, changes explode like an earthquake, in a variety of fields, each with its own complexity. Sooner or later these changes can affect every individual, creating conflicts and crises and affecting hopes for a better future. This workshop will offer an overview of the restorative programs started in Hungary and the implications and effect of a small restorative experiment initiated for troubled youth at Community Service Foundation (CSF) of Hungary. This experiment involved working with the youth in the CSF school/day treatment setting, as well as with their families. We will also present a recent example in which we used “informal” restorative practices to solve conflicts between people from different cultural backgrounds and build community among them. |
| IIRP Library |
Restorative Justice Online: A Tool for Research and Learning |
|
Lynette Parker |
|
Restorative Justice Online (www.restorativejustice.org) aims to be the world’s largest clearinghouse of restorative justice information. Its main features include a research database of more than 7,000 publications, a monthly edition with updates on restorative justice from around the world and a resource section organized topically. Resource categories include programs, public policy, theory and personal stories. This workshop will help participants learn to use the site efficiently for research purposes. This will include tips for searching the database, locating resources of interest such as program manuals and legislation and navigating subsections of the site. |
|
| 5:15–6:30 PM |
SPECIAL EVENT (Terrace) |
|
New IIRP Graduate School Information Session and Press Conference. Complimentary wine and cheese.
|
|
DAY 3 SCHEDULE — FRI, OCT 20
|
| 8–9 AM |
REGISTRATION |
|
| 9–10:20 AM |
PLENARY SESSION [Central Moravian] |
|
Speaker: GWYNEDD LLOYD
"Restorative Approaches in Scottish Schools: Transformations and Challenges" |
|
Speaker: LAURA RUSH
"Family Group Decision Making: My Steps in the Journey" |
|
Video: FAMILY VOICES |
|
| 10:35–11:55 AM |
80-MIN BREAKOUT SESSIONS |
| Terrace |
The Restorative Journey: From Discrete Practice to a Way of Being |
|
Terry O'Connell |
|
This workshop explores how restorative justice has evolved in the last 15 years from its initial focus on restorative conferences to a broad set of explicit practices that have relevance to each of us in our daily lives. Raising awareness and genuine interest in restorative practice is generally straightforward. Getting practitioners and others to adopt restorative practice as normative practice&Mac226; to some, seems almost impossible. The key is to identify those implementation processes that use a Socratic engagement approach to challenge existing practice and then offer an explicit framework capable of providing common language and practice that resonates strongly with what most think is decent. The practical steps involved in this process will be discussed using school and probation case studies. This workshop may provide you with the answer to what needs to happen for cultural change to occur. |
| Moravian |
From Conversations to Conferences: Restorative Approaches in Scottish Education |
|
Joan Stead, Eleanor MacGregor, Gillean McCluskey, Isla Lumsden |
|
In this session, researchers and practitioners will share some of the findings from the Scottish government-funded pilot project Restorative Approaches in Schools. The session will be in three parts. In the first, Eleanor MacGregor and Isla Lumsden will share their experiences of developing restorative approaches in their schools: what has “worked” and some of the challenges they have had to address. Gillean McCluskey and Joan Stead will then talk about some of the different approaches taken in Scotland. For example, some schools focus on preventive approaches such as classroom language and conversations rather than on the “offender” end of the continuum of restorative practice, whereas others have focused on developing responses to challenging behavior. They will relate the Scottish experience to that in other parts of the world, such as the United States and Australia. Finally, participants will be invited to comment, ask questions and share their own experiences. |
| Brandywine |
The Seer's Eyes: Restoring Community in Umlazi, South Africa |
|
Frida Rundell |
|
With the growing trend to move into globalization of health, health policy and health care, processes are in place by which unprecedented interconnectedness is blurring a variety of boundaries and transforming the nature of human interaction across a wide range of spheres. This, in turn, increases economic, political and social interdependence (Van Rensburg, 2004). This paper addresses the opportunity given to child and youth care students to provide a service in restoring the Umlazi community’s sense of self-respect. The promotion of interconnectedness across health care systems provided insight into an early intervention process that did not exist before. The researcher outlines the key elements that allowed the blurring of boundaries to happen. Synergy, transparency and reciprocity allowed respectful acknowledgment, trial and error. The use of existing resources provided a reflexive exchange of interdisciplinary perspectives to reach and enhance potential services. Sustainability of the process remains the question. |
| Monocacy |
Restorative Practices Consulting |
|
John Bailie |
|
In education, a whole-school approach is the best way for restorative practices to have a meaningful impact. Competent formal training is only part of what is needed to make lasting change in a school. School leaders can benefit greatly when restorative practices trainers can also offer informal consulting that provides ongoing support as leaders manage the change process and help staff implement the skills they learned in training. This session will explore establishing clear contracts and boundaries with clients, a useful model for the “phases of consulting,” helping leaders manage the change process, and building a positive and ongoing consultant/client relationship. This will be accomplished using engaging exercises, real-life case studies and useful reference materials. The session will focus on the experience of restorative practices consulting in the school environment but will be meaningful for anyone interested in using restorative practices to effect culture change in an organization. |
| Northampton |
Restorative Justice with Adult Offenders: The New Zealand Experience |
|
Julia Hennessy, Alison Hill |
|
New Zealand was the first place in the world to undertake a thoroughly evaluated pilot of the use of restorative justice in cases of serious offending by adult offenders, and the results of the evaluation of the court-referred restorative justice pilot have recently been released. Two programs using restorative justice community panels to deal with less serious offending have also recently been evaluated. This session will outline the insights offered by these three evaluations into the ways that victims can be involved in the criminal justice system, the benefits that can accrue from their involvement and impact for offenders. In 2004 the New Zealand Ministry of Justice issued “Principles of Best Practice for Restorative Justice Processes in Criminal Cases.” The session will also address the need to ensure high standards of practice while supporting community involvement, flexibility and cultural responsiveness in addressing the effects of offending. |
| Lafayette |
Building a Restorative Community: Better Serving Our Youth Through Community Building |
|
Marjorie Stanislaw, Kristine Johnson |
|
This presentation focuses on strategies that make it possible for courts and communities to accomplish restorative justice outcomes. Most courts are still lacking when it comes to engaging communities. Communities do not find the justice system visible enough, nor do they really understand the workings of juvenile justice. This view was reinforced throughout the United States when J. Diaz, in the mission statement for the Pinal County Department of Juvenile Court Services in Florence, Arizona, stated, “For the vast majority of the citizenry, juvenile justice is an esoteric system wrapped in a riddle. Support comes from understanding, understanding comes from involvement and participation.” The crux of this presentation is to teach participants how to go about soliciting involvement and active participation with community members. Real-life initiatives, including the East Hills Community Restoration Project and the Jeannette Community Justice Project, will be highlighted, as well as assessment and strategic planning processes. |
| Lehigh |
Standards and Accreditation in the Use of Restorative Practices: A UK Perspective (plus IIRP principles, National Occupational Standards, Principles of Restorative Processes and Best Practice Guidance) |
|
Les Davey, Nicola Preston |
|
The presenters of this session were both members of a group drawn from various UK restorative practices professionals to develop National Occupational Standards (NOS) for those working in restorative practices in the United Kingdom. They were also members of the UK Home Office group that created the document “Best Practice Guidance for Restorative Practitioners” from which these NOSs were developed. They will give a brief outline of these standards, wh |
