Restorative Justice Practices
Restorative Justice practices are processes that prevent and respond to harm. Typically restorative Justice practices are implemented in school and community settings. These practices shift focus from punishing or rescuing those involved in harm to helping them repair the harm that has occurred, to learning new skills and strategies for managing conflict and to strengthening themselves and their communities, whether that be their school, family, or neighborhood, etc.
Preventative Restorative Justice Practices:
Imagine a culture with significantly low to non-existent incidences of harm or conflict. Imagine a culture where individuals took responsibility for harm done and engaged in steps to remedy the harm on their own. We support schools and communities to develop restorative cultures that allow for the cultivation of direct accountability, inner ethical development, and a reduced need for outside authority figures to step in to make things right. We aim to reduce the workload and stress level of authority figures while increasing the connection between each member of the community. When conflict occurs it is managed directly by those involved in the conflict. We help you design Restorative Justice processes and provide training and coaching in the philosophy, processes and skills behind these practices.
Responsive Restorative Justice Practices:
Unlike legal proceedings or suspensions in schools, when harm occurs Restorative Justice practices call for direct engagement between all involved parties, the sharing of perspectives, and the co-creation of a plan to make things right and prevent future harm. Restorative Justice practices put ownership for making things right in the hands of those directly involved in the harm. Meaningful accountability is sought from those that caused the harm directly to those who were harmed. The focus becomes repairing, restoring and reintegrating versus punishing. We work with you to determine if a restorative process is the best solution to your problem. If so we will design and facilitate a process that fits the age and circumstances of the parties involved.
Typical referrals from schools include bullying, theft, break and enters, truancy, parent-teacher issues, student-teacher issues, academic dishonesty, fighting, damage to property, defamation of character, online conflicts, school officials seen as biased by parents/students, issues involving the police liaison officer, etc.
Typical referrals from communities include neighborhood disputes, break and enters, theft, damage to property, assault, defamation of character, use of property, property development, first time offences with police involvement, etc.