Funded by the Correctional Service of Canada, it is based on the Burnaby, British Columbia, campus. The Centre has a steering committee of seven members and provides educational courses, program models, evaluation and research help.  The About Us page of its website introduces it activities and people in more detail.

The Centre presents four personal Stories of Reconciliation in order to communicate the principles and values inherent in restorative justice.  The Dialogue forums provide an online space for people interested in restorative justice to share and discuss “Around the Circle”.  Users can browse the postings or register and log in to participate in the interaction.  Persons interested in moderating a new forum topic can email the Centre.

The Resources section comprises the largest part of the website, with an Online Library that currently contains around 650 abstracts.  While hard copies of all the library’s documents are on hand for lending at the Centre, approximately 100 documents are also available in full-text online.  The searchable database classifies entries into three interest categories: introductory, practice-oriented, and scholarly.  It also uses a call number system based on topical subject.  Results of a search can be sorted by various criteria, including author, date, or call number.

A number of the library documents and other resources have been grouped into a Popular Topics page.  The sections include Introduction to Restorative Justice, Youth Justice, Domestic Violence, Restorative Justice in Schools, and Restorative Responses to Civil Unrest, and they were chosen based on traffic patterns on the Centre’s website.  Also under Resources, a separate Intro to RJ page provides ideas and links to other parts of the site in order to answer some of the preliminary questions that a newcomer to restorative justice may have.

Some other resources include a compilation of Legal Cases relevant to restorative justice, and a complete list of the quotes which appear one by one in the upper right hand corner of the website’s pages.  Another page is devoted to the proceedings of and reflection on the 6th International Conference on Restorative Justice, which the Centre hosted in Vancouver in June 2003.  There is also a list of future events such as conferences in Canada and abroad.

Jonathan Morton
May 2004