Ted Wachtel

A former public school teacher, Wachtel was one of the first educators to recognize the positive impact of restorative practices in school, family and workplace settings. Educator, inspirational speaker and author, Wachtel has been in the vanguard of this transformational movement.

In 1977, Ted and his wife, Susan Wachtel, also a former teacher, founded the Community Service Foundation and Buxmont Academy (CSF Buxmont), two non-profit organizations that utilize restorative practices as their guiding principle with troubled and delinquent youth in eastern Pennsylvania, USA. CSF Buxmont currently runs eight alternative schools/day treatment programs and administers 15 group homes and two community-based programs supervising delinquent youths on probation or experiencing drug or alcohol issues. CSF also provides family group decision making (FGDM) and restorative conferences for clients outside the organization.

Ted found inspiration in Terry O’Connell, the Australian police officer who developed the restorative justice conference script, in which offenders are brought face to face with their victims.  In 1995, Ted established the Real Justice organization to bring the scripted version of restorative conferencing to North America.

Wachtel expanded restorative justice beyond the criminal justice system with restorative practices, which offers a common thread to tie together theory, research and practice in education, counseling, criminal justice, social work and organizational management (http://www.iirp.org/whatisrp.php). The fundamental hypothesis of restorative practices is that human beings are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them.

With the conviction that restorative practices builds and restores relationships and community in an increasingly disconnected world, Ted founded the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) in 2000, a non-profit organization that now includes Real Justice, SaferSanerSchools, Good Company and Family Power. Located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, with affiliates and licensees worldwide, the IIRP is a leading global provider of restorative practices training, consulting, educational materials and international conferences.

The IIRP's training and consulting division has trained tens of thousands of people in restorative practices, for use in schools, workplaces and families. It's international conferences (11 in number since 1998) draw on participation from a wide variety of restorative practitioners and researchers who share their work with others.

In 2006, Wachtel saw the fulfillment of a long-held vision with the opening of the IIRP Graduate School, the world’s first wholly dedicated to restorative practices. The IIRP is engaged in the advanced education of professionals and to the conduct of research that can develop the field of restorative practices. The IIRP’s long-term goal is to positively influence human behavior and strengthen civil society throughout the world.

Ted Wachtel has co-authored The Conferencing Handbook and authored Real Justice and many articles on restorative practices. He is a contributing author of the IIRP’s The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers, Disciplinarians and Administrators, a practical guide for educators that discusses the whole range of restorative techniques and relates real-world stories of the practices.  He is also co-editor of Safer Saner Schools: Restorative Practices in Education, a comprehensive selection of articles from the IIRP’s Restorative Practices eForum about restorative practices in education worldwide.

In addition, Ted Wachtel co-authored two best-selling books for parents of troubled adolescents in the 1980s: Toughlove and Toughlove Solutions. He has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences on restorative practices around the world and has spoken frequently about restorative practices on radio and television.

In his inaugural speech as founding president of the IIRP in October 2007, Ted Wachtel reflected: “We will generously share the exciting potential of restorative practices with others so that all of us may collaboratively change the world.”

Important Idea:

If systems are not innately restorative, then they cannot hope to effect change simply by providing an occasional restorative intervention. 

Restorative practices must be systemic, not situational. 

You can’t have a few people running conferences and everyone else doing business as usual.

You can’t have punitive police and restorative courts. 

You can’t be restorative with students, but retributive with faculty.

To reduce the growing negative subculture among youth, to successfully prevent crime and to accomplish meaningful and lasting change, restorative justice must be perceived as a social movement dedicated to making restorative practices integral to daily life.”

  at  tedwachtel@iirp.org.