Staying Restorative

Articles and other resources on self care for restorative practitioners and advocates.

I’ve hit my emotional limit

by Lynette Parker As a restorative conferencing facilitator, I often receive the brunt of a lot of strong emotions. This happens most when I’m making first contacts with individuals are in the preconference interviews. I can’t count the number of times I’ve called a victim to introduce the programme to receive a twenty minute monologue covering everything from the pain of the crime to their frustrations with the criminal justice systems to questions about how to move ahead. These emotions are very real and the person expressing them needs to be able to do that. Just recently, I was the recipient of such victim from the daughter of a crime victim. At one point she apologised for dumping her anger and frustration on me as I was only doing my job. I quickly responded that it was okay, that was part of my job. And, quite frankly, it is a part of the work. Even in what might seem to us to be “minor” crimes; we can encounter very strong emotions from those we are serving. This makes facilitator self-care very important.

Conferencing

Christa, Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with the point about team work. As facilitators, we have to permit the participants the opportunity to decide [...]

Conferencing Needs Team & PR Work

After several days of thinking about the idea of ‘no script’, I’d like to put out some thoughts about what restorative justice advocates can overstep [...]

facilitating the conferences

I agree that asking the questions is almost an art form. The facilitator has to be able to use creativity to guide the process between [...]

No script for the journey

by Lynette Parker I recently started reading The spirit and art of conflict transformation: Creating a culture of justpeace by Thomas Porter. Early in the book he says, “The work of conflict transformation is best described as the art of improvisation. Human interaction cannot be programmed, and there is no script for this journey.” Mentally, I said, “You’ve got that right.”

re:

Many thanks.

Crossing the divide

from Howard Zehr's Restorative Justice Blog: It has often been my experience that restorative justice can span the conservative-liberal divide. Concerns for victims and for reducing the costs of imprisonment are often common to both. The concept of offenders facing up to what they have done makes intuitive sense to many. Values such as responsibility, respect and relationship are often shared along the spectrum. What we mean by these values and ideas, however, and what motivates us to embrace them, are crucial issues. The lessons to be gleaned from the movement against indeterminate sentencing in the U.S. are instructive. Eventually both progressives and conservatives came together to replace indeterminate sentences with determinate sentences motivated by a just deserts philosophy. The resulting lengthened mandatory sentences dramatically increased the prison population. While there was some confluence of policy positions, the underlying values and motivations of the various parties were quite different. The results have been in many ways catastrophic.

Who takes ownership of a restorative justice programme?

from Ken Webster's article in Resolution: ....At the European Forum for Restorative Justice’s 10th Anniversary conference in Bilbao,Spain in June 2010, retired Concord,Massachusetts Police Chief LenWetherbee and I presented a session with the above title. I spoke about the issues that set a community/statutory agencies partnership approach to restorative practices apart from those that are managed and delivered solely by the statutory agencies. Len gave an example of such an approach, speaking about the community/statutory agencies partnership Communities for Restorative Justice (www.C4RJ.com) project in Concord and how effective a non-profit partnership of community members and police departments can be.

John Bacon's thesis on RJ practice.

This dissertation reveals valuable practitioner insight. I particularly thought his findings on the effect of RJ practice on facilitators and the value of the refreshments [...]

Making progress in restorative justice: A qualitative study

from the abstract of a thesis by John R. Bacon: This is an exploratory study into how restorative justice (RJ) facilitators made progress before and during a RJ conference. It draws specifically on the experiences of Justice Research Consortium (JRC) facilitators who participated in one of three Home Office funded trials between 2001-4, and the only trial to employ a randomized control design based on the RJ conference model. Qualitative data was collected via focus group meetings and individual interviews.

Keeping it real restorative justice: 5 criteria for a solid program

from Kris Miner's entry on Restorative Justice and Circles: So, 5 criteria for you in creating a truly restorative justice program. 1. Define your criteria. Restorative justice is yes, a philosophical approach, YET specific processes are how we do Restorative Justice.... [G]et criteria for your Circle or conference. I recently saw a Circle demonstration and there was no open, no close, the talking piece was used as a way to take turns asking questions. There was no preparation put into the people attending. Have criteria, stick to those criteria....

Who knew you could gain staff and lose ground, two crucial time management tips!

from Kris Miner's entry on Restorative Justice and Circles: I’ve had more staff around me in the last 3 months, than the last 3 years! I worked solo (with the help of MANY great volunteers) or had one other person employed at SCVRJP. The last few months have included 2 staff and an intern. Great dedicated helpful people. Yet I feel like I have lost my footing, the ground under me has slid away. I’m disorganized, missing appointments, finishing tasks just under the wire. WHAT? From the woman who was running the entire show!? It’s not like I haven’t delegated, believe me I’ve delegated. One of my coworkers pointed out she can’t complete certain project, because of the assignments I add-on each day. Realize that despite your skills, connections, talents and abilities, if you fail at managing your tasks or your time, you can fail in general.

The fun in social justice

from Isabella Mori's entry on change therapy: once again, northern voice, vancouver’s annual blogging and social media conference, was a lot of fun. two inspiring sessions were about making a difference in the world: one about doing good by darren barefoot, and another about social media and social justice by ajay masala puri and jeremy osborn. the one about social justice, which took place outside in the grass on a beautiful sunny afternoon, challenged all participants to commit to doing one thing towards social justice. ....as i was thinking about a possible commitment it occurred to me that while i do dedicate a good of amount of my time and some of my money to social justice, there are moments when the term seems a bit heavy, maybe a little too serious. that’s how i came up with the commitment of looking at the fun side of social justice. fun is important for me; fun sustains me. it makes sense, then, to invest something in the fun side of this – it’ll keep my interest in social justice going! so here are a few thoughts on the fun part of social justice.

Being a trustworthy person and a trustworthy non-profit.

from Kris Miner's article on Restorative Justice and Circles: I was listening to MN Public radio and caught a quick statement about trust. One of the guest speakers said that trust depended on two things, if the agency or the person was 1.) well-intended and 2.) competent about the matter at hand.

Restorative justice: A community response when bad things happen

from Ben Ziegler's entry on Collaborative Journeys Bad things happen. They did to Katy Hutchison on New Year’s Eve in 1997. Her husband Bob was beaten to death while checking on a party being thrown by their neighbour’s son. It happened in Squamish, a small town just north of Vancouver. A wall of silence grew up around the murder. It was four years before Ryan Aldridge admitted to having delivered the fatal blow, was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to five years in prison. Katy Hutchison’s response to the tragic event was not “get tough on crime”. She did not see how that approach would build a stronger community. She didn’t want to be re-victimized by the prevailing justice system. Instead, she courageously reached out to Ryan, first through a formal victim/offender reconciliation process, and since, has maintained close contact with Ryan and his family. She wanted healing, and sought it through Restorative Justice. Read Katy and Ryan’s story of forgiveness and restoration.

Core capacities of restorative justice practitioners

from Howard Zehr's Restorative Justice Blog: In January a small group gathered in Seattle for several days of restorative justice dialogue and we’ve continued the discussion since then by email. (The participants are listed below.) One of the questions raised was what we considered to be the core capacities of effective restorative justice practitioners. Aaron Lyons, a practitioner in Vancouver and a CJP alumnus, took the lead on this discussion and I invited him to contribute a guest blog entry. The following is his contribution. Hi fellow Howard’s blog enthusiasts - Recently I’ve been asking, “What are the core capacities, in terms of values, analytical tools, and skills, of an effective restorative justice practitioner?” Below are a few thoughts, shaped by but not necessarily representative of, the discussion among my Seattle mentors. What would you challenge or add to this list?

Getting feedback is awesome, we should give it more often, directly.

from Kris Miner's entry at Restorative Justice and Circles: NOTE: One of the reasons that Kris' blog is so useful is that she is transparent about her experiences as a facilitator and agency director. In this entry she talks about two kinds of feedback she received recently and how she intends to use both. At the beginning of Circle, we write a relationship value on paper plates, we place these on the floor in front of us. We make a commitment to honor these values in Circle. If they are good values for our relationships outside of Circle, they are good values for our relationships in Circle. We do a give and get activity. One person starts by picking a plate and giving it to someone else in Circle. An explanation of how the value was demonstrated and why it was given is part of the activity. Once you get a plate its your turn to give one. Yesterday I got two plates: LOVE and INTEGRITY. I also got a phone call I was ‘reported’ to a statewide association. Getting the plates and getting the phone call, very different types of feedback, but I am going to accept them both as awesome. Let me try to explain that:

Restorative justice: A travelogue

from Ryan Hollon's entry on Dr. Pop Blog: I was heading to South Africa as part of a restorative justice delegation from the Windy City. Our group brought with it a diverse history of activism, action, and hustling for change. Some of the delegates were working to transform the disciplinary culture of the public school system, others were community leaders deeply rooted in neighborhood life, several had been working for decades to reform the ways our society responds to domestic violence, and many in the group had dedicated their lives to working with young people to shift power in their communities. All of us were practitioners of conflict resolution methods like peace circles, and all of us shared a basic belief in the power of groups to come together to address difficult issues, to deal with the conflicting forces in our lives.

Restorative justice: A travelogue

from Ryan Hollon's entry on Dr. Pop Blog: I was heading to South Africa as part of a restorative justice delegation from the Windy City. Our group brought with it a diverse history of activism, action, and hustling for change. Some of the delegates were working to transform the disciplinary culture of the public school system, others were community leaders deeply rooted in neighborhood life, several had been working for decades to reform the ways our society responds to domestic violence, and many in the group had dedicated their lives to working with young people to shift power in their communities. All of us were practitioners of conflict resolution methods like peace circles, and all of us shared a basic belief in the power of groups to come together to address difficult issues, to deal with the conflicting forces in our lives.

Trust the process

Thank you Kris! I needed this just now. You never know when you may have an injured soul come to a circle. My classroom circles [...]