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McGillis, Daniel. Community Mediation Programs: Developments and Challenges

This report reviews the evolution of the community mediation field, examines the contributions of innovative dispute settlement programs to the administration of justice, and explores major issues confronting the field. The report's intended audience is diverse. It includes community mediation program administrators, program staff members, volunteer community mediators, program planners, legislators, policymakers in other governmental programs that are relevant to the mission of community mediation, and potential community mediation program funders in foundations and government

Voth, David. The Victim Justice Ship in the Restorative Justice Harbor

The author notes that workshops on the role of crime victims in restorative justice theory and programming usually center on anecdotal victim sensitivity stories, illustrations of victim offender mediation, and exhortations to include victims as stake holders in the justice process. These activities should continue, but reaching a safe harbor where the victim justice ship can dock requires additional channel buoys. Although we see dimly the shores of restorative justice, it must include healing oriented processes for all participants even before the conclusion can be determined collaboratively between victim, community, and offender. To move toward that place in history, some system changes and victim issues need to be addressed.

Lavery, Carol and Achilles, Mary. Apologies: Balancing the Needs of Victims and Offenders

Lavery and Achilles identify important issues and questions that must be addressed when apologies by offenders to their victims is considered as part of a restorative justice endeavor. The victim must be in control - fully informed of the offenders motives and expectations, and allowed to decide when and if to accept an apology - in order for the apology to have a truly rehabilitative effect.

Umbreit, Mark S. "Restorative Justice Conferencing: Guidelines for Victim Sensitive Practice - "Adapting Conferences, Mediations, Circles and Reparative Boards to People, Communities, and Cultures."

The purpose of this monograph is to present guidelines for the practice of victim sensitive restorative justice conferencing, a term used here to identify all those processes that facilitate restorative dialogue and problem-solving among victims, offenders, family members, and other support persons or community members. Umbreit refers specifically to four established expressions of restorative justice conferencing: victim offender mediation, family group conferencing, peacemaking/sentencing circles, and reparative community boards before which offenders appear. Umbreit addresses a number of questions concerning the nature of restorative justice conferencing. Using examples of cases and programs, he notes specific characteristics of a multi-method approach to victim offender conferencing. Then he identifies core principles and skills of restorative justice conferencing, including humanistic "dialogue-driven"mediation/facilitation, guidelines for victim sensitive conferencing, and multi-cultural implications.

Thorsborne, Margaret and Armstrong, Margaret and Moxon, Judith and Armstrong, Margaret. Advancing the restorative agenda into the classroom

Restorative conferencing is no longer new to schools. Increasingly in Australia, New Zealand and in other countries, schools, in an attempt to reverse unhealthy statistics of stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions, have adopted the conference to deal with incidents of serious harm. But education professionals know that most of the "action" occurs in classrooms and that school and class "removal" is better viewed as a process not an event (Skiba et al, 2003). This interactive presentation will briefly explore some models for the successful integration of the restorative philosophy into classroom practice. Divided in to three parts, it will allow participants an insight into current thinking and practice which delivers positive outcomes for teachers, students and their classmates in the wake of wrongdoing. Part 1: School removal and restorative conferencing: This will be a brief overview of the history of restorative conferencing in schools and current research about the risks associated with the overuse of school removal and zero tolerance as disciplinary strategies. Part 2: Restorative Conferencing in Classrooms: This will, using a case study approach, demonstrate the use of classroom conferencing to deal with a variety of difficult classroom dynamics, where young people are made accountable to each other and their teachers, instead of the traditional practice of removing them for referral to deputies, deans or other disciplinarians. This demonstrates the restorative agenda at work in the busiest place in the school - the classroom. Part 3: Responding restoratively to classroom disruption in the moment: This is an exploration of the use of a highly successful restorative adaptation of the Responsible Thinking Programme - a process that may include a student's temporary removal from the classroom. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Justice and Peace Development, Massey University, http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz.

Yantzi, Mark. Restorative Justice and Past Sexual Abuse - Reflection on 20 years experience with a program model

This paper will: outline the program model for REVIVE, a support/accountability program at Community Justice Initiatives (www.cjiwr.com) offering support to all persons affected by past sexual abuse; reflect on what has been learned from this involvement; describe a model of facilitated dialogue where at the instigation of the victim/survivor and after extensive preparation for all parties involved, an opportunity is available for a facilitated confrontation/dialogue between the parties. 'Community Justice Initiatives' has for more than 20 years offered support groups to persons affected by past sexual abuse. Support groups, facilitated by trained community volunteers - sometimes former group members - are offered for persons who as adults are addressing past sexual abuse. The cluster of support groups include groups for women who were sexually abused as children, groups for men who experienced childhood abuse, groups for men who have sexually offended, support groups for spouses of survivors of past abuse, and for spouses of persons who have offended. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Justice and Peace Development, Massey University, http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz.

Bender, Valerie R. Victim/Community Awarness: An Orientation for Juveniles

The curriculum is designed for a group with a maximum of 15 offenders, and the 3 sessions of the curriculum encompass 3 to 4 hours. The first session is an introductory session that involves welcoming participants and group introduction, the administering of a pretest, the presentation of a group contract for behavior within the group, and an overview of balanced and restorative justice. The second session focuses on the impact of crime. In this session, group participants engage in role-playing as a crime victim or someone in the community who must deal with the aftermath of a crime described by the group facilitator. Each group member is assigned a role to play that involves thought about the kinds of feelings the character might have. The third session builds upon the second session by having each group member describe in detail the offense he/she committed, followed by a description of how his/her offense affected the victim and community. Group members may ask questions and provide feedback regarding the impact of each member's offense. Part of this session is having group members compose an apology letter to their victims and to the community. Materials for each session are provided, along with guidance for the facilitator. A section on information and resources includes a victim/community awareness completion report, a victim impact statement, guidelines for assessing offender accountability, suggested readings, and descriptions of victim-awareness video clips. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Victim Offender Meetings:A Restorative Focus for Victims

A sensitive issue for restorative justice programmes is how to approach crime victims about participating in the programmes. In this article, Eric Gilman, restorative justice coordinator for Clark County Juvenile Court, suggests that programmes should respond to victims restoratively, viewing them as people who have needs growing out of the harms they experienced in the crime, rather than simply as possible participants in a VOM process

Engaging Offenders In Victim Offender Mediation

In Washington State, community mediation programmes offer victim offender mediation (VOM) services. The different dynamics of working with crime victims and offenders offer unique challenges for these organizations. Eric Gilman, restorative justice coordinator for Clark County Juvenile Court, prepared the following document as a resource for facilitators in talking with offenders about VOM.

Immarigeon, Russ. Reconciliation between victims and imprisoned offenders: Program models and issues.

Compiled by Russ Immarigeon for the Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Office on Crime and Justice, this report is intended to give people useful information for either starting a victim-offender mediation program or setting up a specific victim-offender meeting at a local jail or prison. Immarigeon begins by presenting an overview of victim-offender reconciliation programs, both in the community and in penal institutions. This leads to descriptions of models of jail- and prison-based programs that address victim-offender concerns. Then he identifies critical issues to consider in planning such programs or meetings. At the end is a bibliography of resource materials and a list of resource centers.

Ozeer, Sheila. Confessions of a Family Group Conference Coordinator

Family group conferences (FGC) provide a means for families to come together to make decisions about the welfare of their children. As Sheila Ozeer observes, this is only possible if all those involved in the FGC process properly and credibly fulfill their roles. Ozeer, based on her knowledge and experience as a family group conference coordinator, focuses on the role of the coordinator in helping the FGC process to serve families in making those decisions. To explain the role of the coordinator, she looks at the family group conference model and process; the roles and responsibilities of all the various participants; a job description for a coordinator; an overview of the referrals in which she has been involved; and challenges and issues for coordinators of FGCs.

Merkel-Holguin, Lisa and Pennell, Joan and Rideout, Patricia and Pennell, Joan and Bird, Cornelius and Pennell, Joan and Harty, Sheila and Bird, Cornelius and Rideout, Patricia and Pennell, Joan. Bringing Families to the Table: A Comparative Guide to Family Meetings in Child Welfare

As the authors of this paper remark, the practice of including families in the decision-making process in child welfare cases has grown significantly in the past decade. There are several distinct models of practice that use family-centered principles in combination with family group meetings. The goal in these models is to bring families xe2x80x9cto the tablexe2x80x9d to discuss issues, to maximize their strengths, to solve problems, and to support each other with respect to the welfare of their children. The various models for family meetings share certain common elements; at the same time, they also possess features that distinguish each from the others. The variety of models can be confusing for child welfare practitioners, family members, and community participants in terms of determining which model to employ for family meetings. The aim of the authors in this paper then is to provide a comparative guide to the different models so the relevant parties can judge what model of family meeting to use. Toward this end, the authors provide a descriptive outline on various approaches to family meetings xe2x80x93 their commonalities, their core elements, and their unique features.