Learn practical skills and powerful concepts.
Bring Our Events to Your Team
Organizations thrive when staff feel connected and engaged. When you bring an IIRP event to your organization, your staff and leaders will grow and learn together. You will develop the interpersonal skills to collaborate constructively. You will also learn ways to build community and engage with people more effectively.
Whether your organization is a school, nonprofit, business, municipal government office or community group, our experienced instructors provide professional development offerings to larger groups of staff and leaders. Instruction may be provided online or in person and tailored to your needs. For a full list of our current offerings, please review our Private Professional Development Events Catalog.
After your group has experienced one or more of our professional development offerings, there are additional opportunities to participate in ongoing coaching to support continued learning and implementation under the guidance of an IIRP instructor.
To learn more, please contact a member of our professional development team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to begin planning for your event.
Professional Development
Access to knowledge for cultivating relationships and community
IIRP Continuing Education brings together leading research, theory and practice. We offer a growing array of noncredit offerings to teach you concepts and soft skills needed to stand out in your professional environment.
During online professional development, you will learn effective online teaching strategies and community building. Our experienced instructors are skilled practitioners, adept at helping you learn and implement restorative practices in your setting.
For more than 10 years, the IIRP Graduate School has pioneered master's-level online learning in the social science of relationships and community. Our faculty bring their wealth of knowledge to support the design and structure of our online offerings.
Some online professional development events can apply toward graduate education as part of the IIRP's unique blended learning model. With the addition of readings and interactive online coursework, you can delve deeper with our faculty and participate in our graduate level curriculum.
Upcoming event dates are announced for the following term on March 1 (summer events), June 1 (fall events), and October 1 (spring events). Trainings are limited in capacity and fill up quickly. Please do not book any travel or accommodations for in-person trainings until the registration is confirmed.
Find upcoming events
Conferences and Symposia
Thank you to all those who made the IIRP World Conference a phenomenal experience! The combination of panelists, speakers, and attendees led to the sharing of ideas, meaningful dialogue, and practical application of restorative practices in a multitude of settings.
Hear directly from some of the conference speakers and attendees on what they walked away with from the conference.
IIRP World Conference Highlight Video
Thank You to Our
Plenary Session Panelists
This year’s conference was centered around what it takes to create thriving communities with a focus on three key areas:
- Family matters – Families are the core of every thriving community! A community is at its best when its families and citizens have access to physically and environmentally safe neighborhoods, emotional tools and support to nurture healthy relationships, affordable housing, healthy food, and opportunities to help sustain the community by giving back. We will discuss how the use of restorative practices can help make these things possible.
- Collaboration matters – Healthy communities are places where families and residents actively engage with their schools and governmental, policing, justice, human services, healthcare, non-profit, philanthropic, corporate, and faith-based agencies. We will examine how a restorative practices framework can aid in aligning school and agency leaders with resources to create synergies that enhance the quality of life in the communities they serve.
- Faith Matters – 84% of the world’s population identifies with a faith system according to the Pew Research Center. We will explore how different faith systems view the impact restorative practices have on promoting thriving communities and responding to harm when it occurs.
Past World Conferences and Symposia
Click a link below to view information and papers from past conferences:
- 2023: Online World Conference: Inviting Collective Energy. Igniting Social Change.
- 2022: Pathways to Social Change (virtual conference)
- 2020: Mexico City, Mexico
- 2019: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2019: Symposium: Advancing Community Well-Being Through Restorative Practices
- 2019: Kortrijk, Belgium
- 2018: Detroit, Michigan, USA
- 2018: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 2017: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2017: Symposium: A Restorative Journey: Transforming Relational Harm
- 2017: Dublin, Ireland
- 2016: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2016: San José, Costa Rica
- 2015: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2015: Symposium: Integrating School Climate Reform Efforts
- 2015: Budapest, Hungary
- 2014: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2013: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2012: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2011: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
- 2010: Hull, England, UK
- 2009: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2008: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 2007: Budapest, Hungary
- 2006: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
- 2005: Manchester, England, UK
- 2005: Sydney, New South Wales Australia
- 2004: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- 2003: Veldhoven, Netherlands
- 2002: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- 2000: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 1999: Burlington, Vermont, USA
- 1998: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Whole-School Change: Cultivating School Communities that Thrive
Positive School Culture
Whole-School Change (formerly SaferSanerSchools) is a program that cultivates stronger relationships between students and staff to create a more positive school climate and communities that thrive.
Increased Equity
Restorative practices empowers a diversity of voices and reduces discipline disparities based on race and other factors.
Strong School Leadership
Our program teaches school leaders 21st century professional competencies to improve workplace culture and foster staff development.
Program Components
The International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) Whole-School Change program provides a comprehensive implementation model that works with educators to transform school climate in districts across the United States.
Professional Development
Staff learn skills to proactively connect with students and respond when things go wrong.
Coaching
IIRP coaches help school leadership teams reinforce the use of restorative practices.
Restorative Practices Trainers
Expand and sustain the impact through our Train the Trainer model to build additional in-house expertise.
Graduate Certificates & Degrees
Dive deeper into the restorative practices field through graduate level certificates and degrees.
"Restorative practices provide a structure that builds community among students and staff and provides a way for students to restore themselves to the community following misconduct."
Anthony Hamlet
Former Superintendent, Pittsburgh Public Schools
Pinellas County, FL
Research and Reports
Restorative Practices Help Reduce Student Suspensions
RAND Corporation, a Randomized Controlled Trial of Whole-School Change (formerly SaferSanerSchools as referenced in the report)
Connecting Communities of Courage: Building Inclusive, Safe and Engaging Schools
National School Climate Center
Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Relationships & Promoting Positive School Discipline
Advancement Project, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, Opportunity to Learn Campaign
Implementing restorative justice in schools: Lessons learned from restorative justice practitioners in four Brooklyn schools
Anne Gregory, Ph.D., et al., Rutgers University
Frequently Asked Questions
Contact Us
Have questions about Whole-School Change? We're here to help. Our offices are open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern.
Schedule a time to talk »
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Phone: 610-807-9221
Become a Restorative Practices Trainer
Prepare your team to teach others the key concepts of restorative practices designed for their professional development by completing our Fundamentals of Restorative Practices training and/or our Restorative Conferencing training. Learn how to assist in the sustainable implementation of restorative practices in your school or organization.
This interactive event teaches experienced restorative practitioners how to deliver the training modules to their own colleagues, using our materials to provide training either in person or online.
*For those interested in attending the Restorative Conferencing Training of Trainers, the specific expectation is that you facilitated, participated in, or at a minimum observed a restorative conference using the IIRP model.
**These books are available through the IIRP Bookstore.
This interactive training will include:
- Review of IIRP training modules
- Participant preparation and presentation of content.
- Discussion of best practices for training implementation.
- Professional development maps that include learning outcomes and objectives.
- Suggestions for how to deliver the instruction online based on our years of experience with distance learning.
- Support for creating modules unique to your situation, if you are unable to deliver the materials as suggested by the IIRP.
- Facilitated conversation about the integration of the IIRP materials with other initiatives.
If you would like to learn more about the Training of Trainers event before continuing, please contact us.
Please Note:
- All online events start at 12:00PM Eastern US and run 4.5 hours. In-person events start at 8:30AM in their local time zones.
- If you require a purchase order, processing can take up to ten business days. Please allow for that in your planning and event date selection. Event capacities are limited, and seats are reserved as payments are received.
- The registration process for these events requires at least 5 business days. Please do not book any travel or accommodations for in-person trainings until the registration is confirmed.