DAY 3

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11

THE WORST SCHOOL I’VE EVER BEEN TO
Produced by the IIRP, 62 min
This video follows the stories of three students at a Community Service Foundation/Buxmont Academy school/day treatment programme for troubled youth in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA. The video is both an instructional documentary showing a variety of restorative practices and group processes used in a therapeutic setting and an emotionally moving story about young people working to change their behaviour and achieve personal goals, and the counsellors who are trying to help them.

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National Occupational Standards in Restorative Justice and Accreditation Options
Les Davey & Barbara Tudor
Skills for Justice (SfJ) have been facilitating a working group drawn from various UK professionals to develop National Occupational Standards (NOS) for those working within restorative justice. The presenters of this session are both members of that group and were also members of the Home Office group that created the ‘Best Practice Guidance for Restorative Practitioners’, from which these NOSs are being developed. This work will enable professionals to develop their skills and the work carried out by restorative practitioners to become standard-based, thereby helping their respective services to develop to a high professional standard, as well as enabling practitioners to be recognized in a professional manner for the work they carry out. The presenters will give a brief outline of the standards, together with the latest update from SfJ on their progress, followed by a discussion on accreditation options.

Restorative Practices: Circles for Special Needs
Nancy McDermott, Suzanne (Terry) McGinnis, Mary Elizabeth Usher & Elizabeth Vastine
This workshop will convey how restorative philosophy and practices have been implemented in a Chicago, Illinois, USA, public special-education school. The panel will include an administrator, Mary Elizabeth Usher, and an educator, Nancy McDermott, of an early childhood centre that provides educational, health and therapeutic services for physically and multiply disabled children, ages 3–6, including children with profound cognitive disabilities. The school provides specialized programmes and educational services based on the child's needs as determined by the parents, staff and medical consultants. The challenges encountered at this school are not the typical disciplinary matters involving students. This school's concern is to improve communication and collaboration amongst the team and the parents of the students to better assist and support the students and their families. Terry McGinnis and Elisabeth Vastine, of the Neighborhood Restorative Justice Institute, Inc., will discuss how the staff has been trained, particularly in circles, to enhance dialogue, problem solving and decision making within the school community.

Roots and Wings in Democracy: Introducing and Applying Restorative Practices in Sweden
Mija Bergman, Kerstin Buckley, Annelie Edrén, Eva Fahlström, Marianne Matsgård & Helena Nystrom
This session will explore the Swedish experience of introducing and applying restorative practices in police work, schools and social welfare, with homeless people, in institutions and as mediation between clients/patients and professionals. We also use the method in a modified way for debriefing. Sweden has a long, deep-rooted democratic tradition. Restorative practices offer a simple, practical way of practising everyday democracy. We will share some of our experience of our pioneer work with Real Justice, hardship and successes. This is an interactive session where the participants will be invited to share experiences from their own countries.

Conversation with Wanchai Roujanavong
This is an opportunity for participants to meet with Wanchai Roujanavong and have a follow-up conversation on his featured presentation.

Conversation with Veronica Hart
This is an opportunity for participants to meet with Veronica Hart and have a follow-up conversation on her featured presentation.

Domestic Violence in Family Group Conference Referrals: Making Meetings Safe and Effective
Lis Gohrisch & Marilyn Taylor
This session will examine the impact of domestic violence issues in any child welfare FGC referrals and what needs to be considered by the coordinator. We will share the most recent learning of the Daybreak Dove project, which uses FGCs specifically to address situations of domestic violence. The session will enable participants to become familiar with the definition of domestic violence as used within Daybreak. It will highlight the specific issues that need to be tackled whenever domestic violence is present. It will identify the additional issues present when the paramount focus of the meeting is to address domestic violence concerns and look at ways to support both the victim and perpetrator throughout the process.

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Restoring the Balance: A Borough-wide Perspective on Restorative Approaches
Christine Grice, Mick Levens, Marcia Lewis, Caroline Newton, Mel Stanley & Sian Williams
The session run by the Lewisham, England, team will focus on two themes. The first part of the workshop will explore the structure of our restorative approaches partnership, set up in 2002, its benefits and challenges, particularly finding resources and the struggle to shift thinking from a small pilot to a growing borough-wide strategy. The second will focus on school experiences, during which staff will share what they have learnt about implementing restorative practices, how they have built in systems that work (and tried then abandoned those that don't) and what their schools are doing to move from an informal 'some of you might like to try this' model towards embedding restorative approaches strategically as 'the way we do things 'round here.' There will also be a panel question-and-answer session with time for further discussion.

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The Key to Effective Implementation of Restorative Practices in Schools
Terry O’Connell & Nicola Preston
This workshop draws on the presenter's 15 years' experience of introducing restorative practice in schools. It identifies what is needed for restorative processes to become the accepted practice in day-to-day interactions. It uses an explicit practice framework that is easily understood and embraced by teachers, students and parents. This shifts the strong preoccupation with student compliance 'as an end in itself' towards practices that foster and sustain healthy relationships. It will examine how restorative practice can influence classroom governance towards one that has a strong emphasis on developing responsibility in students for challenging others and resolving conflicts. Some case studies will be shared of schools that have developed a 'restorative milieu' as an important step towards becoming a fully restorative school. If you are struggling to get schools to adopt restorative practices, this workshop will help you identify what will assist you with these challenges.

Luncheon follows in Weston I.