News & Announcements

An invitation to students, parents, teachers and community organizations

Introduction to Restorative Practices – An Educational Workshop
Three dates: Sat., Oct. 18 or Sat., Nov. 8 or Sat., Dec. 20 (Each day runs 8:30 am–3:30 pm.)
Location: School District of Philadelphia Education Center, 440 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130

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The restorative environment at Community Service Foundation and Buxmont Academy (CSF Buxmont) schools for at-risk youth enhances the effectiveness of the Aggression Replacement Training® cognitive-behavioral intervention program.

This is why the Aggression Replacement Training program is more effective with youth at CSF schools than with other Pennsylvania youth, theorizes CSF Buxmont Executive Director, Dr. Craig Adamson. “At CSF Buxmont schools, students are surrounded by a supportive treatment model that includes counseling and peer support, which creates many opportunities — all day long — to enrich what students are learning in the Aggression Replacement Training program,” says Dr. Adamson.

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This piece, by Laura Mirsky, the IIRP's assistant director for communications, was published originally by Educational Leadership Magazine, Summer 2014, Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Download a pdf of the article from Educational Leadership.

When schools use restorative practices to build relationships and community, students’ attitudes change for the better.

In April 2014, students at Warren G. Harding Middle School, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had just finished a week of state testing, which they had found very stressful. Like all Harding’s teachers, 7th grade language arts teacher Denise James had her students sit in a circle and discuss the purpose of the tests and how they felt about having to take them.

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Students pose during "Squid Dissection Day" at Two Rock Elementary School, where Mike Simpson is currently superintendent and principalBack in the late 1990s, Mike Simpson, then a middle school administrator in South Burlington, Vermont, pioneered the use of Real Justice restorative conferences in schools. He also trained to be a trainer with the IIRP. At the time, the state of Vermont was experimenting with new ways to administer justice (see last month’s, “Serious Offenders Make a Change,” for more on Vermont’s cutting edge restorative programs and history), and Simpson was involved not only in conducting restorative conferences, but was training teachers, school counselors, DAs, state police and corrections officers to run them, as well.

Recently Simpson got in back in touch to say that he had moved to the West Coast over a decade ago. He wrote, “RJ is beginning to get a toe-hold in Sonoma County where I work as a Superintendent/Principal” of Two Rock Elementary School in Petaluma, California. He is now in the process of helping to bring restorative practices to the 40 school districts of Sonoma County.

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In keeping with the restorative ethos of including all stakeholders in decision-making, the IIRP Graduate School sent a survey to prospective students worldwide to learn the best ways to deliver its course content. The overwhelming response was that students wanted to learn restorative practices, but they wanted more online and low-residency options so they could continue to live and work at home while they studied. Nationally, too, the trend in higher education throughout across the U.S. is toward more online and hybrid education. As the IIRP has developed opportunities for students to study restorative practices at the graduate level wherever they happen to live, a world-wide network of restorative learners and practitioners is being fostered.

Fully online courses, including introductory courses like RP 506, Restorative Practices: The Promise and the Challenge, allow students to connect with others around the world on their own time schedule. IIRP students who have taken the course talk about the advantages of working with diverse participants from different fields and places as far afield as the Netherlands, Canada, the Caribbean, South Africa, the U.S., Australia and Peru.

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“When they use restorative practices, professionals suddenly get back their self-esteem,” says Vidia Negrea, director of Community Service Foundation of Hungary (CSF Hungary), in Budapest. “They see how worthy their work can be.”

Negrea was appointed this month by the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) Board of Trustees as its newest member.

“I think of the IIRP as a restorative institution,” says Negrea. “The whole IIRP is a model of thinking and living in a restorative way. Even when the crises within politics and government make me very depressed, when I practice and people feel the effects of restorative practices, they start to regain their trust in themselves and the world.”

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photo by Kris Krug at FlickrAcross the state of Vermont, nearly 50 serious offenders, who are considered high-risk to reoffend, are meeting weekly with small teams of volunteers who have signed on to hold them accountable for their past criminal behavior and to support them to become contributing members of society. These offenders have very little family and community support, and Circles of Accountability, or CoSAs, are formed around the released offenders to help them make the transition back to the community.

For Derek Miodownik, Community and Restorative Justice Executive for Vermont Department of Corrections (DoC), the main issue is how the justice system and corrections can help reinstate the social contract. On the one hand, the community needs to know that it will be safe from further harm. On the other hand, offenders need to understand the benefits to them of becoming rehabilitated citizens.

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Nicola Preston wears many hats, but they all involve restorative practices. She's a lecturer at the IIRP teaching online courses and a special education needs coordinator for a UK primary (elementary) school. She says that restorative practices have even made a big impact in her personal and family life.

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Educational associate Harik Cofer didn’t “buy into” restorative practices at first. “Why would I do that fluffy stuff?” In his position — similar to middle school assistant principal — at National Academy Foundation School, in Baltimore, he was focused on closing the achievement gap through curriculum and academics. “Little did I know that if I did the community building first I could exceed expectations.”

Cofer says his school is probably one of the better educational institutions in Baltimore City, but there are still plenty of problems. In particular, he laments the loss of feelings of pride and community kids used to have about school.

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An invitation to students, parents, teachers and community organizations

Introduction to Restorative Practices – An Educational Workshop
Two dates: 8:30 am–3:30 pm, Saturday, August 16 or 8:30 am–3:30 pm, Tuesday, August 26
Location: John Bartram High School, 2401 S. 67th St., Philadelphia, PA 19142

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