News & Announcements
Two Four Day Institutes – Basic Restorative Practices and Responding to Grief, Trauma & Adversity – have been approved by the PA chapter of the National Association for Social Workers (NASW-PA) for continuing education credits.
Social workers in Pennsylvania should take note of upcoming Basic Restorative Practices Institutes in Philadelphia (June 25 to 28) and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (July 9 to 12), as well as Responding to Grief, Trauma & Adversity in Bethlehem (July 23 to 26).
NASW has been designated as a pre-approved provider of professional continuing education for the social worker (Section 47.36), marriage and family therapist (48.36), and professional counselor (49.36) by the PA State Board of Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapist and Professional Counselors.
Currently teachers and administrators may earn PA Act 45, PA Act 48 and NJ DOE Professional Development credits by taking IIRP courses and participating in professional development experiences.
Everyone loves a good story, and I'm no exception – especially a good anecdote about an instance of restorative justice or some other more informal restorative interaction. These anecdotes, more than anything, can often cut through a person's doubt and questions about how RJ works.
So here's a story from the UK's 24dash.com by Julien Tremblin, dated November 17, 2011 but posted today on twitter by Theo Gavrielides:
On March 30, 2012 Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire signed into law legislation that makes restorative justice available to youth offenders. The bill, co-sponsored by state Reps. Roger Goodman and Ruth Kagi passed unanimously in both the house and the senate.
The law builds upon an existing mechanism in Washington state which allows a "diversion unit" – a probation counselor or community accountability board – to arrive at a diversion agreement with a young offender in lieu of a court hearing and sentence. Formerly this included, according to the law, things like paying restitution, performing community service and attending counseling. The new law now adds restorative justice to the menu of options the diversion unit may recommend.
Restorative Justice and Sexually Harmful Behaviour - learning from practice across Europe
26th June 2012
The Monastery, Gorton Lane, Manchester M12 5WF
£95 RJC Members; £120 standard rate
Early bird booking discount for non-members if booked before 18th May.
Both AIM and the Restorative Justice Council are pleased to announce a single day conference to examine from a European perspective the potential for the application of restorative approaches to cases of sexually harmful behaviour (SHB).
Here are some selections from an op-ed piece that ran in the San Francisco Examiner yesterday, written by Carlos Garcia, superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).
It is our responsibility to provide a safe place for learning. One key to safety is fostering and maintaining caring relationships.
According to the netnewsledger.com, on March 26, 2012, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada hosted:
...a conference on restorative practices [that] brought together community leaders from education, enforcement, health, justice and youth services. Participants learned about what it means to be restorative and how to build a positive culture in our schools and communities. The conference was presented by the Restorative Practices Working Group in partnership with the Drug Awareness Committee of Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay District Health Unit, Thunder Bay Crime Prevention Council and Lakehead Public Schools.
"Nothing about me without me." —Children and families involved in the FGC/FGDM process.
This new book, published by the IIRP, was written by Beth Smull, Joshua Wachtel and Ted Wachtel
Waves of change have weakened the influence of family in modern societies, yet family remains the most critical element in our social fabric. A new approach for working with families--"family group conferencing" (FGC) or "family group decision making" (FGDM)--seeks to strengthen this fabric by enlisting the collective power of families and their communities of care to address their own issues and solve their own problems. This paradigm has implications for myriad professionals, including social workers, police, court personnel, therapists, youth workers, day-care staff and educators.
Jean Schmitz, director of IIRP Latin America, sent me a link to this piece he found at RJOnline (originally posted last May). It's a lengthy interview by Lisa Rea of Jo Berry, the daughter of Sir Anthony Berry, a member of parliament in the Thatcher government, who was one of five people killed by IRA bomber Patrick Magee in 1984. In 2000 she finally had the opportunity to meet with Magee. Berry begins:
This Saturday, April 1, 2012, will see a world-first event, bringing a corporate CEO face to face with the victims of their crimes against the Earth through restorative justice. The two fictional CEOs, Robin Bannerman and John Tench, who were found guilty of committing ecocide last year in the UK Supreme Court will be sentenced, in a process involving top experts, including Lawrence Kershen QC, chair of the Restorative Justice Council.
This is a trial run for a new offense of ecocide (much like genocide, but against the Earth and its resources) ahead of trying to get the UN to adopt the offense internationally. You can watch this event free online, Saturday April 1 at 10:30 a.m. U.K. time. More information here.
The Philadelphia Student Union produces On Blast, an audio podcast, and this week they posted some clips from an event sponsored by the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools on Martin Luther King Day (which I mentioned here back in January). IIRP's Steve Korr was a panelist and can be heard near the beginning of this clip talking about restorative practices as a leadership model. Listen to the entire recording, which is just a few minutes and contains some powerful voices about what students in schools need to transform the school environment.
Restorative Works Year in Review 2025 (PDF)
All our donors are acknowledged annually in Restorative Works.