From congregations to classrooms, working toward integrating restorative practices across the community.
Pam Duncan is a current IIRP student pursuing her Graduate Certificate in Restorative Practices. She has been working to bring restorative practices to her community through a local congregation network. Through collaboration between a faith-based organization and her local school district, Pam is supporting the integration of restorative practices across the school district to combat the disproportionality of discipline among black and brown student populations.
Q: What brought you to the IIRP?
A: I was brought to the IIRP through my work with the Charleston Area Justice Ministry (CAJM) in Charleston, South Carolina. The CAJM is a growing network of faith-based congregations that are culturally, economically, geographically, and religiously diverse. The CAJM comes together to make the Charleston area a more just place to live, work, and do business. I serve on their Education Steering Committee. For 10 years we have been working to implement whole-school restorative practices in the Charleston County School District. Data has proven that brown and black students across the country have a much higher rate of suspension than their white counterparts, and the south is no different. It has been an arduous process, one step forward, two steps back, but we finally have a three-year implementation plan with the Charleston County School District in place.
Q: Please tell us about your professional work now and what makes you passionate about it.
A: I am passionate about restorative practices because I am passionate about building community and repairing harm when it occurs. I have Post-it notes all over my house with the word “with” on them. This is a simple reminder for me to stay in the with quadrant of the Social Discipline Window during every encounter I have personally or professionally.
Q: What would you like to see happen in the future of this work?
A: I am particularly passionate about the use of social and restorative justice within prison reform. I had the honor of recently taking Professors Miguel Tello and Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt’s course called Restorative Justice: Global Perspectives. It introduced me to exciting restorative Justice programs that are taking place in prisons all over the world. I would like to see more of these kinds of programs implemented in the United States.
