4-Day Institutes Go National (and International)


In the coming year IIRP will be offering three different 4-Day Institutes in a host of locations nationwide and in Canada. Basic Restorative Practices   Four days of professional development, exploring the full range of Read more

IIRP Publishes New Book — Family Power: Engaging and Collaborating with Families


"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 Read more

Event: American Humane 2012 Conference


American Humane has announced its 2012 Conference on Family Group Decision Making and Other Family Engagement Approaches: June 20-24, 2012 at the Disney Yacht & Beach Club Resort, Orlando, FL Join over 500 conference participants to enjoy a variety of ways to explore community partnership building, Read more

New Book — Building Campus Community


IIRP now has a brand new book, Building Campus Community: Restorative Practices in Residential Life. I co-wrote the book with Ted Wachtel, and the introductory chapter was co-written by Stacey Miller, University of Vermont Director Read more

Building a Worldwide Restorative Practices Learning Network


A Participatory Experience Most IIRP conference presenters are not professional speakers. Aside from a few featured speakers and videos, our conferences are created by you and others like you who have submitted proposals to present Read more

Minnesota Department of Education describes how principals use restorative discipline practices | Twin Cities Daily Planet

Posted on by Joshua Wachtel in Restorative Practices, Schools | Leave a comment

From Minnesota Department of Education describes how principals use restorative discipline practices | Twin Cities Daily Planet comes this rather striking statement about a survey conducted in the state:

“The survey was completed by 417 Minnesota principals, of whom 66 percent reported using restorative methods in response to some behavior problems.”

And then there this quote by Nancy Riestenberg:

“Students have to be held accountable for making mistakes,” Riestenberg said. “If you don’t give them the opportunity to wipe up their own milk that they spilled, you’re robbing them of the responsibility to learn that they can make a mistake, and they can fix it.”

Read the full story by Alleen Brown for the Twin City Daily Herald here.

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    Youth apologize to community for graffiti

    Posted on by Joshua Wachtel in Community, Justice | Leave a comment

    Two letters tell the story. This was posted Monday, May 7, 2012  in the Upper Rogue Independent, without a byline:

    One of the programs that we administer in partnership with the Jackson County Juvenile Department is called the Victim Assistance, Youth Accountability (VAYA) program. This program is rooted in the principles of restorative justice – a community response to crime that focuses on addressing the harms done to victims and communities by holding offenders meaningfully accountable for their offenses. According to Cara Walsh, Director of Restorative Justice Programs for Mediation Works. We recognize that crime is more than just a violation against the law and state, but also a violation of people and relationships. Thus, our role in the community is to support youth in being accountable for the harms they caused, provide supportive services to victims of crime, and engage the community in this process, said Walsh.

    They have worked with three boys in their program that were involved in a graffiti incident that took place in Shady Cove last summer. In response they provided the opportunity for community members who were impacted by this event to meet with the boys to give the youth an opportunity to accept responsibility and for the community members to share how this has impacted them, ask any questions, and address the ways in which to make things right.

    One of the agreements from this community dialogue was the boys agreeing to write a letter of apology to the community at large to be published in the Upper Rogue Independent. Following are letters from the three boys.

    Dear Citizens and Workers of Shady Cove,

    I am Silas and I am fifteen years old and I live in Medford, Oregon. Last year in June myself and my two friends were out walking back to our camp spot and began spray painting and tagging whatever we happened to walk past including walls, signs, fences, and even trees and rocks.

    To be brutally honest I wasn’t thinking at all when we were spray painting the property. I was in the group mentality and I just did what everyone else was doing. I am not trying to put blame on anyone because it was my fault for taking part in the spray painting when I should have left or let them do it on their own. The only reason we chose the property we did was because it happened to be in the path in which we were heading on our way back to the campsite- it wasn’t anything personal.

    Only after we had committed our offenses did I begin to realize the severity of my actions. At first it was all fun and games, but then I became aware of how many people I hurt and how much money I may have cost innocent victims for no apparent reason. Now I truly understand how deeply my actions hurt people that didn’t do anything to deserve their property defaced.

    Since the incident I have opened my eyes to the extent of damage that my actions can and do cause. I would never again pick up spray paint to deface or cause someone harm. It is a very stupid crime. I deeply apologize to anyone and everyone that I hurt with my stupid and childish actions and I hope you can fine it in your heart to forgive me for my actions.

    Sincerely,

    Silas

    Dear Shady Cove community,

    We are two of the offenders that vandalized the town of Shady Cove in June of 2011. We wish to say how sorry we are for trespassing on your property and making you, the members of the community, unsecure and unsafe.

    Because of our actions we had to complete community service by cleaning up trash in our town of Shady Cove. We also met and talked with members of the community, which included two men from the Boys and Girls Club, two police officers, and a representative from Premier West Bank.

    We want to say how sorry we are and hope you won’t feel unsafe. We are trying to make up for our stupidity because we were not thinking about how our actions affected the whole community. We learned the difference about “being cool” to doing something wrong. And we know we were very wrong.

    We are sincerely sorry for the actions and harm we placed on the town of Shady Cove.

    Sincerely,

    Johonnis and Wayne

    via Youth apologize to community for graffiti.

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      Neighborhood Justice Panels in Queen’s Speech

      Posted on by Joshua Wachtel in Discussion, Justice | Leave a comment

      The Restorative Justice Council has posted that on June 9, 2012, in the Queen’s Speech which marks the start of the new session of parliament, she will mention “Neighbourhood justice panels, in which community volunteers use restorative justice to deal with anti-social behaviour and low-level crime.” This process will be a part of new legislation. According to RJC:

      The bill would include measures to ‘pave the way’ for the panels which will see more victims meeting perpetrators face to face.

      The news follows the announcement that the government will be working with fifteen areas to test new Neighbourhood Justice Panels. Only the test areas will form the basis of the government evaluation but other areas will also be encouraged to set up Panels.  Neighbourhood Justice Panels are currently ran in Somerset, Sheffield and Manchester where they have achieved remarkably low re-offending rates (3-5%) and victim satisfaction rates of over 90%.

      The Panels only work with offenders who have admitted their guilt and only where the victim consents. Serious offences will continue to be dealt with by the Magistrates Courts.

      As a nation, the UK has taken greater strides than perhaps any other country to integrate restorative justice into its criminal justice system. I recently posted an anecdote here about a restorative meeting with victims and a London rioter.

      In related news, the other day the Vancouver Observer posted a report by David P. Ball – “Rioting research from Vancouver to India points to restorative justice solutions” – interviewing Theo Gavrielides’ (Independent Academic Research Studies, IARS) during a visit to Vancouver to research and talk about riots there:

      Theo Gavrielides, a professor at Buckinghamshire New University, UK, is urging B[ritish] C[olumbia] to go ahead with plans to use restorative justice model in dealing with convicted rioters.

      As authorities continue to press charges – the current count is 200 – Gavrielides hopes they will forge ahead with plans to use restorative justice as an alternative to the penal system in some riot convictions. His research looks at case studies of rioting – what he terms “street group violence” — in a plethora of countries, from Vancouver’s hockey riots to anti-Muslim mobs in India and anti-austerity demonstrations in Greece.

      His talk at Simon Fraser University– which has partnered in his research – comes just over a month before the one year anniversary of Vancouver’s June 15 Stanley Cup loss, and the

      Photo by David Ball

      hours-long riot that ensued in its aftermath. The investigation that followed has involved high-tech video software, dozens of police officers, and now 200 charges filed. Police estimate the riot investigation will cost the province $2 million by the end of next month, plus millions more in extra police pay.

      The Vancouver Police Department‘s Sept. 1, 2011 Stanley Cup Riot Review report – which found that police were unprepared for the scale of destruction – itself recommended alternative sentencing models such as the ones Gavrielides has researched.

      Gavrielides research links the hockey riots with five days of chaos in England following the police killing of a black man on Aug. 4, 2012. Although the Guardian newspaper found widespread negative perceptions of the police, as well as racism, to be a significant factor in the rioting – which spread from London to cities around the country – Gavrielides believes the underlying psychology is similar.

      “In the street group violence phenomenon, the group act acts as a coverup of your own criminal activity,” Gavrielides said. “Because you’re doing it with someone else, you don’t fall into self-check system you normally would.”

      The article, which can be found here, ends with a very provocative remark by Gavrielides that reverses normal expectation:

      “All riots have very different reasons. But for me, the riot is just the hook for considering restorative justice. The riots are helping you to think in a different way – forcing you to think simply because the system is stuck. Millions have been spent just on the investigation – and how much footage do they have to go through? This is just a hook to introduce a more responsive, hopefully less costly, justice system.”

       

       

       

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        Restorative Dialogue Week in Israel, May 13-17, 2012

        Posted on by Laura Mirsky in Community, Discussion, Events, Justice | Leave a comment

        Israel is home to many different people and communities. Restorative dialogue among these individuals and groups and between them could make life much more relaxed and happy.

        Israeli society was introduced to Restorative Justice and its concepts in the late 90’s. In November 2011 the Knesset (the Israeli Legislature) incorporated restorative justice in its legal system with the 16th amendment of the 1971 Youth Judgment, Punishment and Methods of Treatment Law, making restorative justice practices a formal criminal justice diversion in juvenile cases. Recently, the Israeli Ministry of Justice also initiated a pilot restorative justice program designed for adult offenders.

        Following these developments, 15 professionals from the disciplines of education, social services, justice and academics from across Israel, including attorney and IIRP trustee Zvi Gabay, joined minds, expertise and points of view to formulate a Declaration of Restorative Principles, inviting as wide an audience as possible to adopt the restorative principles in daily life and apply them in the arena of criminal justice as well as elsewhere.

        To disseminate the restorative concepts and encourage inter-group restorative discourse, a Restorative Dialogue Week (May 13-17, 2012) was initiated in Israel. The goal of this week is to raise awareness of the potential restorative justice and restorative practices carry for making a grand social change in Israel, to awaken thinking and ignite initiatives of restorative applications in all aspects of life.

        Prof. Uri Yanay, from the School of Social Work and Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Dalia Tauber, director of The Israeli Center for Restorative Practices, have initiated this week. It will be officially launched at a ceremony at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Israeli Minister of Justice, Prof. Yaakov Neeman, and Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubenstein will address the meeting.

        Following this ceremony, five seminars will take place at five different universities in Israel. Participants in these seminars are representatives from justice, police, probation and youth probation services, the prisoners’ rehabilitation authority, children and family services, welfare agencies and education.

        The universities taking part are The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beer-Sheva; Bar Ilan University, in Ramat Gan; and Beit Berl academic College, in Kfar Saba.

        Dalia Tauber will address the gatherings and present the Declaration of Restorative Principles: Promoting a Fair and Safe Society in Israel.

        Some highlights of the week include sessions on:

        • Restorative justice in service of the education system in Beer-Sheva
        • Restorative dialogue between Jews and Arabs in the Negev
        • Restorative justice in the biblical stories of Joseph
        • Family Group Conferencing (FGC), restoration and responsiveness to needs of the Bedouin population
        • Restorative justice with sexual offenses
        • Restorative justice in law enforcement and correction institutes

        Download a copy of the Declaration of Restorative Principles here.

         

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          Connecticut Post Quotes Ted Wachtel

          Posted on by Joshua Wachtel in Restorative Practices, Schools | Leave a comment

          "Absolutely no horsing around in MY art room…" Photo by Angela @ My Daily Struggle, Flickr Creative Commons

          An article May 8, 2012 in the Connecticut Post by Brittany Lyte is titled “A racial divide in school discipline: Blacks, Hispanics suspended at a higher rate.” Page 1 of the story discusses recent news that minority students face disproportionate punishment in schools as applies throughout Connecticut. Page 2 explores reasons for the discrepancy and proposed legislation to make school discipline policies more transparent. At the end of the page and then into page 3 Ted Wachtel is quoted relating the restorative practices approach to this discussion of education discipline policy:

          Instead of trying to distribute suspensions equally among races, school officials should strive to reduce the use of suspensions, said Ted Wachtel, president of the International Institute of Restorative Practices, a graduate school in Bethlehem, Pa., that trains public school teachers and staff to engage students in the discipline process.

          “Our goal should not be to dole out punishments like suspensions and expulsions more equitably, for the simple reason that they are ineffective in producing accountability and behavior change in kids,” he said. “These types of punishments have, in fact, been shown to have exactly the opposite effect; repeatedly kicking children out of school turns too many of them into kids with records, putting them on the path to involvement in the criminal justice system and feeding the so-called school-to-prison pipeline.”

          IIRP advocates for programs that give students a voice in the discipline process, in place or in addition to suspensions and detentions.

          “Instead of suspending kids from school or in addition to suspending kids from school, what about actually getting everybody to talk about what happened?” said Wachtel. “For a young person to actually have to face the people he or she has harmed and actually learn how he or she has impacted them can be very effective. Punishment is actually very passive; you get punished and you don’t have any responsibility. You get to be angry at the people who suspended you. But really you don’t get the opportunity to think about how you affected other people.”

          Wachtel said restorative practices work because they improve the school climate, creating a positive, open learning environment where students who misbehave are held accountable.

          In one school district in Baltimore, suspensions dropped from 86 during the 2008-09 school year to 10 a year later when the district adopted a restorative practices program, according to IIRP.

          “If it’s a mild problem — a student acting out in the classroom — (the teacher) might tell the child how it makes them feel,” Wachtel explained. “`You know, it really hurts my feelings when you behave like that.’ Kids actually don’t think of authority figures as having feelings sometimes. For some kids, that’s enough to get them back on track.”

          Wachtel said schools still might have to suspend a student, but they shouldn’t just stop at that action.

          “If there’s a violent fight,” he said, “you might have to suspend a student. You might have to call the police. But if that child is going to continue in the school, that’s not enough. You really need to get them to talk about and understand how their actions have affected other people.”

          The article then discusses what is called “Make Your Day,” a policy in one school that focuses on “holding kids accountable.” Jack Lynch, principal of the school, says something that sounds very consistent with the restorative approach:

          “It’s all about accountability,” Lynch said. “It’s not punishment necessarily because punitive actions don’t always produce positive results. You want to make sure that the child has a choice. If I choose to behave this way, then I’m choosing this consequence.”

          Read the full three page article beginning here.

           

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            IIRP President Ted Wachtel Presenting at Three Major Conferences

            Posted on by Joshua Wachtel in Events | Leave a comment

            This summer IIRP president Ted Wachtel will be attending and presenting at three major conferences.

            First, in Helsinki, Finland he’ll be presenting at the 7th European Forum on Restorative Justice. This year’s theme is “Connecting people – Linking Victims, Offenders and Community.” Wachtel’s presentation is titled “Improving School Climate Through Restorative Practices,” and time will be made for questions and answers, as well. The conference runs June 14 to 16, 2012, and more information about it can be found here.

            Also in June Wachtel will be presenting at the American Humane 2012 Conference on Family Group Decision Making
            and Other Family Engagement Approaches: June 20-24, 2012 at the Disney Yacht & Beach Club Resort, Orlando, FL. The topic of the workshop will be “Family Power: Engaging and Collaborating with Families Every Day through Restorative Practices.” This event looks to have quite an incredible slate of speakers and presenters. Here’s the workshop description:

            The implications of Family Group Conference (FGC) and Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) go beyond those formal processes to everyday interactions with families. This workshop highlights “restorative practices,” an emerging social science based on the fundamental premise that those in authority will be most effective when they do things “with” people, rather than “to” them or “for” them. Based on his new book, “Family Power,” the presenter will share a variety of explicit constructs and strategies that will help practitioners engage and collaborate effectively with children and their families.

            Finally, Wachtel will present a keynote and a workshop in Singapore, August 16, at the Lutheran Community Services Conference (August 16-17). His keynote is titled “Restorative Practices: Creating a Unified Strategy for Democratizing Social Care, Education and Criminal Justice” and will include a question and answer session. The workshop will be on the subject, “Creating a Restorative Milieu for Effective Behavior Change.” More information about this conference is to come.

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              RJ in Prisons – MEREPS Final Publication is Freely Downloadable

              Posted on by Joshua Wachtel in Justice, Restorative Practices | Leave a comment

              MEREPS – Mediation and Restorative Justice in Prison Settings – was a three-year project funded by the EU. Their final publication (edited by Barabás, T.,  Fellegi, B. & Windt, Sz.) is now freely downloadable here.

              The pilot project tested the applicability of the restorative justice (RJ) approach in the Hungarian prison system. It focused on two key practical questions:

              • How can practices representing restorative principles be introduced in prison settings?
              • What are the institutional, legal and personal conditions that serve as supportive circumstances, and what are the specific challenging circumstances?

              Based on in-depth interviews and participant observations, the study shows a thorough picture of the internal dynamics and mechanisms of a prison, including attitudes of staff and ways in which RJ can be integrated into this world.

              I found this interesting comment on page 13 of the final report: “The pilot study shows how restorative justice can positively influence the communication culture of a hierarchical institution [the prison], how it can become a first step towards empowering people (both staff and inmates) to articulate their needs, and to believe that some dialogue and cooperation might be possible.”

              The report also includes a case study by Vidia Negrea of Community Service Foundation of Hungary, IIRP’s international affiliate. Other report authors include Theo Gavrielides of the UK and other practitioners and academics from Hungary, Belgium and Germany.

              Click here for a free download of the full text of the MEREPS Project’s Final Publication in PDF format.

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                Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – Isn’t it about engaging community in a disconnected world!

                Posted on by Alia Sheety in Community, Discussion | 1 Comment

                In reviewing the movie “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” on April 14 Miranda Cashin in The Chronicle wrote, “If you are not a fisherman, it’s hard to get excited about fishing… But it is more than just a film about fishing… It is a tale of faith, of hope about reaching for a dream and clinging onto it despite all odds.”

                For me, as a restorative practitioner, watching that movie there was indeed more than fishing…   and even more than reaching for a dream… for me it is about restoratively reaching a dream while at the same time truly dealing with, and reducing, the odds.

                 A rich Yemeni sheikh, who is ready to spend millions to bring salmon to his community, never even for one minute thinks to share his idea with and engage the other members of his community. This lack of communication and fair process, through which the affected community might be but are not engaged in a dialogue, creates distance between the Sheikh’s dream and the reality in which the community members live. Furthermore, the “top-down” architecture of the Sheikh’s plan leads to a “bottom-up” development fueled by distrust, fear and bitterness toward decisions and actions deriving from outside the community.

                While discussing the situation of violence and tension between leaders and the community in Syria, Eli McCarthy, as quoted on the Restorative Practices blog, suggested that such feelings of distrust, fear and bitterness could be dealt with through the use of restorative practices to facilitate healing. Of course we don’t see that in this movie!

                Only toward the end, when the project has actually succeeded but is then destroyed by the bitterness of some members of the community who felt neglected, do we hear Dr. Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor) from the department of fisheries and agriculture, who was brought from England to help bring this project to life, state that he will not give up but will go ahead and try again, and this time he will make sure to involve the community members.

                For me, this is what the movie is about. Not fishing, not faith and hope, but about the awareness of the importance of engaging all affected parties to bring a dream to life.

                Sometimes good intentions lead to hell. Doing things “for” others or “to” others is like stating indirectly that they are inferior. But to communicate, engage and do things “with” others enables us to achieve and celebrate success.

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                  ‘Restorative justice’ offers real benefits | The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com

                  Posted on by Joshua Wachtel in Community, Justice | Leave a comment

                  Flickr Creative Commons © Jerry Bunkers

                  Here’s a letter to the editor in the Des Moines Register which concisely articulates the essence of restorative justice and restorative practices:

                  In his story of restorative justice (“Growing Past Hate”, April 22) Fred Van Liew shares a poignant example of how rethinking responses to wrongdoing can benefit everyone. He wonders why we aren’t routinely using these approaches in our community.

                  In progressive societies restorative practices are considered the direction of the future, but these approaches are actually rooted in ancient indigenous cultural practices from around the world. The principles are: all people have innate good, are of value to the tribe, should be guided toward the opportunity to make things right and thus, contribute to the greater good of the community. Restorative practices are remarkably effective and simple. The most difficult part is interrupting our immediate impulse to control and to fix.

                  Besides the justice system, restorative principles are being successfully applied in schools as well. restorative circles are held in lieu of suspension so that fellow students, teachers, community members, and parents can share how the wrongdoing has impacted them and request what is needed for healing to take place.

                  When we slow down, listen and speak with open and honest minds and hearts we rediscover our humanity. By continuing to incorporate these principles into our community systems we can make Des Moines the City of Reconciliation.

                  — Heidi Bagg, Des Moines

                  The article this letter references describes an amazing restorative conference where restorative justice was used by a Jewish congregation to confront two young people who scrawled neo-Nazi graffiti on the side of their synagogue, powerfully told by Van Liew. That story can be found here.

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                    A Restorative Story at a Toronto High School

                    Posted on by Joshua Wachtel in Restorative Practices, Schools | Leave a comment

                    Photo by Matthew Sherwood for the Toronto Star

                    Catherine Porter has a great column on the front page of the Toronto Star the other day, the city’s highest circulation newspaper which also circulates throughout Canada. The piece opens with a moving anecdote:

                    A week ago, two friends at Weston Collegiate Institute had an argument.

                    One was a slip of a boy in Grade 9, his plaid shirt buttoned right to the Adam’s apple. The other was an 18-year-old giant — literally 6-foot-8 — with ear buds and a hoodie.

                    You know who won.

                    A few days later, the two sat in the school’s salmon-coloured “Focus on Success” centre (called the detention room in my day) in a small circle of blue chairs with their moms, the school principal and two student facilitators. They’d come to make amends.

                    “I told him to stop the joke. I didn’t like it. I’m a big gentleman,” said the giant. “I was immature. My first policy is no violence.”

                    Then it was the slip’s turn. “I thought he knew I was just joking around,” he told the group. “He is my friend.”

                    His mother then spoke about the impact of the fight in her home. She looked the giant in the eye: “I expect you as a senior to protect my son. You could have really hurt him.”

                    The giant’s mother spoke next and the room got even smaller: “I am ashamed to be here.”

                    This is a “restorative conference,” Weston’s alternative to old-school discipline. Instead of suspending students for fighting or bullying, Weston offers them a face-to-face meeting with their victim to discuss the incident and its reverberations, and finally, to draft the penance together. They each get to bring along one supporter.

                    Recently, a group of 36 students including some from two of Weston’s Middle School feeder schools completed a two-day Facilitator training.

                    The results have been stunning: Four years ago, before “Weston Restores” was created, fights broke out most days at the school, near Lawrence Ave. W. and Jane St. This year, there have been four.

                    The river of students flowing to the principal’s office for behavioural issues has slowed to a trickle and the suspension rate, once among the worst in the city, has been cut by more than half.

                    Students say the school feels safer and their relationships with teachers have improved. The administration says the program has worked so well they rarely need to host these conferences.

                    The story goes on to note that Weston principal Deb Blair “sent staff and student volunteers to be trained as formal facilitators with the non-profit International Institute for Restorative Practices three years ago because of the ‘non-stop bullying, especially among girls’ at the school.”

                    Bruce Schenk, Director of IIRP Canada, adds in a personal communication:

                    We have worked with Weston’s staff, students and parents over the past 2 and a half years doing training and support (in the RP Framework, Effective Use of Circles and Conference Facilitation along with student assemblies and parent workshops and ongoing support) as well as our work in other Toronto schools and at the system level in Toronto District School Board.  In addition to the initial IIRP Canada training in 2009-2010, Weston and its family of schools has had follow-up professional development for new staff etc. In part they now are sustaining their RP initiative with their own trainers through our Training of Trainers for RP Framework and Circles. Interestingly, a couple of weeks ago a group of 36 students, including some from two of Weston’s Middle School feeder schools, completed IIRP’s two-day Restorative Conference Facilitator training. Teachers who had taken this training earlier also were present to support and work with students in this at their schools.  This is seen as part of everyone working with one another at these schools in a Restorative Practice Framework.

                    Schenk also noted that Blair and some of her students and staff did a breakout session at IIRP’s 14th International Conference in Halifax last June.

                    Read the full story from the Star here.

                    For more information about IIRP Canada, visit http://canada.iirp.edu/.

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