Restorative Practice Resources Tagged With: Australia

Restorative Justice is a range of processes that advocates that the people most effective at finding a solution to a problem are the people who are most directly impacted by the problem, creating opportunities, for those involved in a conflict to work together to understand, clarify and resolve the incident and work together towards repairing the harm caused.

The Centre for Restorative Justice was formed in 1997 as a response to community concern about the over-use of incarceration in South Australia and because victims of crime at that stage were not able to engage appropriately in the functions of the criminal justice system.

An instructional manual on restorative justice in schools from world-leading experts; this 'how to' guide offers guidance on the issues of carrying out restorative practices, including coping with day-to-day problems, and offers worksheets for practical daily use.

Beginning with challenges to orthodox thinking about behaviour change, it goes on to describe a multitude of approaches to respond to minor incidents in school settings, then takes a close look at using restorative approaches to bullying, before it finally focuses on the formal end of the continuum (including conference preparation and facilitation). This book is reflective of the evolution of processes and responses from the most serious of incidents through to minor everyday issues, making this an essential resource for all school staff.

'Fleming is also sceptical of the benefits of legislative change to address the issue. But instead of an app she believes Australia should move towards a restorative justice model to address sexual assault matters.

Restorative justice is not a new concept but it gained fresh relevance during the MeToo movement in the US. It can encompass a variety of survivor-led actions to repair the harm caused by a sexual assault, including sometimes bringing the accuser and the accused together “to discuss what happened, what needs to happen, and find a way of healing or reparations”.'

Discovering Restorative’s True Potential - Free Webinar Terry O'Connell, Kerrie Sellen and Paulo Moratelli are offering a FREE webinar to talk about how Restorative Practice can be used to significantly improve your practice. We are experienced restorative practitioners who over many years have learned how to use ‘restorative’ as a relational foundation for everything we do, both in our personal and professional lives. Simply, we want to challenge you to reflect on your own practice, identify what Works, then discover the difference restorative practice can make in strengthening your practice by making it more explicit, intentional, consistent and impactful. We will provide an insight into how our explicit restorative practice framework has provided a clear practice rationale that emphasises the importance of understanding the ‘why’ of what we do. We will also share how our values, beliefs and working assumptions influence and shape our practice. We will draw on case studies to show how explicit restorative practice has the potential to build relational capacity in almost an situation, example such as: one-on-one interactions, dealing with complex and traumatic matters through to developing a more humane organisational culture in schools and workplaces. Terry O’Connell is a restorative pioneer, best known as the ‘cop from Wagga Wagga’ who in 1991 developed the restorative conference script used by the IIRP. Over the past thirty years his work has continued to evolve and has had considerable influence in a variety of setting including policing, schools, corrections, workplaces and community agencies across the world. Kerrie Sellen is an experienced youth worker whose innovative restorative work led to the establishment of arguably the world’s first fully restorative organisation Re-Engage Youth Services in 2009. This award-winning organisation was known for how it integrated restorative practice in everything with leadership and staff but importantly with young people and their families. Kerrie now runs Restorative Journeys and provides mentor, coaching and training support for a wide and diverse range of organisations and practitioners throughout Australia. Paulo Moratelli is a brazilian Psychologist, Executive Director of Coonozco / Diálogos Transformativos, lecturer and independent instructor of Restorative Justice, Transformative Dialogues and Transformative Circles (a method he developed), and Peacemaking Circles. He is Delegate for Brazil of the Sociedad Científica de Justicia Restaurativa (Spain), and Member of the Global Advisory Council of Restorative Justice International (USA).

'From the streets of Minneapolis, the aboriginal lands of Australia, and the killing fields of Cambodia come the powerful stories of three people who had the courage to step out of the haunting, tragic darkness of the past, risking everything to reach the light of their own compassion. RISKING LIGHT is a thought-provoking documentary that explores resilience, and the painful process of moving from grief to compassion and forgiveness. Through the unforgettable stories of Mary Johnson, who grieves a murdered son; Debra Hocking, a victim of government-sanctioned genocide; and Kilong Ung, who survived the terror of the Khmer Rouge, RISKING LIGHT challenges us to examine our own beliefs about forgiveness and ask “What would the world look like if we could learn to forgive one another?”'

'From the streets of Minneapolis, the aboriginal lands of Australia, and the killing fields of Cambodia come the powerful stories of three people who had the courage to step out of the haunting, tragic darkness of the past, risking everything to reach the light of their own compassion. RISKING LIGHT is a thought-provoking documentary that explores resilience, and the painful process of moving from grief to compassion and forgiveness. Through the unforgettable stories of Mary Johnson, who grieves a murdered son; Debra Hocking, a victim of government-sanctioned genocide; and Kilong Ung, who survived the terror of the Khmer Rouge, RISKING LIGHT challenges us to examine our own beliefs about forgiveness and ask “What would the world look like if we could learn to forgive one another?”'

'Around this time, I was attending a principals’ conference and heard Adam Voigt (Real Schools) speak about this very issue. Adam’s philosophy is very much built around establishing and maintaining effective relationships in the school setting, not only student to student, but also student to teacher. A key part of this is encouraging students to actually understand the damage they may have done to their relationships with others, due to incorrect behaviour and to then help them through the process of being better at ‘getting it right’ i.e. restoring the relationship. This resonated strongly with me and shortly afterwards Yarra Hills Secondary College embarked on a partnership with Real Schools to start the process of creating a restorative environment and embedding it in school practices'

'Around this time, I was attending a principals’ conference and heard Adam Voigt (Real Schools) speak about this very issue. Adam’s philosophy is very much built around establishing and maintaining effective relationships in the school setting, not only student to student, but also student to teacher. A key part of this is encouraging students to actually understand the damage they may have done to their relationships with others, due to incorrect behaviour and to then help them through the process of being better at ‘getting it right’ i.e. restoring the relationship. This resonated strongly with me and shortly afterwards Yarra Hills Secondary College embarked on a partnership with Real Schools to start the process of creating a restorative environment and embedding it in school practices'

'Restorative justice programs in Australia : a report to the Criminology Research Council - Heather Strang March 2001 Abstract This report provides an overview of restorative justice programs in Australia. While a wide range of programs may be broadly labeled 'restorative', the report mainly focuses on programs involving meetings of victims, offenders and communities to discuss and resolve an offence. On a state by state basis, programs are described in terms of their characteristics, implementation and administration, evaluation and relevant publications. While restorative justice programs are generally seen as being most suitable for juvenile offenders, the report also describes the use of conferencing programs for adult offenders in Queensland, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Other topics covered include the use of restorative programs in the school setting and in the care and protection setting; problems and some solutions in devising and implementing programs, including the question of restorative justice programs in Indigenous communities and ethnic communities; and the effective extension of restorative justice programs.'

'Restorative Practices / Community Conferencing Pilot 2002 This report provides an evaluation of a nine month Pilot of Restorative Practices / Community Conferencing in Victorian schools during 2002. The Pilot was designed to support and evaluate the application of restorative practices as a strategy in the management of incidents and in order to reduce the number young people at risk of being alienated from mainstream education. This Pilot provides sufficient evidence to suggest that restorative practices / community conferencing can be a highly effective way to manage incidents in Victorian schools. The experience of the staff, students and parents from 23 government and Catholic schools and from 16 regional support staff involved affirmed results of other reviews in Australia and internationally.'

This page is an attempt to create a sampling of resources in the Restorative Practices field that are currently visible on the Internet and in Social Media that might in some way indicate, and eventually perhaps define, the conceptual and praxis territory of this field. The sample resources are collected together here, and in a well-specified process migrated into a database for the particular purpose of building up coverage of the field. The database is growing, and exists on a Vultr Server in Sydney Australia, and also captured regularly onto Amazon S3. There are currently (at 2 November 2019, 10am AEST) 362 records in the database, corresponding to 362 data items that can over time be presented in various ways. The current presentation is visible at:

'Discover the historical and theoretical development of restorative justice in several countries including Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, in this course you will critically assess contemporary research on restorative justice to determine the extent to which restorative justice processes have a positive impact on participants and how to improve current practices.'

'Restorative Practices is an approach to discipline and relationship management that can transform the climate of a school and strengthen relationships between students, and between teachers and students, laying the foundation for improved academic and personal outcomes in education. This RPforSchools site was established by a secondary school teacher, restorative practitioner and trainer from Brisbane, Australia. On the site you will find links to important websites, articles, books and videos on Restorative Practices in the School setting, as well some of my own papers, articles and Conference presentations.'

'This year’s IJRJ lecture will be on “The Indecent Demands of Accountability for Young People in Restorative Justice” by Dr William R. Wood (School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Australia). It will be introduced by EFRJ founder Ivo Aertsen (editor-in chief) and chaired by Estelle Zinsstag (managing editor).'

'Keeping Them Connected: Restorative Justice in Schools in Australia and New Zealand – what progress? The traditional response of schools to school discipline is based on the retributive approach which has long characterised the criminal justice system. Research now indicates that this approach generally fails to satisfy the victim, the offender and the community. In the context of criminal offending, attention is increasingly being paid to the application of restorative practices. In New Zealand the restorative justice model has been operating since 1989 for youth offending and is now being implemented in the context of adult offending also. The Australian states and territories are following to varying degrees. Restorative practices move the focus from punishing the offender to requiring them to take responsibility for their actions. Because of this focus they are not seen as a ‘soft option’, and there are many indications of their success. Many schools are now applying this model to school discipline. A variety of different practices are being employed to keep young people in school and connected with the education process, while still not compromising school safety. This article explores the incorporation of restorative practices as alternative and proactive responses to behavioural problems within some Australian and New Zealand schools. The focus here is on particular restorative practices with the acknowledgement that there is a much wider picture which involves changes in school cultures to embrace, in a practical manner, principles of citizenship and democracy. This concept is the subject of significant research which is discussed by the author in a previous article.