Restorative Practice Resources Tagged With: Restorative Circles

'As many of us gather virtually during this time of COVID-19, we feel a need to talk about what is happening and how we’re being affected. The impact has to do with those who become sick, obviously. The rest of us who are settling in place in our homes and maintaining physical distance are also dramatically affected. Early in the crisis, a teacher asked, “I’m out of school; all my students are at home. What’s a good circle prompt to do at this time?”'

'Unaddressed childhood trauma changes how we respond to the world and when triggered, we make choices that sometimes have devastating consequences including domestic violence, addiction, murder and prison. I, too, would have been incarcerated had I not had the privilege and support system I lucked into. Let's shift the paradigm of how we incarcerate, isolate and dehumanize the most traumatized members of our society.'

'Personal, Daily Connections As soon as schools closed, Lurenz-Seguin knew she needed to maintain a personal, daily connection with her students. Many of them are still developing language skills, and she wanted to continue building on the progress they had made in class, she said. In Lurenz-Seguin's virtual circle times, she breaks the block of time into chunks. First, she and the students sing a good morning song, then they move onto the days of the week, then practicing vocabulary and having conversations.'

'While the coronavirus is a medical issue, a large part of what we are experiencing is a social crisis. Therefore, the relevance of consciously being relational becomes even more important. As many restorative practitioners understand, restorative thinking and practice isn’t just reserved for the workplace. We take restorative practices wherever we go. Now that so many of us are confined closely with our nuclear families, we can really focus on how to interact with our loved ones using a restorative lens, as we navigate this crisis together.'

'The trailer for our movie about the Restorative Circles is ready! We want to give you an insight into our wonderful film about a systemic conflict resolution model, the Restorative Circles. Our vision of this film is that you as a viewer experience the magical moments of discovering common human values. You will learn in our film what it pays to learn from conflicts in this way. (Google translation from German; English sub-titles are on the video)'

'Restorative circles are an effective way of implementing restorative justice, through starting a conversation wider than just the victim and the offender. Proven to be an effective way of healing and building relationships, tackling bullying within schools and providing a sense of community, this book gives everything needed for a school to start implementing restorative circles. Accompanied by illustrations, interviews and case studies to show how to start using restorative circles, this practical guide is the perfect introduction for schools looking to improve their methods of conflict resolution.'

CIRCLES is the first feature film to explore the phenomenon of #restorativejustice in schools. Eric Butler, a Hurricane Katrina survivor and pioneer of the restorative justice movement, relocates and finds work at an Oakland, California, high school enforcing his no-nonsense approach to counseling vulnerable Black and Latino teenagers. Shot over two years, the film follows Butler's impassioned efforts to nurture troubled youth and keep them in school, fighting racial discrimination by replacing snap suspensions and expulsions with gritty, intimate and honest mentoring.