Many organizations use a check-in round before beginning a meeting. Some make this a practice to help people “get grounded”, to leave behind whatever might be tailing them into the room. Others do it because someone once said they should, or because they’ve always done it that way. Why bother? How does a check-in roundRead More
Restorative Questions for Restorative Practices
Restorative Practices are practices in which one places relationships and repairing harm, above punitive and punishing notions. These practices allow us to engage with one another when there is conflict, to hold each other accountable and to give the person who is harmed an opportunity to share how they were impacted. Restorative practices are aboutRead More
Core Assumptions About Restorative Practices
Restorative Practices and Restorative Justice seeks a balance between local community norms and larger social norms. We all agree it’s not okay to kill someone or to steal from people. However, some local communities stressed by long term economic instability, poverty and gangs begin to create a different standard of social norms that become aRead More
Truth and Reconciliation: The Power of Restoring Relationships
In 1989 the African National Congress transitioned to power in South Africa and in 19996, they created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission was the first ever of its kind – at least on a large national scale. It was, in my opinion, an evolutionary and a revolutionary move. One that shifted away fromRead More
Restorative Justice: A Relational Alternative
Historically, when a member of the tribe or group committed a terrible crime, they were banished. But crimes that were not so terrible, required a different sort of response because all members of the community were important for the harvest, or the hunt, banishing someone caused hardship for everyone, not just the person banished.
