Last week I had the privilege of participating in a Restorative Justice Training facilitated by Matthew Hartman with Clackamas County’s Juvenile Department. The thing that struck me most is the parallel of values between Restorative Justice and Peer Support. And I have to state with honesty that I was inwardly screaming “Victory” throughout this great training.
The Northwest Justice Forum has published this Statement on Balanced and Restorative Justice:
“Restorative Justice is a community response to crime that focuses on addressing the harms done to victims and communities by holding offenders meaningfully accountable for their offenses.
The goal of Restorative Justice is the creation of safe, healthy communities. Such communities are created when there are opportunities for victims to have their needs addressed and when offenders are integrated into the community as positive, contributing citizens.”
The focus is meeting the needs of the victim, but the healing that occurs for both parties is powerful.
The values that guide a Restorative Justice process as taught in the training are:
- Respect
- Spaciousness
- Mutuality
- Hospitality
- Interconnectedness
- Healing
- Responsibility/Accountability
- Growth Empowerment/Self-Determination
- Curiosity
- Humility/Non-Hierachy
- Wonder/Awe
- Particularity
- Story-telling
- Non-Violence
- Listening
- Care
- Dialogue
- Multiplicity of Truth
To learn more about Restorative Justice (RJ) you may want to start with Howard Zehr, Ph.D, widely recognized as a pioneer of RJ. There is also a wonderful video from Heart Speak Productions out of Canada:
Peers EDGE 