RJ Experience

Restorative Justice Experience:

A Brief Summary

In February of 1999, Qualicum Beach School District together with the Arrowsmith Community Justice Society, the local restorative justice organization, trained an initial group of facilitators for formal restorative justice interventions (community and family circle conferences). I was fortunate to be a member of this first group of trained community conference facilitators.

By June 1999, a district policy was established and the Assistant Superintendent asked administrators if their schools were interested in being pilot schools for the school district’s restorative justice program. During the 1999-2000 school year, Qualicum Beach Elementary School served as one of four pilot schools in the district. The school’s two trained facilitators, myself (school counselor) and the youth care worker, were involved in two family circle conferences and one large group class/circle intervention. Apart from a few staff members who were involved in the above interventions, the staff’s involvement during this first year was limited. There was a short presentation to the staff from the District’s Restorative Justice Committee and there were occasional informal discussions between staff and the school’s trained facilitators. After these initial attempts to develop restorative justice interventions as a viable alternative to traditional discipline methods, I proposed a restorative justice project (which I explained I would use as part of my degree research) to the school’s administrator. After receiving the administrator’s approval I presented my proposal to the school staff. The restorative justice project at the elementary school began in the fall of 2000 and was completed May 2001.

I also volunteer with the Arrowsmith Community Justice Society as a facilitator and a member of their training committee. In the fall of 2000 the training committee began work to create a training program for new facilitators. Again, the goal was to combine the training of both community volunteers and school district personnel. In the spring of 2001 we ran a 10-week training program.

In the summer of 2002, School District 69 Restorative Justice Committee with support from the Arrowsmith Community Justice Society held a Summer Institute for facilitator training. I was fortunate to be a member of the planning committee and the training group that lead the 4-day institute.

Along side these rich opportunities to share restorative concepts, I volunteer as conference facilitator with both the school district and the community groups. From 2002 to 2005, I also co-chair the Training and Support Committee that provides on-going training and support for both the district and community facilitators and I was a member of the school district’s restorative justice committee. Since 2005 I have focused my energies with the School District’s program: volunteer as a conference facilitator; continued as a member of the training committee; created a new introductory training program for educators “Restorative Practices and Possibilities”; and with other members of the training committee have delivered yearly session since the 2006-07 school year. (see program overview & PowerPoint)