Restorative Practice
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Before taking action, please take time to review information about Restorative Practice. You can learn more about the practice, get a better understanding of the process, and read about our Circle Keepers.
If you know that you want to pursue the Restorative Practice process to resolve a conflict, please complete this intake form.
Not sure if Restorative Practice is right for you? Feel free to schedule a meeting with us to discuss your options.
Why is Restorative Practice important?
It is essential to work on maintaining and building our community by allowing people to have conversations about harm done and finding ways to rectify the situation.
How does Restorative Practice help our community?
Restorative practice operates through mediated conversations with staff members. This process ensures that all parties are given a platform to discuss the events and find ways to move forward, providing a clear and structured approach to conflict resolution.
Who can participate in Restorative Practice?
Anyone in our community can use the program.
Other Questions
Generally, the first meeting is within three business days of the referral. The entire process can take 1-3 months.
Like the Conflict Resolution Committee, the Restorative Practice program is a resource for those in conflict. It provides an alternative path when the Honor Board may not be necessary, allowing for a less formal process. The program works with the Honor Board process, ensuring the appropriate next steps for anyone dealing with a conflict are taken.
The main reason ÀÏÍõÂÛ̳ has adopted a restorative practice (RP) program is to help support our community. Restorative practice is often used informally on campuses. One of the reasons we adopted the program formally is to ensure that RP is being practiced more often and with more support. The goal is to help heal harm within the community to make it easier for us to move forward, with trust rebuilt and a path back into the community for the party who caused the harm. The other reason is that there appeared to be a trend of cases where the honor board became the only option for a mediated conversation with a staff member as the mediator. The RP program hopes to offer avenues for discussion, skill-based learning, and resolution that will allow community members to repair themselves without needing the formalized process of the Honor Board.
As the Restorative Practice program continues to develop, the hope is for the program to work seamlessly within the conflict systems already existing on campus, to provide skill training to assist students with positive confrontation, act as a referral program within the honor board system as an alternative resolution style, and to act in a main role while our community grows and evolves.