Training Manuals

Training manuals developed by various groups from around the world.

What's wrong with this picture: Thief stole laptop after apologising to victim

from the article in The Telepgraph: Editor's Note: Alright, boys and girls. What mistakes were made in this case? A thief forced to apologise to his victim for stealing his laptop under a restorative justice programme stole the man's replacement computer during the visit. Months earlier Ivan Barker, 21, had stolen a laptop and cigarettes from wheelchair-bound Jean Jacque Mathely.

Practitioner Register launched in UK

by Lizzie Nelson The Restorative Justice Council (RJC) has launched a new Practitioner Register. This has been a long time in coming – the RJC worked since 2004 on Best Practice Guidance, which finally in 2010 was turned into National Occupational Standards (these exist across all sectors in the UK, so are a benchmark of skills and knowledge). Based on this we have now been able to develop Practitioner Registration. Pracititioners will be able to register with the RJC either by taking an award based on the National Occupational Standards (an award that assesses both their knowledge and their skills on the job) or by providing direct evidence to us that their practice meets the National Occupational Standards (a kind of grandfathering system, if that means anything to you!).

What have I done? A victim empathy programme for young people

by Eric Assur This book is very practice oriented. It looks and feels like a workbook. The accompanying DVD is to help with didactic use with groups of teens. The professionals Wallis acknowledges as having helped him are largely probation or ‘youth offending service’ professionals in the United Kingdom. The Canadian, Australian, or United States reader immediately notes that the spelling of the Kings Language is of the British or UK variety. Regardless of spelling, this book is a simple, easy to use workbook to guide the skilled and the not-so-well-informed youth services professional who works with teens who have offended.

Parker, Lynette. Video Review: Complete Victim Offender Mediation and Conferencing Training

Bringing victims and offenders together in face-to-face meetings requires sensitivity to the needs of each throughout the process. This 117-minute training video provides a glimpse into the dynamics of these types of meetings by presenting the entire process from preparation to actual mediation for two cases.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Community Justice Forum facilitator’s guide to the RCMP learning map.

While the Community Justice Forum is not the only possible restorative response to conflict, it is a significant component in the restorative justice and community policing emphases of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This document is a learning tool and training aid in two ways: it is a guide to facilitate discussion in a Community Justice Forum; and it is an aid in the training of RCMP officers and community members in the process of Community Justice Forums. The document has three main sections: an outline of traditional versus restorative approaches to justice; an overview of the process of Community Justice Forums; and an introduction to the theory behind Community Justice Forums.

Bodine, Richard and Crawford, Donna. Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings; Program Report

The first chapter defines conflict as a natural condition and examines the origins of conflict, responses to conflict, and the outcomes of those responses. It presents the essential principles, foundation abilities, and problemsolving processes of conflict resolution; discusses the elements of a successful conflict resolution program; and introduces four approaches to implementing conflict resolution education. Each of the next four chapters discusses one of these four approaches and presents examples of programs that use the approach. One chapter describes an approach to conflict resolution education characterized by devoting a specific time to teaching the foundation abilities, principles, and one or more of the problemsolving processes of conflict resolution in a separate course or distinct curriculum. Another chapter describes an approach in which selected, trained individuals provide neutral third-party facilitation in conflict resolution. A chapter presents an approach that incorporates conflict resolution education into the core subject areas of the curriculum and into classroom management strategies, and another chapter presents a comprehensive whole-school methodology that builds on the previous approach. The next two chapters address conflict resolution education in settings other than traditional schools, including juvenile justice and community settings. The final three chapters address more overarching topics: conflict resolution research and evaluation; a developmental sequence of behavioral expectations in conflict resolution; and the process of developing, implementing, and sustaining a conflict resolution program. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Howell, James C. Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders.

The detailed strategy rests on five principles: (1) strengthen the family in its responsibility to instill moral values; (2) support core social institutions in their roles with youth; (3) promote delinquency prevention; (4) initiate immediate and effective action in response to delinquency; and (5) identify and control the small group of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. This guide provides a blueprint for communities and organizations to apply this strategy.

Umbreit, Mark S and Bazemore, Gordon. Guide for Implementing the Balanced and Restorative Justice Model

This 88-page report is the result of 5 years of joint development, training, and technical assistance efforts by Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Project and juvenile justice professionals in the United States. The purpose is to assist juvenile justice professionals in implementing balanced and restorative justice practices in their work. The BARJ mission includes attention to each of three components: accountability, competency development, and community safety. For each of these three components, the report outlines key characteristics of programmatic approaches. The report presents practical information and tools to enable juvenile justice professionals to implement the BARJ philosophy and mission. The report is a guide to the BARJ model not a prescription. Within the general principles and values of restorative justice, implementation may vary based on local resources, traditions, and cultures.

Department of Health and Human Services. Guidelines for community conferences

This manual presents principles and practices that provide a framework for the development and operation of a community conference, a practice based in restorative justice. A number of topics are addressed clearly and succinctly: the role of conference facilitators; the conference process; the role of the youth justice unit of Tasmania’s Department of Health and Human Services; the participation of the victim, the youth offender, and the youth’s parents or guardians; sanctions; confidentiality; reporting on conference outcomes; and referral to other services. An appendix contains many forms useful for community conferences.

Smith, Amy L. and Smock, David R.. Managing a Mediation Process

Managing a Mediation Process offers an overview of the process of mediating interstate and intrastate conflicts. Each of its six chapter covers a different step in the process, identifying what needs to be done at that step and how best to accomplish it...This handbook is designed to help mediators identify areas where they may need more research or preparation, as well as options and strategies relevant to the particular case on which they are working. Examples from past mediation efforts are provided. (Excerpt)

Office for Criminal Justice Reform. Restorative justice: Helping to meet local needs. Web-based guidance

Resource material developed for local Criminal Justice Agencies by the National Criminal Justice Board in the UK.

Kecskemeti, Maria. Restorative Conversations - Is changing ways of speaking enough to change relationships, discipline systems and school cultures?

Ways of speaking that call for achieving greater control by teachers over students as a response to problems and that require students to be more docile in the management of their behaviours are among the most readily available relationship and behaviour management practices that are used in schools. Though most schools try to foster a climate of inclusion on a policy level, there are many schools that struggle to make their discipline and behaviour management system work. In this paper I propose that ideas from positioning theory have potential for supporting the development of restorative behaviour management practices. I argue that such ideas should first be applied to the many daily conversations that teachers and students have with each other. I will show, through excerpts from conversations, how calling on positioning theory could produce ways of speaking that are restorative of relationships. I suggest that such ways of speaking can not only enrich the repertoire of restorative practices but they can form the basis of behaviour management strategies and discipline systems that are based on respect and foster a culture of inclusion. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Justice and Peace Development, Massey University, http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz.

Andersson, Hanne and Madsen, Karin Sten. The Challenges of Mediating Rape

Many women do not feel that justice is being restored in the aftermath of sexual coercion. Mediation can renew their sense of justice.Mediation has been introduced at the Centre for Victims of Sexual Assault in Copenhagen as one way of helping women exposed to sexual coercion regain control over their lives. This presentation outlines the way in which mediation is conducted at the centre. It describes how both written correspondence between the parties and face to face meetings has proven to be useful ways of conducting the restorative process. The presentation addresses the special obstacles and possibilities for mediation posed by a situation, where: the victim and the offender often have known each other for some time; the offender does not necessarily regard what has happened as sexual coercion; the discourse of rape - 'real rape' - is dominant in the thinking of the victim and the offender and their families and friends. What has been learned in the program so far points to the fact that when it comes to restorative justice, sexual assault constitutes a particular context which makes it necessary for the mediator to be aware of the ways it is possible to talk about rape and sexual coercion and the discourses and narratives that are available to men and women in these situations. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Justice and Peace Development, Massey University, http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz.

Toronto Family Group Conferencing Project. Toronto Family Group Conferencing Project: Manual

This manual was developed by the Toronto Family Group Conferencing Project. It covers the background of the project, practice issues, structural issues, and training.

O'Connell, Terry and Wachtel, Benjamin and Wachtel, Ted and Wachtel, Benjamin. Conferencing Handbook: The New Real Justice Training Manual

Real Justice was the name of an organization founded by Ted Wachtel in the United States in 1994. Subsequently, Real Justice has been transformed into the broader International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Real Justice continues as IIRP’s program in the sphere of criminal justice. Ted Wachtel initiated Real Justice after hearing Terry O’Connell talk about his work as a police officer in Wagga Wagga, Australia, where in the early 1990s O’Connell adapted and employed a New Zealand model of conferencing in his youth justice efforts. Real Justice, then, promoted this Wagga Wagga model of family group conferencing, with its emphasis on the use of a script to conduct the encounter between young offenders, their victims, and their families and friends. This document is a training manual or guidebook for facilitating real justice conferences. It focuses on lesser incidents of wrongdoing, not serious, violent incidents. The manual covers the following topics: the script itself; determining when to hold a conference; preparing for and running a conference; establishing a conferencing program; restorative justice practices beyond a formal conference; and appendices on conference observation and data sheets, conferencing program literature samples, and facilitator training notes and training agenda.

Department for Courts, New Zealand. Facilitator Training Manual

In late 2001 the New Zealand Ministry of Justice initiated a pilot program of court-referred restorative justice conferences in three court districts. The conferences in the pilot program are managed by facilitators who have been trained and approved by the Ministry of Justice. This document consists of materials for training facilitators in the processes, skills, and information needed to manage a constructive conference. After an introduction to the pilot program and the manual itself, the training modules cover the following topics: the nature of restorative justice; restorative justice conferencing in this pilot program; victim and offender issues; cross-cultural issues; facilitation skills; preparation for a conference; and the post-conference process.

Starting Restorative Programs: Manuals on the Web.

There are many resources available on the Web for people starting restorative programs. The programs differ, and they are specific to their context, but they may serve as useful guides to others.