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Restorative Justice - Local Initiatives
Restorative Justice Worker
MCC currently has a Restorative Justice Education worker who is available
to speak at your church and/or provide resources and information on
the topic. E-mail
M2/W2
M2 (Man to Man) and W2 (Woman to Woman) are programs which train community
volunteers to work one-to-one with prisoners who actively request them.
The goal of these programs is to see prisoners return to society as
crime-free, contributing citizens who honour God and respect others.
CJI:
Fraser Region Community Justice Initiatives Association (CJI) has been
operating in Langley for twenty years, making this one of the oldest
continuously operating programs of its kind in North America. CJI operates
both the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) and the Victim
Offender Mediation Program (VOMP) (see descriptions below). CJI began
in 1981-82 through the efforts of Langley Mennonite Fellowship. LMF
members were committed to providing an innovative, meaningful service
and to promoting peacemaking in their community. Mennonite Central Committee
has been involved in CJI through some historical financial support,
and through the placement of a voluntary service worker over the last
13 years.
CJI Programs and Involvement:
- VOMP
The Victim Offender Mediation Program (VOMP) is based (as are all
of CJI’s programs) on a foundation of Restorative Justice values.
The program focuses, at post-incarceration stage, on remaining accountability,
healing and closure issues for those involved in or affected by serious,
traumatic criminal offenses. While the program can and does involve
face-to-face mediation in many cases, the ‘mediator’ is
not an intrusive intervenor, as can be the case in solution-driven
mediation. VOMP staff, rather, see their roles as respectful, supportive
facilitators of therapeutic dialogue. The cautious (and often lengthy)
assessment, preparation and communication processes are therapeutic
in nature, and informed by current theory and clinical practice regarding
offender treatment and victim trauma recovery.
The program has worked successfully since its 1989 implementation
with victims, victims’ families, offenders and offenders’
families in offenses as serious as serial rape, aggravated assault,
armed robbery, criminal negligence causing death, manslaughter and
murder. VOMP, which operates through CJI, serves in the Pacific Region
under contract to the Correctional Service of Canada.
Restorative Action Schools Project
The goal of the Restorative Action Schools Project is to create a climate
in the Langley School District which will encourage and promote the
application of restorative justice principles and values to conflict
and discipline situations involving students, teachers, parents and
administrators. This is a combined initiative between Fraser Region
Community Justice Initiatives Association (CJI) and the Langley School
District.
Over the next six to ten years we plan to:
- Train administrators, school counselors, support staff, etc. in
restorative justice values and principles.
- Develop/adapt/revise training materials on restorative justice values
and principles to sit them for application to Langley school contexts.
- Provide training materials for administrators for the purpose of
assisting in training staff, parents and students in restorative justice
values and principles.
- Provide training for teachers and/or other interested staff in restorative
justice values and principles and in the practical application of
this theory in school settings
- Train peer mediators/conference facilitators at both the elementary
and secondary level
- Assist with educating parents in the district about restorative
justice values and principles and how to apply those principles in
their homes.
The desire is that the use of restorative justice based approaches
such as mediation and conferencing as a response to discipline and conflict
situations in the Langley School District will increase substantially
as school personnel, students and parents become more aware of the benefits
of such alternatives. As a result, there should also be a decrease in
the high percentage of cases of interpersonal conflict resulting in
suspensions, expulsions, transfers to different school districts or
being streamed, for want of effective alternatives, into the criminal
justice system.
The impact of this initiative will be substantial. There are 46 schools
in School District #35 with 2000 staff serving over 21,000 students
and their families. The Restorative Action training team is composed
of mediators from Community Justice Initiatives and counsellors from
the Langley School District. The team has already trained one school
and has seen successful mediations take place within that school since
the training. The mediations are generally facilitated by trained students
with adult support.
Restorative Youth Services
- Restorative Community Services:
CJI's newest program is operated in partnership with Family
and Youth Services Society (Langley) and Pacific
Community Resources (Surrey). At CJI we have a different perspective
on the purpose and value of community service. We believe the potential
benefits can only fully be realized when the service is done from
a Restorative Justice perspective. For more details about this new
program, click here.
- Community Development:
Through positive involvement with the community, the Community Capacity
Development program (CCD) works to develop local resources that provide
natural supports and positive attitudes towards youth. CCD program
goals include increasing public awareness of, and commitment to providing,
the external assets that youth require to develop into self confident,
responsible, resilient and compassionate adults. These external assets
include a community that: values youth, provides appropriate youth
programs, is safe, and that give youth useful roles. Through a variety
of collaborative public education projects, CCD outreaches and engages
with community members to proactively develop a collective understanding
about how we can come together to support the needs of youth.
- Mentorship:
Still under development
MCC Canada Restorative Justice
Program
Events · Resources
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Initiatives · Restorative Justice Home
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