Introduction to Restorative Justice

When you register for this course, you will get a 25% discount code to participate in another EFRJ course in 2021 or 2022. 

Members get 20% reduction of all fees. If you are a member of the EFRJ and want to subscribe for this course please contact Bálint Juhász to get your discount code. 

Is the participation fee a barrier for you to participate?  We can offer a limited number of partial or full waivers of the fee. If you would like apply for that please contact Bálint Juhász and explain your situation in an email in an email until the latest 1st September 2021. 

Each session will last three hours, including a 15 minute refreshment break. 

Session 1. To understand and to articulate what restorative justice is.

• A brief history of the development of restorative justice identifying the complexity of the interaction of different sources of ideas.
• International policies and definitions. 
• Modern tensions: system and lifeworld, immunity and community.
• Question for reflection: what is the meaning and purpose of restorative justice?

Session 2. To understand the values of restorative justice and its research base.

• The values of restorative justice: why do they matter? how do they help us to understand harm and what needs to be restored?
• What does research tell us about the benefits of restorative justice and its failings?
• The metaphor of scaffolding.
• Question for reflection: what does it mean to be value-led and evidence-based?

Session 3. To understand how restorative processes and practices enable people to address injustice and harm and the suffering they cause.

• The concepts of undoing injustice and of repairing harm.
• Principles of practice in restorative processes.
• The importance of quality and standards of practice.
• The concept of the exemplar; experience rather than effectiveness.
• Question for reflection: what, do you believe, creates a high quality experience of restorative justice for the participants?

Session 4. To understand the role of the practitioner.

• Types of restorative processes: the importance of context and participants.
• Support and accountability.
• Respect and humility.
• Curiosity, compassion and courage.
• Scaffolding and co-design.
• Question: who are you, when you are practicing restoratively?

An optional follow-up zoom meeting will be offered one month later to enable participants to reflect upon their learning and make short presentations if they wish.  The trainer will offer voluntary mentoring if required.

• Course Handbook: You will receive a handbook covering all the materials presented throughout the course.
• Full group sessions: While the trainer will present learning materials, the sessions will be informal with opportunities for questions and dialogue. 
• Group work: Participants will have opportunity to reflect together in small groups. As the meaning of values and concepts is critical to this course, you will clarify with people from many countries how values and concepts can be translated through your culture and into your language. 
• Personal work: You will be asked to complete personal work designed to enable you to develop yourself as a restorative practitioner. 
• There will access to articles and videos through the EFRJ website.

Tim Chapman is an independent researcher and trainer in restorative justice. He is the Chair of the European Forum for Restorative Justice's Board. Through 10 years working at the University of Ulster teaching on the Masters programme in restorative practices, he has contributed to the development of restorative conferencing in both the voluntary and statutory sectors in Northern Ireland. Previously he spent 25 years working in the probation service and played an active part in developing effective practice in the UK particularly through the publication of ‘Evidence Based Practice’, written jointly with Michael Hough and published by the Home Office. He has been working as a consultant and developed the restorative justice training curriculum for the UNODC.  His ‘Time to Grow’ model for the supervision of young people has influenced youth justice practices. He has published widely on restorative justice and effective practice. He  has conducted significant research into restorative justice in Northern Ireland including the project ‘ALTERNATIVE’. He is currently engaged in work on the victims’ experiences of restorative justice, the conceptual basis of restorative practices, and restorative approaches to violent extremism.

Anna Halonen is a trainer and practitioner in restorative justice and mediation in Finland. She started as a volunteer mediator 2002 and has been working as mediation advisor since 2007 when the law on mediation came into force. Her main area of work is intimate partner violence, but she also works with cases of other kinds of crimes and disputes. Years 2014—2017 she was working in Mediation in serious crimes –project where she was developing restorative justice practices and mediation after sentencing in e.g. in cases like homicides. As part of her job she does training in areas of restorative justice, mediation and intimate partner violence. She is also part of national working group developing best practice in intimate partner violence cases and training in Finland and Gender-Based Violence Working Group coordinated by European Forum for Restorative Justice.

"The person is not the problem; the problem is the problem” 
Michael White