Schools and Youth

Details

Schools and Youth

RESTORATIVE PRACTICE CONSORTIUM • ONTARIO CANADA 2017

The Restorative Practice Consortium of Ontario Canada has recently released a 255-page resource document for applying restorative practices to schools. The Restorative Practice Resource Project is packed with colorful charts, articles, and presentation materials for helping schools navigate their way into a holistic approach to implementing RP in schools.

The Restorative Practice Consortium is also making this material free of copyright, and encourages the sharing of this content to help spread the work of restorative practices in North America. Thank you Canada!

 Click here to access a downloadable copy of the Restorative Practice Resource Project.

(From the Restorative Practice Consortium producers of this resource document)

We hope you find our work useful in moving your individual, school or board Restorative Practice implementation forward in some way. The materials contained in this resource are, to the best of our knowledge, free of copyright unless otherwise indicated. The materials are meant to be integrated into your content and goals. If we have missed something in this regard, please let us know. We wish you well on your restorative journey. In these interesting times in which we live, the restorative work is more important than ever. And, finally, please feel free to share this work with anyone else you feel might be able to benefit from it.

The Restorative Practice Consortium is a collaborative of public and Catholic Restorative Practice (RP) focused educators, who began meeting to share best practices and challenges to support one another in RP implementation and development in schools. Original Consortium members were from across Ontario from Kingston to the GTA including: Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB,Toronto DSB, Durham DSB, Hastings Prince Edward DSB, York Region DSB, Durham Catholic DSB, Limestone DSB, Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic DSB; Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Catholic DSB, Simcoe Muskoka Catholic DSB, Peel DSB. In 2012, the Safe and Accepting Schools Branch of Ontario’s Ministry of Education invited the Restorative Practices Consortium to propose ways to broaden their dialogue to other boards. This challenge was taken up with the aim of conducting evidenced-based research with the following goals:

• • to investigate leading practices for successful implementation of restorative practices with fidelity (accurately, exactly, and faithfully);
• • to investigate barriers to implementing restorative practices with fidelity (accurately, exactly, and faithfully); and,
• • to disseminate the findings to support the effective implementation of restorative practices throughout the province.

On May 2nd 2013, the Restorative Practice Symposium was held at Cobourg, Ontario and became a center-piece of the data collection for the current project. The impetus for this gathering of participants: students, teachers, support staff and administrators from 14 school districts in the Southern Ontario Region, emerged from a goal to understand the leading restorative practices used in school districts across the region. All invited participants were known to have experience with restorative practices in school settings and were selected based on that expertise. The Symposium led to the publication of a Report on Practical Strategies for Implementation of Leading Restorative Practices in Ontario Schools, which is intended to be a practical guide for students, educational staff, and administrators. A copy of the report is in the appendices.

On November 30, 2015, the Ontario Ministry of Education Safe Schools Branch approved and funded a project proposal “to gather, create, integrate and disseminate knowledge of restorative practice tools and strategies to support achievement, healthy relationships and leadership in Ontario schools from a restorative perspective. This would be achieved through “cross-level and cross-board collaboration and research.”

The Restorative Practice Consortium is truly a COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE, inviting comments, stories, inputs, and also offering coaching and monthly conversations for learning. Also available are posters and brochures that feature the "Nine Elements" of RP.

The Nine Elements:

• Healthy Relationships
• Voice
• Fair Process
• Structure and Support
• Safety
• Empathy and Perspective Taking
• Ownership
• Learning
• Belonging and Interdependence