I got a new talking piece last night. It came with a wonderful explanation.
My newest talking piece
As it was presented to me, the giver said: “It has all kinds of colors, a variety, like people, so it shows everyone is included. You can bring things back together with stitching.” He ran his finger along the seam of [...]
In typical Restorative Justice fashion, when Circle is going well stories emerge. Stories that may previously only been events or experiences are tranformed into meaningful life lessons for everyone in the Circle.
Yesterday we had a Grandparent in the Circle. He spoke about raising children and having faith they would turn out ok. Faith was the [...]
I had a new visitor to the Restorative Justice Center. She was dropping off some brochures for another agency. I was happy to have them, we just got a new brochure rack. We chatted about her project, then she asked “what do you do here? I don’t know what Restorative Justice is”.
I explained it’s a [...]
Written for the upcoming book: On the Road Together: Safe Teen Driving Circles.
At SCVRJP as part of a Driver Improvement Class, which is a diversion course for traffice violation, a Safe Teen Driving Circle is held and a River Falls Police Officer is part of the Circle process. The only difference between this class and [...]
We have a blessing at SCVRJP, our conferencing case referrals for June, more than what we’ve had January – thru May. This has forced me to get volunteer facilitators to do some cases. When we have had small numbers, I usually can cover them, I like to do it this way. I feel I have [...]
Stories are the most basic tool for connecting us to one another. Research shows that storytelling not only engages all the senses, it triggers activity on both the left and the right sides of the brain. Because stories elicit whole brain/whole body responses, they are far move likely than other kinds of writing to evoke [...]
I have decided to do a 30 day Bikram challenge. That means in 30 days, 30 sessions of Bikram Yoga.
Check this out:
I wrote an earlier post about Bikram. How much I am really, really liking it. I started this post on July 20 and right this moment it is July [...]
My daughter and I had the airport shuttle all to ourselves. The driver’s name was Bo. My daughter had finally stopped giving me dirty looks for conversing with our drivers.
We had a shuttle driver on the way to the hotel and three cab drivers while visiting Boise. She was used to me practicing conversation skills, [...]
I was speaking with Linda Baker, author and Restorative Justice/College Campus advocate. I was sharing about Restorative Justice Circle process and she mentioned that sounded appropriate for young people with Asperger’s. I talked about the talking piece going around, the four stages, collectively established guidelines. She mentioned that anxiety would go do and performance would [...]
At a recent Circle session – a Victim Empathy Seminar. I kept the Circle and attending were four young male ‘offenders’, three Moms, three community members.
A Victim Empathy Seminar is a SCVRJP service where juveniles and a parent or guardian attend with community members. The orginal intent was to have a surrogate vicitm present. This [...]
