Restorative Practices 101
This one-hour session is intended to be a primer on Restorative Practices. During the session, facilitators will highlight how Restorative Practices has been implemented at UMBC and will give a brief overview of the 2-day Restorative Practices workshops offered 3 – 4 times a year.
The session can be modified to 90 minutes to include some skill-building on basic restorative tools such as using affective statements and questions.
Building Campus Community (2 Days)
In order to be a Restorative Practices Facilitator at UMBC, volunteers must attend a 2-day workshop that is offered, at a minimum, twice a year – once in the fall, and once in the spring. The workshops are held on the UMBC Campus and typically begin at 9 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m.
The training includes an orientation to the restorative philosophy at UMBC, facilitation skills, and applications for community building and conflict resolution. We also discuss the goals of RP at UMBC. Follow-up workshops are provided throughout the semester with a focus on shared learning and application of RP skills. Throughout UMBC uses a co-facilitation model. Facilitators in training “shadow” more experienced facilitators by participating in the logistics of the training, and participating in conferences or circles as community members.
Training Topics:
- Community Circles: Participants will actively engage in a community circles and delve into social-emotional community building procedures.
- Restorative facilitation techniques: Experience a session integrating restorative techniques into your facilitation skills and practices. Expand your own practice and share with others.
- Standards Setting Role play: Observe and participate in roleplays to create community standards. These have been used in many contexts including organization vision, mission and goal building, classroom management and conflict resolution.
- Connecting with your community members: Learn a few lessons you can implement in your classroom to help create a positive classroom environment.
Day One: Developing a Restorative Worldview
This workshop will challenge you to think differently about how you build relationships, build community with groups and how we respond to conflict and incidents of harm. We will wrestle with the notions of discipline, conflict and justice through lecture, discussion, activities and role play-looking closely at what our current systems are accomplishing and if the real needs of victims, offenders and communities are being met. Ultimately, we will emerge from day one of the workshop with ideas of how we can use restorative practices as a way of thinking about how we exist in community with others.
Day Two: Using Restorative Tools
This workshop focuses on practical skills to set up and host a circle, how to use different types of circles and concrete tools and techniques to support engagement from participants in the circle process. The workshop uses adult education and experiential learning techniques, as well as activities and discussion.
Circles can be used for:
- Establishing agreements on how community members will interact and engage with each other;
- Creating a sense of shared responsibility for maintaining agreements inside and outside of the classroom;
- Offering a way to address issues and have an open and honest discussion of these issues;
- Providing a way to address and deal with conflict.