RESTORATIVE PRACTICES eFORUM - March 3, 2005

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Greetings, eForum members, from day one of the IIRP's sixth
international conference: "Building a Global Alliance for Restorative
Practices and Family Empowerment, Part Three."
"United wills make a fortress." -Chinese proverb
Ted Wachtel, president of the IIRP, and Terry O'Connell, director of
Real Justice Australia, welcomed everyone to the conference and
introduced the first plenary speaker, Elizabeth O'Callaghan, principal
of Mary MacKillop Primary School, in South Penrith, New South Wales,
Australia.
In her presentation, "The Mackillop Model of Restorative Practice,"
O'Callaghan discussed how restorative practices have been implemented
at her Catholic primary school. It was crucial, she said, that the
restorative framework, including the concept of fair process and the
use of restorative questions, be introduced to all the stakeholders --
from school staff to parents and students -- in an explicit way, as
early as possible, and be embedded in the school culture as a whole.
Due to restorative practice, she said, the number of incidents
reported to administration has fallen in number and decreased in severity.
Link to full text:
http://www.safersanerschools.org/library/au05_ocallaghan.html
Download as a PDF file:
http://fp.enter.net/restorativepractices/au05_ocallaghan.pdf
Next, Dennis Sing-Wing Wong, associate professor at City University of
Hong Kong and chairman of the Centre for Restoration of Human
Relationships, Hong Kong, China, presented, "Restorative Justice for
Juveniles in Hong Kong: Reflections of a Practitioner."
Wong talked about how he became a restorative justice advocate, going
back to his own youth, spent "nearly at the edge of delinquency." He
then addressed the philosophical basis of restorative justice,
including its affinity with Chinese culture, which emphasizes
collective values and restoration of interpersonal harmony. His
discussion of his extensive experiences implementing restorative
justice with youth in Hong Kong covered his endeavors in social work,
education and the legal system and concluded with his hopes for the
future of the practice.
Link to full text:
http://www.realjustice.org/library/au05_wong.html
Download as a PDF file:
http://fp.enter.net/restorativepractices/au05_wong.pdf
For more information on this conference, please go to:
http://www.iirp.org/sydney05
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