Restorative Practice

Restorative Practice has two purposes - building community and responding to challenging situations. It began here in Australia as Restorative Justice and has developed over the last three decades or more. It is now being used in schools, workplaces and communities as well. Current best practice draws on experience and evidence from across cultures and all over the world.

​Restorative Practice generally asks three questions:
  1. What has been happening?
  2. What is important about this?
  3. What needs to happen next?
Answering these questions can create a very useful conversation. 

Circle talk
Restorative practice brings together people who are connected to a situation or community. Sitting in a circle, each person shares their point of view if they choose to.
The group listens respectfully while each person around the circle has their turn to speak, giving everyone the chance to feel that they are seen, heard, and respected.
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Sometimes it is enough to have talked things through. Sometimes the group may choose to take some time to contemplate what has been said before returning to the circle again. Sometimes the group will explore and agree on specific, practical outcomes or next steps.

Guidelines
Restorative Practice is about relationships, so it is important that everyone can feel safe, be open and honest and be treated with respect. 
  1. Speak from the heart: This means speaking for yourself, talking about what is true for you based on your own experiences.
  2. Listen from the heart: Sometimes without even knowing anything about another person we will make assumptions about them. These assumptions can keep us from really hearing what they have to say… and what they have to say may be something that is important and helpful.
  3. No need to rehearse: In circles we discover that we can trust that we will know what to say when it is our turn to speak. When we find that we are rehearsing (everyone does) we gently remind ourselves “no need to rehearse” and bring our attention back to the person who is speaking.
  4. Without feeling rushed, say just enough: Keep in mind the limits of time and making room for everyone to speak. It is related to “speak from the heart” because we often find that when we speak carefully we can express ourselves with fewer words than we would normally use, and that when we do our words often have more impact.  One way to think about this is, when you are considering what to say, ask, “Does it serve this circle in a good way?”