Centre for Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice techniques can also help
individuals, private institutions and corporations.

These processes can help you retain staff, and can strengthen your corporate culture, by providing a harassment-free workplace and reducing unwanted inter-staff conflict. Post-secondary institutions can learn how to implement restorative action values to promote a safer, more peaceful learning environment.
Union representatives can learn how to mediate between members and management in a more constructive and efficient way. Even individuals can benefit. They can learn how to resolve everyday disputes and conflicts, such as conflicts in neighborhoods over noise levels, animals or use of community spaces, to non-criminal family issues that could be resolved using Restorative Justice.

What Do We Offer?

We have 9 Community and Criminal Justice Courses
and 4 courses aimed at Schools and Organisations.

These courses range from 1.5 days to 5-day workshops, delivered by professional Restorative Justice practitioners with years of experience in the field. They can tailor each course to your unique environment. Because no two organisations are ever the same. More than just theory, or a “canned” style of training or intervention, workshop leaders can explain Restorative Justice techniques in a real-world manner that will effectively address the issues at hand.
Whether you are looking for courses that are more general in nature, or ones specifically designed to address a need, CJI has had great success in implementing restorative practices in many different settings.
 

For more information on any of these trainings

Contact Us Here

Or simply browse our descriptions of the courses we offer and see if any of them might be the right fit for you.
 

CJI now has Restorative Justice online trainings available! Visit our blog and see the upcoming course offerings and dates.
 
 

COMMUNITY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE COURSES

Short Explorations into Restorative Justice Practices

DAY AND A HALF COURSES

Working with Victims of Violence in Restorative Justice Practice
 
Violent events are often life-altering. They leave a mark on victims and survivors that, if left untreated, can impact them for the rest of their lives. As Restorative Justice practitioners, we want to assist them in moving forward. Not only that, we want to fundamentally shape the nature of victims’ recovery, so that they can experience the therapeutic value of Restorative Justice.

What You Will Learn:

In this workshop, participants will learn how to be sensitive, respectful and how best to approach those who have experienced violence. Through a combination of small-group work, individual reflection, lectures and role play practice, participants will learn how the theories of Restorative Justice can be incorporated into their work with victims of violence.

Topics include:

  • The experience of violence: Victim responses, trauma-related and otherwise.
  • Handling victim concerns about Restorative Justice. How will it work with them?
  • What do victims need? What kinds of practitioner presence are considered helpful to recovery?
  • Exposure to research and testimonies that will help you learn what Restorative Justice can bring to victims of violence, from a just response to violent victimization, to what they need to heal.
Working with Participants' Shame
 
When something traumatic happens, shame is often a part of a victim’s internal dialogue. Even those who say they don’t blame themselves often experience a sense of shame that is deeply rooted in the trauma they have experienced. Shame can also be felt by the offender and is a powerful emotion that can often hinder a person’s recovery.

What You Will Learn:

Shame is difficult for many people to acknowledge, let alone work with effectively. In this workshop, you will learn how best to deal with shame, how to work on it through individual meetings prior to any face-to-face or dialogue process between the victim/offender. Through a combination of interactive exercises, lectures, small-group work, and individual reflection, the focus will be on working with participants’ shame and how to process this challenging emotion.

Topics Include:

  • Current theory and research about shame
  • How shame is experienced for both parties: Victims and Offenders
  • How to work with shame: A sensitive and active approach for both victim and offender
  • How well-intended practitioners may inadvertently add to participants’ shame.
Inviting Responsibility: Moving Toward Values-Congruence in Our Work with Offenders
 
Responsibility and accountability are key pillars in the Restorative Justice practice. However, what do you do when offenders see no fault in their actions? What if this avoidance of responsibility causes disappointment in the victim, or worse, a sense of re- victimization? It can sometimes be hard to elicit a meaningful response from those who have caused harm. We may even try to coerce or bully them into accountability, but that’s not what we are after. It’s true understanding of the harm they have caused that is the intended goal.

What You Will Learn:

This workshop will balance lecture, exercises, discussions and practice opportunities. Emphasis will be placed on our work in case development. We will teach you how restorative practices can be applied in pre-conference meetings with offenders. Participants will also learn how to best approach offender responsibility and how you can cultivate understanding and accountability using Restorative Justice values and priorities. This will also be backed by current theory and research in the fields of psychology and violence prevention.

Topics Include:

  • Developing empathy towards the victim: How to assist offenders
  • Identifying the barriers to accountability: How to help offenders take responsibility for their actions
  • How facilitators can get in the way of responsibility-taking
  • The function of facilitators: What qualities foster the movement toward responsibility

Further into the Field of Restorative Justice

2 TO 3 DAY COURSES

The Heart of Restorative Justice: Building the Core of Reflective Practice (2 days)
 
If you’re seeking to be an effective practitioner of Restorative Justice, there’s more than just the theories. Often, your effectiveness as a healer and mediator will depend upon your mindset, values and skills. Crime and conflict can be complex and to properly serve the needs of those who have been harmed, Restorative Justice programs will often have to have a combination of conferencing, mediation and therapeutic circles. Different approaches will also be needed when working with offenders.

What You Will Learn:

In this powerful and fundamental course, open to both new and experienced Restorative Justice practitioners, we will teach you the necessary skills to practice and facilitate dialogue processes, build new skills, sensitivity and vocabulary, and how to support those impacted by and responsible for harm.

Topics Include:

  • Skills for an impartial third party: How to encourage the safe expression of strong emotion and empathy
  • How to view harmful situations: Develop and sharpen your restorative ‘lens’
  • Increasing self-awareness and personal capacity: How to model Restorative Justice values in your everyday life
  • How to uncover or rediscover your vocation and motivation for Restorative Justice

Note: Participants will receive the training manual associated with this course. This course is also a prerequisite for further training in “Clearing the Lens: Integrating Neuroscience and Restorative Justice” and “Inviting Dialogue”.
Understanding Violence (2-3 days)
 
Cases involving physical violence seem to be on the rise. Because they differ substantially from working with non-violent offences, Restorative Justice programs and practitioners often require a new way to approach cases involving physical violence. This course is aimed at giving practitioners increased comfort and effectiveness in this challenging area.

What You Will Learn:

Through this workshop, you will learn how to properly identify what is violence and what is not, as well as how violence impacts victims and offenders, and how best to help them as they work toward recovery.

Topics Include:

  • How Violence Starts: Why people use violence and the factors involved
  • What victims, offenders and others need from us as facilitators, in cases of violence
  • How to integrate theory into real-life practice
Clearing the Lens: Integrating Neuroscience and Restorative Justice (2-3 days)
 
What causes defensiveness? What would make an offender reluctant to take responsibility for their actions? And what are scientifically sound strategies for managing these responses? The answers may lie in the cutting-edge field of Neuroscience. Thanks to the developments in this field, we now have valuable insights into how Restorative Justice works and how new light can be shed on critical issues related to Restorative Justice practitioners and their participants.

What You Will Learn:

For those who want to delve deeper into Restorative Justice, this advanced two to three-day course will explore various topics, such as why offenders avoid accountability and how Restorative Justice practitioners can use the anatomy of the human brain to better understand those who harm and to help those who are harmed as they navigate the healing process.

Topics Include:

  • What makes the restorative processes successful? Key elements explained
  • How can healing be supported in those who are harmed?
  • What causes facilitator bias?
  • How to handle intense encounters: Ways for facilitators to maintain emotional grounding

Note: “The Heart of Restorative Justice” is a pre-requisite for this course.

Delving Deeper into Restorative Justice Development

3 to 5-DAY COURSES

Inviting Dialogue: Facilitating Victim Offender Encounters (4 days)
 
How do you bring together victim and offender? How do you conduct encounters and create a therapeutic dialogue between both parties? Often, this can be a very healing experience for victims and offenders, but how do you facilitate this in such a way that it heals relationships, repairs the harm done, fosters direct accountability and creates safe spaces for personal growth and recovery?

What You Will Learn:

Drawing on CJI’s 30 years of experience and ground-breaking initiatives on victim-offender dialogues, this hands-on course will guide participants through the steps of facilitating victim-offender encounters. Through role-plays and intensive skill development, you will be taught how to engage youth and adult participants and professional coaches will provide trainees with individualized instruction and feedback.

Course participants will also receive a copy of the celebrated training manual published by CJI: “Inviting Dialogue: Restorative Justice & Victim Offender Mediation”, as well as a copy of Howard Zehr’s Little Book of Restorative Justice.

Topics Include:

  • How to practice CJI’s time-tested model of non-scripted Victim or Offender Dialogue
  • How to be a confident leader: Guiding those involved in a criminal incident through a safe and respectful dialogue
  • Guiding victims and offenders through the reparation process

Note: To attend this course, you must have completed the prerequisite “The Heart of Restorative Justice”, which can be taught in conjunction with the course above, or separately for those with relevant experience.
Family Group Conferencing, New Zealand Style: A Transformative Approach to Youth Justice (3-5 days)
 
Do you have a passion for strengthening families and communities? Do you intend to work with young offenders and victims to address the root causes of crime? This course might be for you. Through the framework of Restorative Justice, you will learn how to heal and repair families and youth, who have been harmed and fractured due to conflict and crime. And though some relationships can contribute to harmful behavior, you will also learn that they can play an important part in the restorative process.

This course is intended for individuals who want to work directly with young offenders and victims of crimes. Through this intensive three to five-day workshop, you will learn how to work creatively with families, community members and service providers, to not only transform the lives of victims and perpetrators of harm, but also to rebuild the fabric of society.

Topics Include:

  • Receive training from practitioners with hands-on experience, who have facilitated conferences within the New Zealand Youth Justice System
  • Learn a world-renowned, unscripted conferencing model from a highly-qualified trainer
  • Discover how families and communities can play vital roles in incidents involving youth and violence
  • Develop and practice group facilitation skills
  • Learn how to think strategically and creatively when trying to lead productive victim-offender dialogues
  • How Restorative Justice techniques can help you address not only specific incidents, but the relationships and social structures in which these incidents occur
  • How to facilitate a model that is strengthening and empowering for families and communities, participant driven, culturally sensitive and adaptable, and has a proven record of addressing harms in meaningful and lasting ways
  • How to be confident in all the above techniques: further development of your Restorative Justice skills and practise

Note: Participants will receive the training manual associated with this course. “The Heart of Restorative Justice” is a prerequisite for taking this course.

SCHOOLS AND ORGANISATIONS COURSES

We also have courses designed specifically for larger organizations, such as secondary schools, post-secondary institutions, private community initiatives and workplaces.

Restorative Action: A Whole-School Approach (1-2 days)
 
Are you looking to build a safe and vibrant school environment? To empower your students to resolve conflicts in a peaceful way? To move beyond the old punishment-discipline model, and instead, to establish a dialogue-based model where the focus is healing and change? Rather than asking what rules have been broken, or what punishment it deserves, a restorative focus seeks to repair and address the root causes of conflict. We ask who has been harmed? What are their needs? And what process is needed in order to right the wrongs and collectively heal?

If you are wondering how you can switch from a punitive process to a restorative one and how you can nurture a culture of greater respect and accountability in your school community, then this course is definitely for you. With our 30 years of experience in criminal justice and educational settings, we can teach you how incidents of conflict and harm can actually provide vital opportunities for constructive dialogues and valuable social skill development.

What You Will Learn:

With an emphasis on the role of Principals and Vice Principals, this course will provide an overview of Restorative Justice principles and how they can be applied in the school environment. We will outline how this process differs from the usual punishment-discipline model, how a shift is required in the way we view conflict and harm, and what questions we need to ask ourselves when disputes arise. It will mean new forms of discipline, but also new ways of conflict prevention. And we will teach you how to prevent harm, mitigate difficult behaviour in schools, and foster a safer, more respectful school culture by focusing on community building, conflict management, and child and youth empowerment.

Topics Include:

  • New ways to address harmful behaviour at school
  • Lessons learned from our work with the Langley School District and how Restorative Action has led to successful outcomes for both students and staff
  • An introduction to innovative processes, emerging practices and new vocabulary taking hold within educational environments world-wide
  • Techniques on how to facilitate and model positive staff culture
  • A day of learning, insight, new connections and fun!

Note: Participants will receive the training manual associated with this course.

RESTORATIVE ACTION IN SCHOOLS (2 Courses Available)

For those working in elementary and secondary schools, it can sometimes be a challenge to work with difficult behaviours, disruptive students, conflicts, violence or other harmful situations. How can you keep your school safe, while addressing the needs of those who have been harmed and those who have done harm? Frustrated parents and educators often employ the discipline-punishment model. The offending student gets expelled, or the victim is forced to switch schools, but how does that address the underlying causes of conflict? What if you could teach your students to resolve disputes peacefully, to adopt compassion, accountability, open communication and other positive values and social skills?

From course such as these, you will learn new strategies for effectively addressing challenging behaviours at school and the issues which underlie them. We will look beyond disciplinary approaches that rely solely on isolation and punishment and will look at building a safe and vibrant learning environment through the application of Restorative Justice values, concepts and practices.

Conversation Peace (4 days)
 
Intended For: Those who work in a setting involving high-school aged youth.

What You Will Learn:

This course employs a unique and internationally recognized curriculum relevant to both youth and adults. Based on CJI’s success in implementing the “Educating for Peacebuilding” program in the Langley School District #35, participants will gain a solid foundation in Restorative Action philosophy, principles and practices.

Topics Include:

  • Learn to respond to youth conflict in a way that promotes resolution, healing and accountability
  • Learn interpersonal conflict resolution skills and mediation skills through a ‘hands-on’ format
  • Skills practice alongside experienced, highly-trained coaches
  • Certificate of completion at the end
Talking Peace (2 days)
 
Intended For: Elementary school teachers, administrative staff, and/or students.

What You Will Learn:

If you work in a setting involving elementary-aged youth and are interested in learning about Restorative Justice and how it can be creatively implemented in classrooms, or other settings appropriate to that age group, this two-day session is a perfect introduction. Developed by CJI in partnership with the Langley School District, this course focuses on the first steps needed to develop a Restorative Action program which includes school-based peer mediation, new processes to deal with harm and conflict, and ways to promote accountability, community and fairness.

Topics Include:

  • How to develop a foundation in mediation skills
  • How to work effectively with bullying and exclusion
  • Promoting healthy working relationships among staff
  • The healing power of a restorative ‘mindset’: Dealing with discipline issues inside and outside the classroom
  • Learn practical and fun activities that reinforce the basic principles -perfect for younger ages!

Note: You will receive a copy of the relevant training manual.

Courses Designed for Organisations and Workplaces

Vital Conversations: Turning Conflict into Opportunity in Life and Work (1-2 days)
 
Conflict is ever-present in our day-to-day life. Whether it’s a challenging co-worker at the office, a dispute between union and management, a conflict between neighbours, or a high-demand position that requires you to oversee disputes among team members, conflicts do arise. While conflict can be destructive, it doesn’t have to be. By understanding the dynamics of conflict and having the skills to encourage productive dialogues, it can lead to positive change and empowering outcomes.

If you wish to transform conflict into the chance for deeper self-awareness, increased trust, better cohesion and greater productivity, this course is the ideal place to start!

What You Will Learn:

In this course, we will teach you simple tools that will substantially improve the quality of your personal interactions. You will be taught effective ways of interpersonal communication, how to change conflict into an opportunity for growth, new ways of problem-solving, conflict-resolution and other valuable skills that will help you in your work, your organization, or in everyday life.

Topics Include:

  • The roots and elements of conflict
  • How to communicate assertively without raising the defenses of others
  • A changing view of conflict: How to view it as an opportunity for strengthening relationships
  • Becoming an effective listener: Reflecting curiosity and openness rather than judgment and defensiveness
Restorative Justice in Organizational Settings (3-5 DAYS)
 
Are you interested in Restorative Justice, and how its principles and practices can be implemented in your school, business or other organisational context? Do you have previous training in interpersonal communication and/or group facilitation, but want to learn new ways to approach conflict and conflict-resolution? This introductory-intermediate level workshop is a great way to learn about Canada’s original Restorative Justice pioneers and its best practices around the globe. Focusing on the skills needed to facilitate and convene dialogues that address harm and conflict, particularly within organisational and educational settings, this highly interactive workshop involves a combination of lecture, discussion, skill development, video and facilitation practice.

What You Will Learn:

Drawing on the work of CJI, who are world-renown leaders and innovators in Restorative Justice, this course will deliver the essential skills needed to facilitate a model of dialogue that is participant driven, culturally sensitive and empowering for all involved.

Topics Include:


  • The difference between Restorative Justice and retributive justice and how to articulate it to others
  • Understand the needs of people who have directly and indirectly suffered harm, as well as those who have caused harm
  • Key strategies for managing power imbalances
  • How to conduct initial and preparatory meetings with Restorative Justice participants
  • Facilitating Encounters: How to understand and practice an encounter between people involved in a harmful incident

Note: Participants will receive the training manual associated with this course.