This book introduces Coming to the Table’s approach to a continuously evolving set of purposeful theories, ideas, experiments, guidelines, and intentions, all dedicated to facilitating racial healing and transformation. People of color, relative to white people, fall on the negative side of virtually all measurable social indicators. The “living wound” is seen in the significant disparities in average household wealth, unemployment and poverty rates, infant mortality rates, access to healthcare and life expectancy, education, housing, and treatment within, and by, the criminal justice system. Coming to the Table (CTTT) was born in 2006 when two dozen descendants from both sides of the system of enslavement gathered together at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), in collaboration with the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding (CJP). Stories were shared and friendships began. The participants began to envision a more connected and truthful world that would address the unresolved and persistent effects of the historic institution of slavery. This Little Book shares Coming to the Table’s vision for the United States—a vision of a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal from the racial wounds of the past. Readers will learn practical skills for better listening; discover tips for building authentic, accountable relationships; and will find specific and varied ideas for taking action. The table of contents includes: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Trauma Awareness and Resilience Chapter 3: Restorative Justice Chapter 4: Uncovering History Chapter 5: Making Connections Chapter 6: Circles, Touchstones, and Values Chapter 7: Working Toward Healing Chapter 8: Taking Action Chapter 9: Liberation and Transformation And subject include Unresolved Trauma, Brown v. Board of Education, Lynching, Connecting with Your Own Story, Wht Healing Looks Like, Engage Your Community, and much more.

How do we address trauma, interrupt cycles of violence, and build resilience in a turbulent world of endless wars, nationalism, othering, climate crisis, racism, pandemics, and terrorism? This fully updated edition offers a practical framework, processes, and useful insights. The traumas of our world go beyond individual or one-time events. They are collective, ongoing, and the legacy of historical injustices. How do we stay awake rather than numbing or responding violently? How do we cultivate individual and collective courage and resilience? This Little Book provides a justice-and-conflict-informed community approach to addressing trauma in nonviolent, neurobiologically sound ways that interrupt cycles of violence and meet basic human needs for justice and security. In these pages, you’ll find the core framework and tools of the internationally acclaimed Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program developed at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in response to 9/11. A startlingly helpful approach.

A practical guide to listening well in restorative justice programs and any relationship. The Little Book of Listening is an introduction to and practical guide for listening as an emergent strategy for creating a transformed world. It presents radical listening as an essential macro-skill, one that is essential in forming “right relationships” with ourselves and others that are the necessary prerequisite to all lasting forms of social change. This is a collaborative book, constructed from the contributions of twenty-six listeners from a wide variety of backgrounds who have shared their strategies, experiences, inspiration, and hopes for a transformed world through listening justly and equitably. One of the primary goals of the book is to offer practical tools for readers to develop the skills to listen to themselves and others more effectively, drawing attention to the barriers and filters that so often distract us from listening. Another goal is to inspire readers through the personal stories of how just listening has impacted the authors and invite readers to adopt these approaches themselves. Finally, we aim for this text to be a resource for practitioners in the fields of justicebuilding and peacebuilding. Conversations are how humans explore new ideas and reach new understandings: paradigms shift and the world is changed by our communication with each other. Whatever processes are used, it is imperative that facilitators and participants listen deeply, humbly, and attentively, without ego or agenda, to themselves and to one another.

A concise and practical guide to bringing the day-to-day practice of restorative justice programs into closer alignment with restorative values. In the past twenty-five years there has been an explosion of programs, projects, and initiatives that use the terms “restorative justice” or “restorative practices.” This reflects multiple trends: the failures and inhumanity of justice system policies and practices; the unfairness and ineffectiveness of “zero tolerance” and other punitive measures adopted in our schools, and the positive impact of those who have promoted restorative practices for the past several decades around the world. This complex mix has generated an array of programs that utilize restorative ideas and practices in a wide variety of ways, such as court diversion, deeply spiritual circle work, and national and international truth and reconciliation projects. Some of these programs are designed to address incidences of harm that fall within large systems (family group conferencing, victim offender dialogue, circles, COSA, etc.) or in schools where they are often focused on addressing incidences of harm in an effort to change the over reliance on suspensions and expulsions as a way to modify student behaviors. There are other experiments in restorative justice that move this work into community settings, with a focus on healing and the creation of more empathic relationships. As the authors know from experience, there is often a gap between values and the reality of day to day practice. This Little Book strives to find ways to shrink that gap and to bring our practice and the structures and methods that employ them into closer alignment with restorative values. Simply put, this book asks, how can we better align restorative theory and practice in our work? In order to have truly restorative programs (programs that strive for consistency between their stated values and their real-life practices) the authors offer some ways to integrate restorative practices and values into the strategies used to design, implement, and assess them. They propose the use of another transformative practice, Participatory Action Research (PAR), as a powerful ally in the work of developing restorative practices and the programs that hold them.

A fully revised & updated handbook for teachers and administrators on creating just and equitable learning environments for students; building and maintaining healthy relationships; healing harm and transforming conflict. Much more than a response to harm, restorative justice nurtures relational, interconnected school cultures. The wisdom embedded within its principles and practices is being welcomed at a time when exclusionary discipline and zero tolerance policies are recognized as perpetuating student apathy, disproportionality, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Relying on the wisdom of early proponents of restorative justice, the daily experiences of educators, and the authors’ extensive experience as classroom teachers and researchers, this Little Book guides the growth of restorative justice in education (RJE) into the future. Incorporating activities, stories, and examples throughout the book, three major interconnected and equally important aspects of restorative justice in education are explained and applied: creating just and equitable learning environments; building and maintaining healthy relationships; healing harm and transforming conflict. Chapters include: The Way We Do Things A Brief History of Restorative Justice in Education Beliefs and Values in Restorative Justice in Education Creating just and Equitable Learning Environments Nurturing Healthy relationships Repairing Harm and Transforming Conflict A Tale of Two Schools: Thoughts and Sustainability The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education is a reference that practitioners can turn to repeatedly for clarity and consistency as they implement restorative justice in educational settings.

Creating Restorative Learning Experiences Online Teaching, training, and gathering online has become a global norm since 2020. Restorative practitioners have risen to the challenge to shift restorative justice processes, trainings, and classes to virtual platforms, a change that many worried would dilute the restorative experience. How can people build relationships with genuine empathy and trust when they are not in a shared physical space? How can an online platform become an environment for people to take risks and practice new skills without the interpersonal support available when meeting face to face? This book provides instructions for experiential games and activities that are intentionally designed for online learning spaces. It builds upon the core concepts of restorative pedagogy introduced in The Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools (2020) to guide trainers and facilitators to overcome perceived limitations of virtual training and lean into the tools and possibilities that are unique to online spaces to create meaningful, engaging restorative learning environments. This guide is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to build community and foster development of restorative justice knowledge and skills via online platforms. The games and activities included support building relationships, introducing the restorative justice philosophy, practicing key skills, and understanding and addressing structural and racial injustices. More resources are available at restorativeteachingtools.com.

Engaging Practices for Integrating Restorative Justice Principles in Group Settings As restorative practices spread around the world, scholars and practitioners have begun to ask very important questions: How should restorative practices be taught? What educational structures and methods are in alignment with restorative values and principles? This book introduces games as an effective and dynamic tool to teach restorative justice practices. Grounded in an understanding of restorative pedagogy and experiential learning strategies, the games included in this book provide a way for learners to experience and more deeply understand restorative practices while building relationships and improving skills. Chapters cover topics such as: Introduction to restorative pedagogy and experiential learning How a restorative learning community can be built and strengthened through the use of games and activities How to design games and activities for teaching restorative practices How to design, deliver, and debrief an activity-based learning experience In-depth instructions for games and activities for building relationships, understanding the restorative philosophy, and developing skills in practice An ideal handbook for educators, restorative justice program directors and trainers, consultants, community group leaders, and anyone else whose work draws people together to resolve disagreements or address harm, this book will serve as a catalyst for greater creativity and philosophical alignment in the teaching of restorative practices across contexts.

A Practitioner's Reference and Guide to Implement Restorative Justice on Campus Here’s a call to colleges and universities to consider implementing restorative practices on their campuses, ensuring fair treatment of students and staff while minimizing institutional liability, protecting the campus community, and boosting morale, from an associate dean of student affairs who has put these models to work on his campus. Restorative justice is a collaborative decision-making process that includes victims, offenders, and others who are seeking to hold offenders accountable by having them (a) accept and acknowledge responsibility for their offenses, (b) to the best of their ability, repair the harm they caused to victims and communities, and (c) work to reduce the risk of re-offense by building positive social ties to the community. David Karp writes in his introduction, “As a student affairs administrator, I have become deeply committed to the concept and practice of restorative justice. I have experienced how it can work given the very real pressures among campus conduct administrators to manage high case loads, ensure fair treatment, minimize institutional liability, protect the campus community, boost morale in a division with high turnover, and help students learn from their mistakes without creating insurmountable obstacles to their future successes.”

Discover the police-youth dialogue (PYD) as a method to build trustworthiness, mend relationships, and heal historical harms between black youth and law enforcement. This timely book from the Justice and Peacebuilding series offers an explanation of the need for meaningful dialogue between law enforcement and black youth, a blueprint for implementing police-youth dialogues, best practices and examples, anecdotes and narratives from participants, different models and formats, potholes and limitations, and tangible tools and action steps for starting a police-youth dialogue program. Ultimately, the strategies and techniques used in effective police-youth dialogues can bring attention to issues of implicit bias and the impact of toxic stress on marginalized groups, ameliorate tensions between law enforcement officers and black youth, and build toward a model of community policing and restorative justice rather than punitive discipline and violence. The Little Book of Police-Youth Dialogue presents readers with relevant knowledge and research regarding trauma and race in the United States, strategies for creating a safe space of attentive listening and mediating genuine connections between police officers and black youth, and specific ways to take action in ameliorating police-youth tensions and promoting healing in their local communities.

A restorative justice approach to addressing sexual misconduct in colleges and universities. Written for college and university practitioners and administrators, The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Campus Sexual Harms: A Holistic Approach to Address Sexual Misconduct and Relationship Violence for Colleges and Universities combines explanation, justification, and contextualization for the application of restorative justice (RJ) for sexual misconduct, including for alleged Title IX violations. This book outlines considerations, action steps, and best practices for campuses that are interested in exploring the successful implementation of RJ for sexual misconduct. The authors' backgrounds as practitioners within the higher education context grounds this work with personal reflections, experiences, and stories. This book provides a primer for colleges and universities who seek to move campus culture in a more restorative direction generally, and specifically for practitioners interested in exploring the possibility of amending existing sexual misconduct policies, including investigative-adjudicatory Title IX policy and procedures, through a restorative justice informed lens. Readers will explore why it makes all the difference (for both students and administrators) to add RJ resolution options.