Pre-Conference Trainings

Community Conference Facilitator Training

Presented by Sue Hopgood and Caroline Gosling

November 21 (evening), November 22-23 (full days)

 Community Conferencing is a restorative practice that brings together schools, families, community, and police to change the way we deal with conflict and harm. This process supports individuals who have caused harm, to take responsibility and be directly accountable to those they have harmed. People who have been harmed are able to share how they have been impacted and to contribute to how that harm can be repaired.

A Community Conference is a highly participatory and voluntary meeting convened by a trained, neutral facilitator that allows people to resolve their own crime and conflict safely and in their own community. The process holds people accountable for their behavior by addressing the root cause of the behavior. Our current, often over-burdened criminal justice system does not always provide the opportunity for people, adults and youth, to learn how their actions affect other. Community Conferencing provides a space for people involved in an incident to be accountable for their actions, gives everyone involved a voice, and includes everyone in deciding how to resolve the incident.

This three-day training gives participants a thorough understanding of the philosophy and theory behind restorative justice and the Community Conferencing process, affect theory and how it applies to community conferencing, the Conference process itself and the skills involved in facilitating a conference. Opportunities to participate in and facilitate mock conferences will be part of the training.

A certificate will be issued at the end of the three days to indicate participation in a three day Community Conferencing Facilitator Training course.

Restorative Justice and Sexualized Violence  Case Practitioner Skills

Presented by Alan Edwards and Alana Abramson

November 22-23

In Canada and elsewhere, interest is increasing in the possible use of restorative justice in cases of
sexualized violence (SV).
This training serves as an introduction to important skills and ideas that are key to working ethically and
effectively in the area of sexualized violence. Supported by vast research and 20 years of experience in
SV cases, co-trainers Dr. Alana Abramson and Alan Edwards will link theory and research to practice,
emphasizing the skills that constitute best practice.
Some of the areas we will explore include:

• Why is sexualized violence different from most other harms? What unique risks are present in these cases?

• In restorative justice, what does the fundamental principle of victim-centeredness mean, and how is it practiced?

• The spectrum of victim/survivor participation in restorative justice.

• What skills correspond to trauma-informed RJ practice in case development and facilitating restorative dialogue?

• What are victim/survivors of sexualized violence who have participated in RJ telling us about what they found beneficial in the RJ process?

Please note that this training will bring particular focus to working with victim/survivors. Given the
complexity and depth of the topic, working with those who harm sexually will be the subject of a
different training.
This course will serve as a way for practitioners to discover what specific areas they need to learn more
about before beginning RJ/SV work.