menu

Full Circle Restorative Justice

Full Circle Restorative Justice - http://www.fullcirclerj.net/

Date of Dialogue: 12.15.11

Description: This fantastic exploration with James O’Dea takes us to high-conflict areas, including in the U.S., and how models of restorative justice have been set in motion. James has visited numerous processes worldwide, and shares insights about Rwanda’s gacaca courts, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, processes in the Middle East, and a convening in the U.S. of facilitators from around the world who are actively involved in transforming individual, local, and global justice practices one dialogue at a time.

Brief Bio: James O’Dea is an internationally known author and teacher. His most recent book, Cultivating Peace: Becoming a 21st Century Peace Ambassador continues to receive critical acclaim and is used as a guide and manual around the world. He is lead faculty for The Peace Ambassador Training, an online certification course that convenes the wisdom of outstanding faculty representing the many pillars of peacebuilding work, including conflict transformation, nonviolent communication, social healing, restorative justice, systems theory, and much more.

James O’Dea Website: www.jamesodea.com

Date of Dialogue: Jan. 16, 2012

Description: This dialogue titled “Occupy the Dream: MLK and the Power of Love” held on MLK Day 2012 and as the Occupy Movement was still in full motion, covers “Crow”’s firsthand experiences in NYC’s Zuccotti Park from the outset of the Occupy Movement. The people’s mic, the global movement, what it represented then and what it incited on glocal levels is all a part of this timely discussion that interweaves justice, transformation, and true revolution.

Brief Bio: Velcrow Ripper is a Canadian Academy Award (Genie) winning filmmaker, writer, sound designer and public speaker. He creates powerful, cinematic documentaries that deal with the central issues of our times. Occupy Love is the culmination of his epic “Fierce Love Trilogy” which began with Scared Sacred, named one of Canada’s Top 10 movies of 2004, and winner of the 2005 Genie (Canadian Academy Award) for best feature documentary. It continued with 2008?s award winning Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action.

Ripper’s earlier films include In The Company of Fear, a documentary on non-violent resistance to the “dirty war” in Colombia; Golden Gate Award-winning Open Season, about bear hunters and the activists who “hunt the hunters”; and the multi-award-winning non-fiction feature Bones of the Forest, (co-directed with Heather Frise) about the struggle to save the ancient forests of British Columbia (Best of the Festival, 1996 Hot Docs! Festival; and Best Feature Doc, 1996 Genie Awards).

Velcrow’s films are stylistically innovative, engaging and moving. Particular attention is given to the sound design. He is well known for his award-winning sound design of such films as The Corporation (Best Sound, Leo Awards), and A Place Called Chiapas (Best Sound, Hot Docs!; Best Sound, Leo Awards). He was recently named “one of the top ten filmmakers to watch in 2012? by the Independent Film magazine.

Occupy Love website: occupylove.org

Filmography & Official Site: velcrowripper.com

Date of Dialogue: Jan. 10, 2012

Description: As Editor-in-Chief of the extraordinary YES! Magazine, Sarah van Gelder spoke with us about the then-in-motion Occupy movement, our transforming systems and the paradigm nested underneath the changes we are seeing. Her take on justice and restorative systems has informed special editions of YES! and as she shares in this dialogue, it is fully in motion as an exponential movement changing within and on the ground. We discussed the media’s role in social change, and learned how Sarah embarked on her own path to become one of the country’s leaders in media distribution that puts first truth, social change, tools, and powerful stories from the day to day ground of change.

Brief Bio: Sarah van Gelder is editor of "This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement" and co-founder of YES! Magazine and YesMagazine.org.

YES! reframes today's crises, showing how a radically different approach can bring about a more just and sustainable world. Each issue highlights the leadership coming from grassroots communities, social movements, and activists who are building a future that can work for all.

Sarah has interviewed Pete Seeger, Winona LaDuke, George Shultz, Harry Belafonte, Vandana Shiva, Chris Hedges, Danny Glover, and many other known and unknown leaders who are working to create a better world.

In addition to her regular features in the printed magazine, Sarah blogs at www.yesmagazine.org/svgblog, lectures nationally and internationally, and interviews regularly on radio talk shows nationwide.

Date of Dialogue: Dec. 8, 2011

Description: This conversation takes a deep dive into the powerful work Belvie and Dedan do through their organization, Growing a Global Heart, revisiting slavery’s legacy and taking profound and tangible steps to honestly address, and heal, open wounds that have been covered up. The social healing and collective wound component of restoration and balance is a key theme to this powerful conversation. For anyone looking to honestly address socio-cultural wounding from the lens of truth and reconciliation, healing, and new possibilities.

Brief Bios: Belvie Rooks is Co-Founder of Growing a Global Heart. She is a writer, educator and producer whose work weaves the worlds of spirituality, feminism, ecology and social justice. She is a former board member of Bioneers, The Urban Habitat Program, and the Positive Futures Network/Yes Magazine and is currently Chair of the Board of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and a board member of the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. She is a Core Faculty member of Holy Names University's Culture and Spirituality Program.

Her published works have appeared in a number of books, publications and anthologies

Dedan Gills Co-Founder of GROWING A GLOBAL HEART has pioneered the idea of "Green Recovery"--a concept that combines stewardship and restoration of blighted urban areas with an engaged dialogic process designed to restore the integrity of souls wounded by the crush of modern urban reality. His work incorporates the principles of sustainability, permaculture design, environmental awareness and the greening of the inner spirit as critical aspects of the recovery and healing process. For the past ten years he has worked with people victimized by efforts at survival in our modern urban environment including people who are homeless, suffering from drug addiction and incarceration. He also serves as a surrogate male role model and mentor to young men growing up in these challenging urban environments.

Dedan is a writer and poet and associate producer of Watts Up! a documentary film (in progress) about a young man's transformative journey.

Growing a Global Heart Website: http://growingaglobalheart.weebly.com/

Two Dialogues: 2012 and Summer of Peace 2013 with Sissi Mazzetti

Description of both dialogues: Dominic Barter shares poignantly in both interviews first by the tone of his sharing and presence, which in fact illuminates the equanimity that is felt in the actual process he helps guide with his work in Restorative Circles. The first conversation in 2012 offers insights into his own journey and reasons for contributing to our world in this way, and specifics as to what the process entails. In the second conversation from Summer 2013 Dom is joined by his colleague Sissi Mazzetti, whom together have worked tirelessly to hear and support systems within Brazil’s education system. Both practical as well as conveying the actual climate of a circle process, these conversations are both of great value to those working in their own communities, schools, and lives to further both the way of living that this lens illuminates as well as the systems integration.

Brief Bio: Dominic Barter plays with dialogue and partnership, focusing primarily in the fields of education, justice, culture and social change. In the mid-90s he collaborated in the development of Restorative Circles, a community-based and -owned practice for dynamic engagement with conflict that grew from conversations with residents in gang-controlled shantytown favelas in Rio de Janeiro.

He adapted the practice for the Brazilian Ministry of Justice's award-winning national projects in Restorative Justice and supports its application in a further 25 countries. In recent years he has supervised the mediation program for the Police Pacification Units in Rio, served as invited professor at the Standing Group for Consensual Methods of Conflict Resolution, at the High Court of Rio, with a focus on school mediation and bullying, and focused on the development of restorative community. Currently Dominic directs the Dialogue Restoration project for the State Education Department of Rio de Janeiro and partners with the Centre for the Study of Public Security and Citizenship at Candido Mendes University.

Sissi Mazzetti Bio to be updated shortly.
RC (Restorative Circles) Website: www.restorativecircles.org

Dominic on Resolving Conflict through Restorative Justice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bazgiTyieKo

Date of Dialogue: Nov 14, 2013

Description: Another powerful resource for educators, administrators, principals, teachers, school counselors and generally all who are concerned about and/or involved with youth systems and schools. Nancy Riestenberg shares a broad spectrum of insights, talks about resources and implementation of RJP in schools. This interview telecast was a part of a mini-series co sponsored by Living Justice Press on RJ and schools.

Brief Bio: Nancy Riestenberg has twenty-five years of experience in the fields of violence prevention education, child sexual abuse prevention and restorative measures in schools. She has worked with school districts in Minnesota and 20 other states, from Cass Lake-Bena to the Chicago Public Schools, and speaks nationally on restorative measures at conferences and through trainings. She is author of multiple books, including Circle in the Square: Building Community and Repairing Harm in School, a bestseller from Living Justice Press.

More about Nancy and her books at: http://www.livingjusticepress.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={503CE3B2-591E-444D-99AE-09D408C99A94}&DE={5E7400A4-2FB5-4E38-A38A-BC74E9FCD4F0}

Date of Dialogue: May 16, 2013
Description: Don’t miss this informative, explicitly specific, inspiring conversation with Colorado Representative Pete Lee. Pete speaks eloquently to the process and movement that resulted in the passage of the Restorative Justice Pilot Project (then HB 13-1254, now law) and shares his own cultivated facts and insights into why RJ makes sense, and how it worked in Colorado during the momentum building leading up to the passage into law. This interview is of particular interest to those in other states wanting to beef up on important insights and challenges towards creating an RJ bill and ultimately passing it. Rep. Lee shares clues and key insights into some of the major obstacles they faced, and addresses some of the common concerns that came up in opposition to the bill, as well as how they worked to dissolve misconceptions about RJ and its efficacy.

Brief Bio: Colorado Representative Pete Lee (House District 18) has championed Restorative justice in Colorado and was co-sponsor of HB 13-1254, The Restorative Justice Pilot Project, which just passed last week. He also was key in the passage of the first Restorative justice bill two years ago and serves as an adviser to many State councils and organizations in the field.

Rep. Lee has been a public servant in the truest sense for a good portion of his life and is also an attorney.

More about Rep. Lee

Rep. Pete Lee on RJ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFMyHaGo49Q

Date of Dialogue: April 11, 2013

Description: For anyone who is working within Corrections or Law Enforcement, or interested in how RJ can span across and connect different civic areas to derail violence and provide viable solutions to mass incarceration. This interview is a strong example of how to start and implement an RJ program specifically within LE. It illuminates the nuances, the struggle and ultimately the value and results it has shown over a relatively short time span.

Brief Bio: A nationally recognized expert in criminal justice reform with 30 years of frontline experience as a lawyer, advocate and consultant, Sunny Schwartz has spent her career navigating all levels of the system and pioneering new policy initiatives for prisoner’s programs, as well as alternatives to incarceration. She is the author of Dreams from the Monster Factory, Hard cover Published 2009, Paperback version published 2010, which gives a comprehensive insider’s perspective on America’s failing prison system and recounts her own real-world implementation of a targeted strategy that both saves taxpayers’ money and dramatically reduces recidivism.

Sunny directs the design and operation of prisoner programs in six county jails. During her tenure, she has made significant changes to traditional incarceration operations, transitioning from an ineffectual system rooted in idling and “downtime” to one that requires inmates to participate in educational, vocational and therapeutic programs 10 hours a day, five days a week

Sunny Schwartz Website: http://sunnyschwartz.com

Date of Dialogue: Nov. 13, 2013

Description: Carolyn gives a sweeping and specific overview of RJP (restorative justice practices) currently being successfully implemented in schools across the country. She shares insights from the bestselling manual and practical handbook she penned with Kay Pranis, Heart of Hope: A Guide for Using Peacemaking Circles to Develop Emotional Literacy, Promote Healing and Build Healthy Relationships. This interview is highly recommended for any school administrator or staff who want to hear more about how to implement, challenges and opportunities, and more.

Brief Bio: Carolyn Boyes-Watson is the founding director of Suffolk University's Center for Restorative Justice and an associate professor of sociology at Suffolk University. Professor Boyes-Watson has been on the faculty since 1993. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.

To see video of Dr. Boyes-Watson delivering a Chatauqua Institution Interfaith Lecture on "Restorative Justice" August 8, 2013, click here.

Restorative Justice on the Rise

Media That Matters: Public Dialogue On Justice

To provide connection, advocacy, education and inspired action as a public service to individuals and communities seeking to proactively improve relationships and structures within their spheres and our world.

© Copyright 2017 -RestorativeJusticeOnTheRise.org - All Rights Reserved.
Top twitterfacebookgoogle-pluslinkedinyoutube-play closealign-righttwitterfacebooklinkedinellipsis-vcloud-downloadusersbubblemicchevron-down