Author of Peacemaking Circles and Urban Youth and Heart of Hope

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.

She is the author of Peacemaking Circles for Urban Youth and Co-Author with Kay Pranis of Heart of Hope: A Guide for Using Peacemaking Circles to Develop Emotional Literacy, Promote Healing, and Build Healthy Relationships

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

With Special Guest Teya Sepinuck, Founder of Theater of Witness

Teya Sepinuck is the founder and director of Theater of Witness, a model of performance that gives voice to those who have been marginalized, forgotten or are invisible in society. For the past 25 years, she has been creating and producing Theater of Witness projects with prisoners and their families, survivors and perpetrators of abuse, refugees, immigrants, elders and those who have lived through war.

Her work has taken her to Poland and Northern Ireland where she just completed her third production at The Playhouse in Derry /Londonderry creating original Theatre of Witness with ex-combatants, members of the security forces, survivors, witnesses and those living with the intergenerational legacy of the Troubles.

Teya, who has a Masters Degree in Community Counseling was an adjunct faculty in dance at Swarthmore College from 1974 to 1991. She is the recipient of Philadelphia Human Rights Award for Arts and Culture from the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, a Local Hero Award from Bank of America, as well as Cultural Arts Award from Womens Way and the Mayors Commission on Women. She has a long time meditation practice which informs all of her work and life. Her new book "Theatre of Witness - Finding the Medicine in Stories of Suffering, Transformation and Peace (Buy at amazon) is published by Jessica Kingsley Press and launched in January 2013.

With Special Guest Brenda Morrison of Simon Fraser University

Brenda Morrison is the Director of the Centre for Restorative Justice and an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University. She is a social psychologist with field experience in outdoor education, government administration and restorative justice. Her teaching and research interests include transformative and restorative justice, responsive regulation, school violence and safety, conflict and cooperation, shame-management and social identity, the self and self-interest.

Dr. Morrison has presented papers at UNESCO, in Paris, and the House of Lords, in London. She is a member of a number of editorial boards, including the recently launched Restorative Justice: An International Journal. In Europe, she is on the advisory board of Restorative Justice in Europe: Safeguarding Victims & Empowering Professionals. Nationally, she is a research partner with PREVNet (Promoting Relationships Eliminating Violence Network) and a reconciliation ambassador for Reconciliation Canada. In British Columbia, she is a member of the working group for Social Responsibility and Collaborative Learning in Education, and on the advisory board for the B.C. Victims of Homicide Support Initiative. She is an active board member for the North Shore Restorative Justice Society and an associate board member of Vancouver Association for Restorative Justice.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

With Special Guest Fania Davis and a Youth Representative from RJOY

This podcast archive features a snapshot into one of the successfully and longer-running programs in restorative justice. Particularly inspiring and informative, Fania and Destiny Shabazz share how the programs work in Oakland and beyond. This podcast can be used as a great tool for educators, principals and school officials, law enforcement and many others.

This podcast archive features a snapshot into one of the successfully and longer-running programs in restorative justice. Particularly inspiring and informative, Fania and Destiny Shabazz share how the programs work in Oakland and beyond. This podcast can be used as a great tool for educators, principals and school officials, law enforcement and many others.

Fania Davis is Co-Founder and Executive Director of RJOY (Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth)

Coming of age in Birmingham, Alabama during the social ferment of the civil rights era, the murder of two close childhood friends in the 1963 Sunday School bombing crystallized within Fania a passionate commitment to social transformation. For the next decades, she was active in the civil rights, Black liberation, women's, prisoners', peace, anti-racial violence and anti-apartheid movements. After receiving her law degree from University of California , Berkeley in 1979, Fania practiced almost 27 years as a civil rights trial lawyer.

During the mid 1990's, she entered a Ph.D. program in indigenous studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and apprenticed with traditional healers around the globe, particularly in Africa . Since receiving her Ph.D. in 2003, Fania has been engaged in a search for healing alternatives to adversarial justice. She has taught Restorative Justice at San Francisco 's New College Law School and Indigenous Peacemaking at Eastern Mennonite University 's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. She writes and speaks on these subjects.

The search for a healing justice also led Fania to bring restorative justice to Oakland . A founder and currently Director of RJOY, Fania also serves as counsel to the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. She recently received the Ubuntu award for service to humanity. Fania's research interests include exploring the indigenous roots, particlarly the African indigenous roots, of restorative justice. Fania is also a mother of two children, a dancer, and practitioner of yoga.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

With Special Guest Dr. Sandra Pavelka

Sandra Pavelka, Ph.D., serves as founding Director of the Institute for Youth and Justice Studies and Associate Professor of Public Affairs at Florida Gulf Coast University. Dr. Pavelka previously served as the Project Administrator of the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Project funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. She also was Senior Research Associate with the Community Justice Institute at Florida Atlantic University.

Dr. Pavelka serves as Editor for the International Journal of Restorative Justice and holds a number of leadership positions on local and state boards. Dr. Pavelka received her Ph.D. in Public Administration with a specialization in Justice Policy from Florida Atlantic University. Her dissertation, Practice to Policy to Management: A Restorative Justice Framework, focused on system reform and policy implementation of restorative justice nationally. She holds a Master of Public Administration from Florida International University and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Florida. Dr. Pavelka's research interests include: community and restorative justice, juvenile justice, public policy and program evaluation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Special Guests Dominic Barter and Sissi Mazzetti of Restorative Circles

Dominic Barter is the founder of Restorative Circles, a specific restorative practice whose development began with his work in Rio de Janeiro in the mid 1990s and continues with a growing community both in Brazil and internationally.

Sissi Mazzetti and Dominic have worked together over many years in supporting the facilitation and setup of these processes.

We explored ways in which Restorative practices are collaborating with systems in education and law enforcement on a global scale, as Dominic and Sissi have been deeply involved in collaboratives with Rio's Educational systems and schools as well as other bridge-building projects and services.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

An exclusive interview between The Shift Network's Director of Peace Philip Hellmich and Molly Rowan Leach

Join us for this archive we celebrated the final session of a hugely successful Summer of Peace 2013 partnership with Restorative Justice on The Rise, where The Shift Network's own Philip Hellmich, interviews me about the impetus for the birth of this free global telecast series, now in its 3rd season and featuring an incredible archive of over 1110 special guests working directly in the field and beyond. We will cover the personal and the collective, as I share my own insights into how our conflicts and wounds can be our greatest gifts and opportunities.

This series is for you, for us, and I am honored to be a part of this key moment of systemic transformation with you.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Jason Tashea first came across youth courts in 1997 as a bailiff for the Anchorage Youth Court program, where he then served as a member, defender, prosecutor, and presiding judge until 2003.

He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Oregon in 2012.

He interned at the American Bar Association's (ABA) Rule of Law Initiative in Yerevan, Armenia, and the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime in Vienna, Austria, where he actively promoted juvenile justice reform at both organizations.

His youth court proposal was enthusiastically supported by ABA, translated into Armenian and given to the Armenia Ministry of Justice for adoption.

This experience led him to co-found Youth Courts International to promote and implement youth courts at the international level, beyond the US. Jason just returned from 10 months in Kosovo as a Fulbright Fellow studying diversion and promoting youth courts.

Jason is the juvenile justice policy director for Advocates for Children and Youth. More about YCI at www.youthcourtsinternational.org

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Leslie Neale and her films are recognized for their impact on social justice. Her award-winning film "Road to Return," narrated by Tim Robbins, was presented to the United States Congress, prompting a bill authorizing 6 million dollars for prison aftercare. "Juvies," narrated by Mark Wahlberg, toured the world as one of the top ten "Human Rights Watch" films of 2005. "Juvies" also screened at the United Nations, encouraging the first ever conference on juvenile justice, won many awards and aired on HBO. Her films encourage in-depth examination of these topics with an uncommon sensitivity.

We will be discussing the importance of media in social justice, the key messages of this powerful new film and much more tomorrow morning on this week's Summer of Peace Edition of Restorative Justice on The Rise.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

This week we are thrilled to be hosting Rachel Pearl and Youth Representatives from the Restorative principles-based GREEN Corps Fresh Start programs in conjunction with the Clackamas County Juvenile Justice Department and other key partners. They are leveraging programs that combine youth empowerment with job skills in Green jobs and food production to reduce juvenile incarceration and recidivism successfully. Their approach not only saves thousands of dollars in the diversion of youth from sentencing and incarceration, but also gives them an opportunity to exemplify accountability and repayment of their offenses by putting their hands in the soil, literally. It's exciting to see the inclusion and connection of Green programs with Restorative Justice and I'm really excited to hear all about how the program got started, how it works, and how others can replicate it. Many agree that youth should not have a track record that tracks them endlessly and stigmatizes their chances to gain employment and establish successful lives that illuminate their own unique gift to the world. This is one big way to make that difference without losing the important values of accountability, restitution, and community safety.

A little bit more about Rachel Pearl:
Rachel Pearl is the Community Connections Coordinator for the Clackamas County Juvenile Department. Her current role is to develop, implement and coordinate a Restorative Community Service program for youth offenders. In her current role, Rachel is also the co- founder and Program Coordinator for GREEN Corps Fresh Start, an urban horticulture and small business training program for youth in the Juvenile Justice system. GREEN Corps allows youth an opportunity to pay restitution to victims while also developing skills in the areas of farming, food and customer service, bicycle repair and forestry while assisting in the business aspects of the program. GREEN Corps is a social enterprise model within a restorative framework with youth working three Farmer's Markets a week in addition to other business ventures. Rachel formerly developed Strength Based programming for youth transitioning back into the community in Portland, Oregon. Prior to this she coordinated a sexual assault and domestic violence prevention program for Incarcerated youth in California. She has over 15 years of experience working with youth offenders. Her experience includes program development and management, direct client services, group facilitation and case management.

For more information and a one-pager PDF description with images: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/clackamas/sites/default/files/green_corps_2012_volunteer_descriptions.pdf

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS