Petra sat down with host Molly Rowan Leach for an informal but powerful dive into the particulars of restorative justice, from a local to global perspective. She is the founder and director of the Institut pro Restorativni Justici, Prague and serves as the Secretary of the Board for EFRJ (European Forum for Restorative Justice)
In this 32m discussion, we cover a wide range of territory, including her reflections on the conference, the growth of restorative justice in our world, the principles of our work in the field, and the particulars about the program she founded, that is fast-growing in the Czech Republic (IRJ).
A Conversation with honored guest Dina Thompson, Executive Director and Founding Member, Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition….on the simplicity …of returning, to Circle.
You won’t want to miss interacting with Dina and we want to encourage questions as we always make time for interaction and dialogue. Dina’s experience implementing, collaborating cross-professionally, and supporting processes that secure a felt sense of common vision and goals based in RJ practices, that grow RJ practices, will be helpful for anyone wishing to hear insights from a deeply seasoned guide who has faced all forms of pushback and challenges, and has helped alongside and with others to build flourishing systems within communities in the Eastern US region. More importantly, Dina will help us remember to simplify and connect, and ways that have worked well for her in any arena of human services.
Restorative Justice and Therapy Dog Teams with Global Visionary Patricia LaTaille
and an introduction by Molly Rowan Leach, Host/Founder of Restorative Justice on The Rise and RJ Practitioner/Facilitator including work with Therapy Dog teams.
Bringing therapy dogs together with victims and offenders of social and criminal justice to create a healing environment that frees people from their traumas.
Paws 4 Peace is a book for animal lovers and peacebuilders in the world of restorative justice. Those who love dogs already appreciate the benefits of canine companionship!
Taking this inherent human-animal bond to a higher level and exploring the powerful connection of therapy dogs with victims and offenders in social/criminal justice scenarios is a powerful and affirming read.
Author Patty LaTaille writes:
“When asked to explain how this concept of a cross-collaboration of the species in a social justice initiative evolved, my response is deceptively simple: “It just made sense.” Being an 'Animal Person', and one who regards our fellow creatures on this planet as sentient beings who connect with humans on many levels, I've always had a strong belief in the 'Power of Paws'.”
Our Therapy Dog Teams are happy to share their experiences - both human and canine:
“Hi, my name is Abby, and I’m a certified therapy dog. One of my favorite jobs is when I’m part of a restorative justice circle. Since dogs are very sensitive to the energy that people give off, I usually sense some fear, tension, and a lot of anxiety! But I’ve come to help these people. I’m not sure what I do exactly, but when these people see me, the energy shifts, and they are able to smile and relax, at least just a little.”
Paws 4 Peace - Enhancing Restorative Practices with Therapy Dogs, provides a framework and specific guidelines on how to incorporate Therapy Dogs Teams into Restorative Justice practices.
Enjoy this entertaining and educational background of the Paws 4 Peace approach; complete with cute canines & their human's pics ? - while appreciating this detailed manual for implementing similar programs in RJ organizations worldwide!
You will find this book useful if you have read or plan to read other restorative justice books like: Beyond the Surface of Restorative Practices, The Little Book of Restorative Justice, or The Big Book of Restorative Justice.
An interview with Lucy Jaffe on the ground at the European Forum for Restorative Justice Conference, June 2023, on how those impacted by harm and conflict can be and are empowered by restorative justice.
Why me? Transforming Lives through Restorative Justice, Director
Lucy Jaffe is the Director of the UK charity Why me? Transforming Lives through Restorative Justice. She has built the organisation over the last 11 years to become an influential voice promoting restorative justice in UK and Europe. She has campaigned in Parliament, with regional governments, police, prisons and probation to ensure that anyone affected by crime can have access to restorative justice. She has had great success in supporting the people directly affected to speak to people in power, which, in turn, has led to increased budget allocation, strengthened legal provision and an increasing awareness and uptake of restorative justice in the UK.
She is a member of the Advisory Board to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Restorative Justice, contributing to the 2021 Inquiry Report and the second 2022 Inquiry. She has strong fundraising and finance skills and sees this as a priority foundation stone for a stable and successful organisation. In 2015 she established a direct national restorative justice service and strives to run Why me? on restorative principles.
In the last 2 years she has been a member of the EFRJ Working Group on Violent Extremism, attending regularly and being a co-editor on the Policy and Practice Papers.
ONGI ETORRI: A Conversation with Jorge Elias Ollero Peran
Board Member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice and Co-Host of the 2023 EFRJ International Conference. On location for the EFRJ Conference, June 22, 2023 in Pamplona, Spain.
In this 22 minute conversation with Jorge Peran, we hear the essential elements from him as to how RJ is universal, and how it is essential to speak face to face, listen deeply, and take our part in responding to harm and conflict. Jorge opened up this year's conference with a poem from his hometown in Navarre Spain, to set a tone of restoration and sharing of voice, which has potency beyond written communication.
Jorge shares about Ongi Etorri, a traditional greeting originating from the Basque country in Spain, and its meaning and similarities with the core values of restorative practices.
It was a true honor and pleasure to host Jorge and to be a part of this extraordinary convening. Thank you, Jorge, and EFRJ.
Restorative Justice: Insights and Stories from My Journey
Interviews with and essays by Dr. Zehr?— plus, for the first time, details and photos from his personal journey.
Here, Howard Zehr offers his most complete view of Restorative Justice as an approach to all of life. Zehr made his initial contribution in the area of criminal justice by pointing out that victims are sidelined in the Western justice system. He emphasized, too, that society’s laws for handling crime have often resulted in increased violence, more prisons, and unresolved human cost.
In this book he:
Distills his pioneering and influential work in Restorative Justice as a game-changer for the criminal justice system and conflict of all kinds.
Joins his RJ work with what he’s discovered in his additional career as a professional photographer and gatherer of people’s stories.
Demonstrates how RJ practices can extend to all of human interaction—through Respect, Relationships, and Responsibility, along with Humility and Wonder.
Shows how RJ can change our personal lives, as well as our communities.
This collection of Zehr’s seminal thinking is approachable, convincing, and inspiring. A powerful guide to sustaining our life together.
Interview from Justice Week During the Shift Network's Summer of Peace, 2012, Hosted by Molly Rowan Leach.
Arun Gandhi was born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa. Arun is the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. Growing up under the discriminatory apartheid laws of South Africa, he was beaten by “white” South Africans for being too black and “black” South Africans for being too white; so, Arun sought eye-for-an-eye justice. However, he learned from his parents and grandparents that justice does not mean revenge, it means transforming the opponent through love and suffering.
Grandfather taught Arun to understand nonviolence through understanding violence. “If we know how much passive violence we perpetrate against one another we will understand why there is so much physical violence plaguing societies and the world,” Gandhi said. Through daily lessons, Arun says, he learned about violence and about anger.
Arun shares these lessons all around the world. For the past five years, he has participated in the Renaissance Weekend deliberations with President Clinton and other well-respected Rhodes Scholars. In recent years his engagements included speaking at the Chicago Children’s Museum and the Women’s Justice Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He also delivered talks at the Young President’s Organization in Mexico, the Trade Union Leaders’ Meeting in Milan, Italy, as well as the Peace and Justice Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Sometimes, his journeys take him even further. Arun has spoken in Croatia, France, Ireland, Holland, Lithuania, Nicaragua, China, Scotland and Japan. Also, he is a very popular speaker on college campuses and in recent years, he has spoken at, North Dakota State University, Concordia College, Baker University, Morehouse College, Marquette University, and the University of San Diego, to name a few.
Arun is very involved in social programs and writing, as well. Shortly after Arun married his wife Sunanda, they were informed the South African government would not allow her to accompany him there. Sunanda and Arun decided to live in India, and Arun worked for 30 years as a journalist for The Times of India.
Arun and his late wife, Sunanda, rescued over 125 orphan children from the streets and placed them in loving homes around the world and began a Center for Social Change, which transformed the lives of millions in villages in the western state ofMaharashtra. Together, Arun and Sunanda started projects for the social and economic uplifting of the oppressed using constructive programs, the backbone of Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence.
The programs changed the lives of more than half a million people in over 300 villages and they still continue to grow.
In 1987 Sunanda and Arun came to the US and in 1991 they started the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence at the Christian Brothers University in Memphis Tennessee. In 2008 the Institute was moved to the University of Rochester, New York. In the 17 years of the Institute’s life the Gandhi’s took the message of nonviolence and peace to hundreds of thousands of high school and University youth around the US and much of the Western World.
Sunanda died in February of 2007 and the family is working to establish a residential-school in poorest rural India in her honor. Arun founded the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute in 2008 headquartered in a suburb outside of Chicago, ILL. The Institute was founded to promote community building in economically depressed areas of the world through the joining of Gandhian philosophy and vocational education for children and their parents.
Arun is the author of several books. The first, A Patch of White (1949), is about life in prejudiced South Africa; then, he wrote two books on poverty and politics in India; followed by a compilation of M.K. Gandhi’s Wit & Wisdom. He also edited a book of essays on World Without Violence: Can Gandhi’s Vision Become Reality? And, more recently, wrote The Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur, the Wife of Mahatma Gandhi, jointly with his late wife Sunanda and his bestseller Legacy of Love: My education in the path of nonviolence. In March of 2014 Grandfather Gandhi was released. A picture book for all ages by Arun Gandhi, Bethany Hegedus illustrated by Evan Turk.
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.
Restorative Justice on The Rise is an international live dialogue via Webcast and Telecouncil platform, held weekly, reaching an international constituency of a wide spectrum of invididuals, organizations, professionals, academics, practitioners, and beyond.
Interview from Justice Week During the Shift Network's Summer of Peace, 2012, Hosted by Molly Rowan Leach.