Restorative Practices in Schools
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Activating Empathy: Transforming Schools To Teach What Matters competition.
This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Restorative Practices in Schools.
The Student RJ Team uses restorative practices to prevent crime and conflict in their schools. This youth-centered project increases conflict resolution skills.
About You
About You
First Name
Laura
Last Name
Snider
Twitter URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Longmont Community Justice Partnership
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, CO, Longmont, Boulder County
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, CO, Longmont, Boulder County
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
After-School Provider, Coach, Other.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
When facing crime and conflict in schools, often teacher, administrator and school resource officer tools are limited to suspensions, expulsions, tickets and other punishments. In 2008-09, St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) School Resource Officers (SROs) arrested 236 juveniles and 1172 students were suspended or expelled. Of those suspended or expelled, 33% were Latino youth, disproportionate to the 27% Latino population in the schools. In the 2009-10 school year, 63000 days of unexcused absences occurred and over 1800 students were suspended or expelled. (CO Dept of Education 2011) Criminalizing school-based offenses has led to accusations of a schools-to-prison pipeline in which academic failure, dropout rates, truancy and exclusionary discipline practices are key elements.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
LCJP offers the only restorative alternative to using the criminal justice system or serious school consequences to reduce crime and conflict in the SVVSD. Restorative Justice (RJ) strengthens community, builds accountability and focuses on harm and repair in a way that can help reduce the likelihood of re-offense. Students often have no means of repairing harm caused by their behavior, leaving both the victim and offender feeling isolated. Furthermore, students have little opportunity for school-bonding and successful reintegration once an incident has occurred. RJ increases empathy by giving the victim the chance for equal voice; the offender the opportunity to discover how the victim, community and himself/herself have been affected; repairing harm to the fullest extent possible; teaching students to be peer leaders by empowering youth to take the lead in RJ process; and keeping students in school and out of the justice system. RJ directly breaks the schools-to-prison pipeline.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
In the Pilot Project (PP), the full spectrum of discipline offenses—from repeated classroom disruption to relational issues between students to possession of drugs to assault—can be addressed using a restorative intervention led by a trained team of middle and high school students. Referrals come to a coordinator from school personnel, school resource officers, and students themselves, and are then assigned to members of the Student RJ Team who can lead—in either English or Spanish—Connection Circles for community building, Restorative Mediation for relationship problems, and Solution Circles when an offense has occurred. The lifecycle of each of these processes is based on the principles of relationship, respect, responsibility, repair, and reintegration. The members of the Student RJ Team facilitate repairing harm to the fullest extent possible by giving equal voice to all participants, identifying how each person has been affected and creating a restorative agreement. In the 2010-11 school year, 89% of the 100 referred students completed their agreements, 111 days of suspension were prevented (an increase of 777 school hours), 52 tickets/court referrals were avoided, and 6 students who would have been expelled were able to remain in school. In addition, 95% of process participants—victims, offenders, school personnel, student community representatives and parents—reported that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the restorative process. The PP directly addresses the need to keep students in school, enhance empathy, and reduce crime and conflict in our schools.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
The Pilot Project (PP) is the result of a partnership with the Longmont Police Department School Resource Officer (SRO) Program and the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) who are also working to reduce crime, suspensions and expulsions in the schools. In an effort to include all stakeholders, one of the SVVSD Area Assistant Superintendents, the SROs of all the pilot schools, two representatives from school administration, the Sergeant of the Longmont SROs, City of Longmont Children, Youth and Family Services and RJ field experts sit on an Advisory Group for the PP to solidify the collaborative relationship necessary for continued partnership. Currently, we are the only organization offering a restorative alternative in the SVVSD, as well as in the Longmont community.
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
The Pilot Project empowers students to reduce crime and conflict in their schools through the use of Restorative Justice practices.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
Students facilitate RJ processes that highlight equal voice, accountability for bad choices, community involvement and repair of harm.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
The impact of the Pilot Project (PP) from Aug 2010 to Feb 2012 has been twofold: increasing school success for referred students and youth empowerment and ownership for the members of the Student RJ Team. For the referred students, the PP has prevented 150 days of suspension (approximately 1050 hours of class time saved), 8 expulsions, and 71 court referrals, demonstrating an impact on reducing crime and exclusionary discipline in the pilot schools. It has also allowed the offenders to hear directly from the people affected, and assess how the ripple effect can be both negative and positive. Equally important is the impact that the PP has had on the students trained to facilitate the processes who have logged more than 1200 volunteer hours; developed high level skills such as active listening, reframing, sensitivity to power dynamics, and conflict resolution; and discovering that they can successfully affect change in their school by being active, engaged members of their community.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
The Pilot Project (PP) is expected to expand over the next 3 years—increasing our case capacity, effectively reducing exclusionary discipline practices and court referrals, training more students to lead Restorative Justice (RJ) processes, shifting toward a culture of conflict resolution and early intervention based on the principles of relationship, respect, responsibility, repair and reintegration, and enhancing empathy in both referred students and facilitators. We are currently undertaking a peer-coaching/training model in which mentoring of new members plays a central role. As a means of supporting this peer-to-peer modality, we have designed a Student Summer Internship to assist with project development, training of new Student RJ Team members and youth-adult collaboration.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Have students facilitate 60% of processes to demonstrate ownership of RJ practices and enhance empathy skills.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Hold monthly trainings on high level skills such as active listening, re-framing, asking open questions, & listening for needs.
Task 2
Hold 4 peer coaching/training sessions per semester for students to share their experiences and how to overcome challenge
Task 3
Create 3 mentoring opportunities within the team to assist with identifying and repairing harm from a strengths-based approach.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
10% of total referrals are self-referrals indicating a culture shift toward youth empowerment, awareness & conflict prevention.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Give 5 presentations about conflict resolution opportunities available in the pilot schools so students know how to access them.
Task 2
Promote the use of restorative practices in classrooms through 3 teacher training and teambuilding opportunities.
Task 3
Offer 3 trainings to middle school students on basic RJ principles and skills to encourage them to utilize self-referrals.
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
In 2008, the Superintendent of St. Vrain Valley School District announced at a School Board Meeting that he wanted to use restorative justice with cases of non-mandatory expulsion. When that program had a 75% success rate, LCJP saw an opportunity to deepen the impact restorative justice has in SVVSD by targeting a feeder system and utilizing the wisdom of youth to lead the charge. In 2010, the Pilot Project emerged with the idea of recruiting and training high school students to facilitate RJ circles. A coordinator who spends 3 days a week in the high school was hired, and the Student RJ Team began to field cases of theft, fights at school, bullying, assault and harassment. Early on it was clear that we needed to not only address the high level disciplinary interventions, but also provide earlier opportunities for restorative interactions, leading to training in and utilization of restorative mediation and connection circles for relationship building--addressing the full spectrum.
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
The City of Longmont and the Longmont Police Department have been partners since 1996. Our Pilot Project relies heavily on relationships with the School Resource Officers and St. Vrain Valley School District as well as our volunteers on the Student RJ Team. Currently, we are working to expand our partnerships with local businesses. Ziggi’s Coffee House in Longmont has agreed to partner with us to provide low-cost meals during monthly RJ Skills Training making it possible to attract students to consistently attend these early morning meetings. Blackjack Pizza has also provided food previously.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
We rely exclusively on the Student RJ Team and RPS Coordinator for leading processes, training, and outreach. Goals for next year are to increase the number of students trained to lead all proceses and more opportunities for peer coaching, mentorship and practice. Our program is dependent on students self-referring and administrators/School Resource Officers referring cases. In May we will begin an outreach and education plan that includes presentations at lunch in all of the Pilot Schools, recruitment for next year, and monthly reminders to referring agents to help increase our visibility.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
We are always looking for funding opportunities to sustain and expand our youth-led initiative. Currently we are working on a short documentary tracking the development of the Student RJ Team to increase awareness about students using RJ in their schools. Partnership and collaboration are at the core of LCJP's community relationships, and we rely on the mentorship and innovation of our volunteers.
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| students_practicing_restorative_mediation.jpg | 666.28 KB |
