News & Announcements

Day 1 – Wednesday, June 10

9 AM–12 PM – Plenary Session

Panel Theme: Criminal Justice

Ted Wachtel, IIRP’s founder and first president, will open the conference by sharing his dream of a new multidisciplinary social science and a new social movement based on restorative practices (RP). He will also foster opportunities for discussion during the morning sessions.

Beginning with a short film, The Woolf Within, that explores RP’s roots in restorative justice, the conference will survey the potential scope of both reactive and proactive RP, from justice, school and workplace to community and families, all unified by a simple premise — that it is better for those in authority to do things with people than to them or for the.

In this morning session, IIRP Europe regional director Vidia Negrea and Lieutenant Colonel Mihály Kovács (Video) will highlight their experiences working formally and informally in prisons and related settings with victims and offenders in Hungary. Lt. Col. Kovács is head of the Departament of Central Transport and Registration at the Hungarian Prison Service Headquarters.

Maeve Lewis, executive director of One in Four, will provide an overview of how her agency uses restorative practices in working with the impact of sexual abuse in Ireland (Video).

Mary Henihan will introduce the Le Cheile Restorative Justice Project, which works with young people in Limerick, Ireland, discuss its restorative innovations, and present the results of an independent evaluation of the project (Video).

1–1:50 PM – Breakout Sessions #1

• Why the Real Justice Script? – Terry O'Connell — Slides
• Compassionate Mediation as a Foundation for Restorative Practices – John-Robert Curtin — Slides
• The Many Faces of Restorative Justice: Connecting the Dots on a Restorative Journey – Chuck Daly
• Working with Non-Contracts – Jan Ruigrok — Slides | Handout
• In Conflict with Myself: Restorative Practices as a General Approach in Private/Group Therapy – Kíra Le-Botos, Ágnes Panyi

2–2:50 PM – Breakout Sessions #2

• A European Model of Restorative Justice with Young People – Tim Chapman — Slides
• 3 on 3 Solutions for Negative Behaviour Modification – John-Robert Curtin — Slides
• Meeting Needs and Facing the Complexities of Sexual Abuse Through Restorative Justice – Deirdre Kenny, Maeve Lewis
• Innovative Restorative Practices by Ligand and Oranjehuis (Flanders, Belgium) – Michael Michiels, Stijn Deprez, Sabine Bourgeois
• Bullying: "Can Adults Ever Catch Up?" – John Boulton, Les Davey Slides | Handout
• Circles in Schools: Cultivating Courage, Compassion and Community – Lindy Pfeil
• Restorative Practice in the Workplace: A Framework Approach – Bruce Schenk
• What Do We Need to Do to Get Communities to Adopt Restorative Practices? – John Paul Rosiak, M.A. — Slides

3:10–4 PM – Breakout Sessions #3

• The Influential Leader: Using Restorative Concepts and Approaches for More Effective Employee Engagement – Sharon Mast — Slides
• Working Across Frontiers: The ALTERNATIVE Research Project in Northern Ireland – Tim Chapman, Hugh Campbell — Slides
• Dogmatic Rifts within a Women’s Café: Steps Towards Using Restorative Circles on Issues of Faith – Christa Pelikan, Katrin Kremmel
• Prison Radio: Restorative Practices on Air – Vidia Negrea, Judit Hajdu
• Exploring the Intention of Family Group Conferencing from a Traditional Indigenous Worldview – Gayle Desmeules
• Creating a Restorative and Relational Classroom with Your Students – Dr. Belinda Hopkins
• Restorative Practices in Schools: A Perspective from Singapore – Julia Fang-Ying Wong, Ph.D.

Day 2 – Thursday, June 11

9 AM–12 PM – Plenary Session

Panel Theme: Education/Community

John Bailie, who on July 1 begins his tenure as the second president of IIRP, will chair the morning session, beginning with his presentation on Safer Saner Schools, the IIRP’s Whole-School Change program. As chair, he will also foster opportunities for discussion during the morning sessions (Video).

The panel members will share their experiences as restorative practitioners working with staff and students in schools in their respective countries.

• Anett Mundrucz, an educator at Zold Kakas Lyceum (Video), and
• Sara E Tobiás, a family and adult psychologist, will share an overview of their experiences as restorative practitioners working with staff and students in Hungarian schools (Video), as will
• Belinda Hopkins, director of Transforming Conflict, who pioneered the application of restorative principles in school settings in the UK in the late 1990’s (Video) and
• Nicola Preston, who has been a police officer, a restorative justice trainer, a special needs student educator and a lecturer in a master’s degree program in restorative practices. — Speech | Video 

Overcoming 700 years of mutual distrust using Restorative Practices and Sociodrama - Social Inclusion and Social Transformations: Roma Inclusion in the Transsylvanian town of Cluj Napoca. The main presenter for this hour will be Eva Fahlström, a pioneering psychodramatist from Sweden (Video), and representing the team in Cluj:

• Julia Adorjani and Olimpiu Bela Lacatus, process leaders
• Alexandru Petru Fechete, community facilitator

1–1:50 PM – Breakout Sessions #4

• Alternative Ways to Peacemaking in an Intercultural Context – Dr. Borbala Fellegi, Gabriella Benedek
• Restorative Practices, Neuroscience and the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning – Nicola Preston — Slides
• A Relational and Restorative Community: A Restorative Bridge Between Community, School, University and Prison – Prof. Patrizia Patrizi, Dott. Gian Luigi Lepri, Ernesto Lodi, Ph.D.
• Being at the Heart of the Problem and Its Solution: Family Group Conferencing – Ms. Hélène Van Dijk
• Restorative Actions Demolish Bars: Reintegration Project in All Hungarian Prisons – Zoltán Bogschütz
• Real Stories of Real Justice: Restorative Conflict Management in Zold Kakas Liceum – Anett Mundrucz
• Aggression Management in Hungarian Secondary Schools: The Mérei Programme for Aggression Prevention in Budapest – Ms. Sára E. Tóbiás
• Translating Restorative into Corporate Culture – Kay Kyungsun Yu

2–2:50 PM – Breakout Sessions #5

• Becoming a Restorative Practice Culture: A Journey for Faith Communities – Bruce Schenk
• Peacemaking Circles in Family Courts: A Giant Step Forward – Elizabeth J. Vastine
• The Long Way of Implementing Restorative Practices in a Post-Communistic Country: Changing Minds – Monika Mikloškova, Ph.D.
• The Restorative Practices Continuum Within and Around a Prison – Vidia Negrea
• Restore with a Smile: The Provocative Approach – Jan Ruigrok— Slides
• Maintaining the Momentum: Over a Decade of Travel Down the Restorative Road – Ms. Linda Evans
• Be the Change You Want to See: Exemplary Restorative Leadership – Dr. Belinda Hopkins

3:10–4 PM – Breakout Sessions #6

• Being Restorative: The Art of Living (Together) – Michael Michiels, Stijn Deprez, Sabine Bourgeois
• Meeting Needs: Managing Fears and Expectations in the Conferencing of Sensitive and Complex Cases – John Boulton, Les Davey Slides | Handout
• "Horton Hatches the Egg": Creative Approaches in Working Restoratively with a Group of Teenage Girls – Clair Aldington M.A., Alyson Halcrow M.A.
• Opportunities and Limits of Restorative Justice in Hungarian Prisons – Dóra Szegő
• What Can We Learn from Intercultural Framing? Case Study of Restorative Justice in a Hungarian Village – László Balla
• Keith Valley Middle School K'NEX: Making Connections, Building Relationships – Dr. Andrew R. Osborne
• Olympic Level Trainers: Mastering the Science Behind Training Engagement – Sharon Mast — Slides

Day 3 – Friday, June 12

9 AM–12 PM – Plenary Session

Panel Theme: System Change

Rob van Pagée is director of Op Kleine Schaal (OKS) and founder of Eigen Kracht Centrale, a pioneering restorative agency in the Netherlands, and he trains and consults in many countries. He hopes to engage the audience as participants in this morning’s discussion.

The theme: The long way implementing restorative practices in former socialist countries: Where are we in the process since 1989, and what is next?

The theme has implications for all of us, in any locale, who are trying to achieve system change — with sustainability. His guest panelists will share from their varied experience and hopefully so will the audience:

• Mária Herczog, Chair, Csalad, gyermek, ifhusag Egyesület (Family, Child, Youth Association, Budapest) & President, Eurochild (Brussels, Belgium) — Video
• Maria Petkova, Director, Tulip Foundation (Sofia, Bulgaria) — Video
• Juhaszne Czegledy Ibolya, Programme Advisor, International Office CEE/CIS SOS Villages (Hungary) — Video 
• Zeljka Burgund, President, FICE Serbia, Director, "U Krugu Porodice (In the Family Circle)" (Belgrade, Serbia) — Video
• Joseph Mikloško, PRIDE-trainer, Usmev Ako Dar (Bratislava, Slovakia) — Video

1–3 PM — Plenary Session

1-2 PM — Film: "Letter from the Mayor"

This film by Paul de Bont documents a family group conference held in a small Dutch community struggling with a variety of issues that were negatively affecting the quality of life in the village.