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There are some interesting observations about "apology" in this guest post by Ben Furman at Coert Visser's Doing What Works: Forward in Solution-Focused Change blog.

In the US, medical doctors have been advised for years by lawyers not apologize if patients complained about them. An apology, the lawyers used to explain, indicates admission of culpability and acts as invitation for a malpractice lawsuit. Massachusetts was the first State to adopt what is called an apology law in the mid 80s. It is a law that stipulates that an apology made by a medical practitioner to a patient may not be used against the practitioner in the court of law. Apology laws, which give legal permission for doctors to apologise to patients for their mistakes, have since been passed in most States in USA. It has been estimated that such laws have brought huge savings to the medical establishment through reducing the number of malpractice suits, increasing the number of resolved cases and decreasing the amount of moneys paid in compensation.

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Here's news from IIRP's sister organization, Buxmont Academy, which has opened its first elementary school, which will operate with the use of restorative practices in a unique partnership with the local school district.

 

The Buxmont Academy Elementary Program at Pottstown opened its doors January 30, 2012, to provide elementary-school children with essential education and special education services close to home.

Buxmont Academy executive director Craig Adamson expressed appreciation to the Pottstown School District for recognizing Buxmont’s proven-effective methods for helping children, youth and families succeed academically through the use of restorative practices. (Buxmont Academy currently operates five secondary-level schools in eastern Pennsylvania, including one in Pottstown.)

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Photo by Tim Plante - from Flickr Creative CommonsTo conclude the series this week of posts about Building Campus Community, IIRP's newest project dealing with applying Restorative Practices in residential life departments at colleges and universities, I'll conclude with a short passage from Chapter 5, Responsive Restorative Circles, from the new book.

For more information about this project, visit the Building Campus Community web site. Note, too, that there will be webinars on this topic offered on February 23, March 19 and April 3.

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Today's offering is, again, a sample from the Building Campus Community book. This passage is from Chapter 4, Proactive Community Circles:

 

Creative Ways to Engage Residents in Proactive Community Circles

While supervisors will most likely provide RAs with topic ideas and guidelines about how frequently to hold community circles with residents, experience shows that flexibility is really important, too. RAs who adapt circles to suit their personalities, their residents’ needs and attributes, the unique circumstances of each living situation and the common space available for meetings tend to have the best success.

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IIRP now has a brand new book, Building Campus Community: Restorative Practices in Residential Life. I co-wrote the book with Ted Wachtel, and the introductory chapter was co-written by Stacey Miller, University of Vermont Director of Residential Life, and Ted Wachtel.

Here are a couple excepts from Chapter 3 discussing the special role of the RA and how Restorative Practices can help balance the ideals of being a community leader with the need to also enforce behavioral norms:

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This week I'll be featuring different links related to IIRP's newest project, Building Campus Community. This project helps campuses apply the full spectrum of restorative practices at the college and university level, beginning specifically with residence halls. Restorative practices gives resident advisors (RA's) a wide range of tools for both building community proactively and responding to harm and wrongdoing when it occurs.

By way of introduction, here are two videos from administrators and RA's at the University of Vermont, a campus currently in its second year of RP implementation for residence halls across the entire campus.

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This piece was written by John Macdonald discussing Hull, UK's project to become the world's first restorative city by implementing restorative practices throughout the city for public service agencies working with youth, including schools and police. He makes the case that private business would do well to examine restorative practices as a leadership model. The article first appeared under the title "Restoring Your Bottom Line: Restorative Practices in the Business Environment."

IIRP has worked extensively with Hull, conducting trainings and offering materials that Hull uses for its trainings. Read more about Hull's efforts to become a restorative city here.

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March 6 & 7, 2012, 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM

Hosted by: Lancaster Catholic High School, 650 Juliette Avenue, Lancaster, PA

Two in-service days offered in the SaferSanerSchools Whole-School Change Program

Introduction to Restorative Practices — $140 Tuesday, March 6, 2012 — Register here.
Ideally paired with Using Circles Effectively

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Last week I linked to a blog post by Photographer Matt Roth about City Springs Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore and their successful use of Restorative Practices for dealing with safety issues. Today I'm reposting a piece about the Baltimore Curriculum Project, which discusses the history and context of their adoption of Restorative Practices. The original post can be found here.

In the fall of 2005 Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP) President Muriel Berkeley attended a workshop at the Maryland Charter School Network Conference that sparked a wholesale transformation of school culture at BCP's four neighborhood charter schools: City Springs School, Collington Square School of the Arts, Hampstead Hill Academy, and Wolfe Street Academy.

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Photographer Matt Roth posted some lovely photos recently on his blog, part of a photo shoot for an article that appeared in Education Week last summer.

The quote that stands out for me is this one, a candid impression of what it felt like to spend time in City Springs Elementary/Middle School, a school that is part of the Baltimore Curriculum Project and  with whom IIRP has worked extensively:

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