An Introduction to Restorative Circles with Dominic Barter

This systemic approach guides communities in choosing how they would like to respond to future conflict – proactively preventing or diminishing harm – while also giving participants a real-life experience of the practical power of nonviolence to seed understanding and change in challenging contexts.

Developed in the shanty towns, schools, courts and prisons of urban Brazil, Restorative Circles are being used in a wide variety of contexts and countries, where creating the conditions for social justice, group cohesion, resilient relationships and personal healing are recognized as interconnected and vital.

The Circles support dialogue rooted in open-hearted clarity and tangible power-sharing - calling us to rethink our view of and response to living with others, while engaging with the challenge of consciously strengthening community well-being. The results open up revolutionary possibilities for furthering a culture of peace.

In this evening introduction, Dominic Barter will illustrate by real world examples the evolution and practice of this work, and its application to diverse areas of our personal and collective lives.

This event will be filmed; you will have the choice to not appear on the videotape.

Dominic Barter began developing restorative practices and systems in the mid 1990s, inspired by the social complexity of Rio de Janeiro, his adopted home, and his study with Marshall Rosenberg in Nonviolent Communication. Since 2004 he has been the training program director and consultant to the Brazilian Justice Department’s Restorative Justice pilot projects, in collaboration with UNDP, UNESCO, the Special Secretariat for Human Rights, local communities and State Secretaries for Education. In 2008 Dominic was a keynote speaker at the International Conference on Restorative Practices. He coordinates the Restorative Justice Project for the international Center for Nonviolent Communication.

CO-CREATING THE RESOURCES FOR THESE EVENTS AND THIS WORK:

We are committed to making this work available to all who request it.

It is offered in the spirit of a gift.

There is no specific fee required in exchange for participation. We invite those who come to do so in the spirit of receiving a gift.

We see us all as sharing power capable of creating the conditions for the world we want to live in. To support the exercise of this power, information on the financial resources used in developing and presenting this work will be shared during the evening. We hope this will support those participants who so choose to contribute financially toward meeting the event's costs and supporting the on-going work.

For those interested, we also welcome contributions before the event, which help to offset upfront costs. Please continue on to Payment Options if you would like to make such a contribution.

(You can also register for the 2-day workshop: Nov 14-15.)

• How can this be useful for my group or community?
• Restorative Circles offer a way to:
• * restore the connections and relationships necessary for healthy and safe communities;
• * create opportunities for everyone affected by the conflict to speak and be heard;
• * engage individuals and their communities to take responsibility for particular conflicts and ownership of the process;
• * tap into the resourcefulness of the community for creating next steps.
• To learn more see “Toward Peace and Justice in Brazil: Dominic Barter and Restorative Circles” by Joshua Wachtel (attached) or www.iirp.org/realjustice/library/brazil.html.

The tuition is between $1.00 and $35.00.