Schedule of Day 3 | 24 June 2022
For My Community
8:45 a.m. Virtual Platform Login
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9:00 a.m. Opening Message
Community: Origin, Purpose, Conflict & Hope
Director of Community Engagement
International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) Graduate School​
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9:30 a.m. Concurrent Breakout Sessions: Building a Connected Community
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Session 1: Building Community In and With The Neighbourhood
Director of Community Engagement
International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) Graduate School​
Deputy Chief, Detroit Police Department
Chief Executive Officer, Black Family Development
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Can community based and governmental agencies help promote healthy relationships among citizens in the neighborhoods they serve? The answer is a resounding YES! Join Pastor Henry McClendon, Detroit Deputy Police Chief Eric Ewing, and Black Family Development President/CEO Mrs. Kenyetta Stephens as they discuss how they are transforming the internal workings of their respective agencies and externally promoting healthy community development by using restorative practices.
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Session 2: An Explicit Practice Roadmap to Building a Connected School Community
Restorative Practitioner, Trainer & Education Consultant in Restorative Practice & Leadership
Perhaps the greatest benefit from collaboration in school communities will come when leaders, staff, students and parents are able to understand and experience ‘explicit’ practice. This process will prove to be a fairly onerous challenge because it involves a fundamental rethink of ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what’ we do.
Our best contribution is to create the conditions that allow students [and their families] to learn to sit with the discomfort of their vulnerability so they can begin to:
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make sense and meaning of what is happening in their lives;
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work out what matters; what is important;
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identify what needs to change; and their part in this change process; and,
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learn how to develop and sustain healthy relationships.
Another key aspect related to working assumptions is that the greatest influence comes from those who are important in our lives. Explicit practice involves sharing the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of ‘what’ we do with students and families and helps develop a ’narrative’ that encapsulates in simple language the importance of relationships in everything that happens in our school community. We then identify those areas where we begin to implement and integrate our explicit [relational] restorative practice in everything we do to build enhanced community connectedness & participation.
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Session 3: The Challenge of Developing a Restorative Community Agency
Retired Director of Real Justice Australia
Director, Restorative Journeys
Re-Engage Youth Services was recognised by Business Review Weekly in 2016 as the ‘6th Best Australian Workplace’. Established in 2010 as a community agency, Re-Engage focused on supporting vulnerable young people and their families. Its transformation from an initial staff of ten [subsequently increased to 85] and a caseload of nearly 1000 at-risk young people and families is remarkable. Without doubt Re-Engage became Australia’s ‘leading edge’ youth services organisation.
The catalyst for the significant cultural change surprisingly had very little to do with restorative but was an outcome of making explicit the practice that worked. Recognising that quality relationships [research literature] made the greatest difference, Re-Engage found that Silvan Tomkins’ psychology of affects provided the theoretical underpinning that prescribed the conditions that allowed vulnerability [shame] to become a way to build connections, with self and others.
Their explicit framework fostered collaborative processes, strong collegial relationships and more consistent, intentional and impactful practice. Key elements of restorative practice [such as restorative question cards] became an integral part of day-to-day practice. Re-Engage adopted four basic tenets that shaped their engagement processes: being restorative with self; with colleagues; with young people and families; and, with broader community. Explicit practice ensured that restorative became the ‘relational currency’ needed to build relational capacity in staff, young people and their families.
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Session 4: Why relationships matter for my community
Chief Executive Officer, AMKFSC Community Services
Asset-based Community Development is an approach that focuses on harnessing residents’ strengths as a means of meeting the community’s needs, seeing people, especially the vulnerable and marginalised, as contributors and change agents rather than as mere consumers of services. At its core, the Asset-based Community Development approach is built on the relationships between residents within a community, transforming neighbourhoods by creating networks of mutual support and care.
Covid-19 has brought to light the importance of Asset-based Community Development, and how community care is needed more urgently than ever in the face of a pandemic. In this breakout session, hear the inspiring stories of how everyday residents and beneficiaries stepped up to lead community initiatives and look out for each other during the height of Covid-19, and learn about how building relationships through the Asset-based Community Development approach is integral to creating an uplifting, restorative and inclusive society for everyone.
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10:30 a.m. Dialogue 3: Fostering connection and responsibility
As human beings we create social bonds across multiple communities; at work, in schools, and in our neighbourhoods. It is through these connections that we get support in our times of need. It is therefore important to take ownership of our communities for us to grow and thrive.
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Speakers:
Professor in Criminology & Social Work
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong
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Restorative Practitioner, Trainer & Education Consultant in Restorative Practice & Leadership
Head of the Public Safety and Security Programme and Military Studies Minor
Singapore University of Social Sciences
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12:00 p.m. Closing Dialogue
Retired Director of Real Justice Australia
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12:30 p.m. Break
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2:00 p.m. Post Conference Chat
This post conference session will allow those who participated in Kerrie Sellen and Terry O’Connell's presentation to gain a greater insight into the day-to-day practical application of the explicit restorative practice framework Re-Engaged used when engaging vulnerable young people and their families . You will get a chance to explore those issues and questions that arose during the main presentation
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Speakers:
Retired Director of Real Justice Australia
Director, Restorative Journeys
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4:00 p.m. End of Restorative Conference
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