Over two hundred rj advocates or practitioners attended the 2010 BC Restorative Justice Conference, held April 30th – May 1st in Abbotsford, BC.
At the conference we heard from rj practitioners, victim advocates and politicians, we learned about current efforts in the field through panel discussions and presentations, and we worked together in small dialogue groups in order to move important issues forward in our province.
Several hot topics clearly stood out from the conference discussion:
Action Plans
On the second day of the conference, attendees broke out into fifteen working groups to discuss key issues and create viable action plans to further restorative practice in those areas. Click here for more information about the action plans.
Program Evaluation
Program evaluation is vital to a program’s success in many ways – it gives us the opportunity to ensure our practices reflect our values, it tells us if we’re meeting the needs of our clients, and it’s the most common way of demonstrating for our funders how their money was spent. Evaluation was a popular topic at the 2010 BC RJ Conference, where attendees expressed interest in sharing evaluation resources.Click here for more information about program evaluation.
RJ in Schools
The education system is a growing venue for restorative practice, and along with this area of practice come several challenges and issues. Conference attendees talked about a need to share resources about practicing school-based rj. Click here for more information about rj in schools.
Training
Another hot topic at the conference was training: how we do it, how often we do it, and so forth. The rj field relies heavily on volunteerism, and so how to train these volunteers is a crucial part of ensuring sound practice in the province. Click here for more information about training.
Additional Resources
It is rare to find a practitioner who has the experience and knowledge to skillfully address all of the complex issues we may encounter in the field, such as mental health, addiction, FASD, and so forth. We can’t master every issue, and this is where it’s sometimes helpful to inform ourselves about the issues and seek additional resources. Click here for more information about seeking additional resources.
Reflective Practice
BC Restorative Justice Coordinator Catherine Bargen gave a compelling presentation at the conference about ensuring our practice is reflective of our underlying values. Comments after the presentation included a request for a copy of Catherine’s presentation, which she later distributed. It can now be found by clicking here.