This five-day experience, "Exploring the Restorative Practices Continuum," will offer a journey from basic philosophy to in-depth preparation in implementing restorative approaches.

• Gain a solid grounding in the full range of restorative modalities, from formal responses to wrongdoing to informal practices integrated into everyday life.
• Discover valuable strategies to build strong healthy relationships with students, families, clients, employees and colleagues.
• Learn by doing, through experiential hands-on practice exercises.
• Join a dedicated international community of your fellow educators, social workers, probation officers, police, criminologists, administrators, counselors, volunteers, judges, clergy and others.
• Take home essential materials to help you implement what you’ve learned.

The IIRP's 13th World Conference, "Restorative Practices Across Disciplines," will be held October 13–15, 2010, in Hull, England, UK, in collaboration with Hull City Council. The conference will feature several plenary speakers, including Hull's Director of Children and Young People's Services Nigel Richardson, whose vision of a family-friendly city has led to training in restorative practices for 23,000 professionals and volunteers throughout the city. The Call for Presenters will be announced via the Restorative Practices eForum.

Download the Advance Notice (PDF) here.

The Spring Intensive is a rare opportunity to explore the full potential of restorative practices: a powerful four-day experience that will immerse you in the restorative culture of CSF Buxmont schools for delinquent and at-risk youth (IIRP demonstration programs), followed by two days of core restorative practices training. After two days of firsthand involvement in the restorative environment of a CSF Buxmont school, you can immediately deepen your understanding by learning about what you’ve just experienced.

"Restorative Practices: A Unifying Framework for Schools" — Designed for decision-makers to learn about restorative practices and determine whether they want to bring it to their school or district.

"Restorative Practices: A Unifying Framework for Schools" — Designed for decision-makers to learn about restorative practices and determine whether they want to bring it to their school or district.

On October 21-23, 2009, nearly three hundred educators, social service, criminal justice and other professionals from 15 countries and 18 U.S. states gathered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, for the 12th IIRP World Conference, "Restoring Community in a Disconnected World, Part 2." Like all IIRP conferences, the event was acclaimed by attendees as a wonderful opportunity to support each other’s efforts and share success stories and questions around restorative practices. An in-depth report on the conference will be published soon in the Restorative Practices eForum. We will also be posting breakout session papers, as presenters continue to send them in. (All breakout session papers are welcome.)

The November/December issue of Scholastic Administrator, a major national U.S. education magazine, features an in-depth article on restorative practices in schools. The article quotes IIRP president Ted Wachtel and IIRP director and assistant director of training and consulting, Bob Costello and John Bailie, as well as Richard Hollahan, principal of Newtown (Pennsylvania) Middle School and Russell Gallagher, assistant principal of West Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) High School. It also discusses restorative practices implementation, philosophy and effectiveness. Read the article here.

WTFX Fox 29 Philadelphia News's Steve Keeley reports on the reduction in school violence at West Philadelphia High School (formerly one of the city's most dangerous schools), due to restorative practices, live from an IIRP One-Day Conference in Philadelphia.

In this 36-page PDF document, IIRP Director of Research Sharon Lewis presents disciplinary and other data from U.S., Canadian and British schools that have implemented restorative practices. From the preface: "Taken together and 'in their own words,' it is clear that restorative practices is having a positive effect on the lives of many students and is changing the climate of many schools."

Greetings, eForum members, from day one of "Restoring Community in a Disconnected World, Part 2" in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. Hundreds of restorative practitioners, researchers, policy-makers and advocates from around the world have come together for three days to share their knowledge and achievements and to find support and advice from others doing similar work.