About the Session: Learn from a community panel of dialogue facilitators and RJ practitioners who support individuals and communities through difficult conversations.  We will discuss the different ways people get "stuck" in dialogue and reflect on methods for moving with and through these pivotal moments. We will examine the role of a facilitator in preventing and navigating tension and stagnancy, and will highlight effective options for when stickiness occurs.

To read panelist biographies, CLICK HERE.

About the Session: Learn from Ameyalli Mañon-Ferguson, the Cultural Ecology Program Manager for Parrott Creek Child and Family Services where she leads the stewardship of the 80 acres of mixed coniferous forest, creeks, wetlands, and grassland prairie at their youth residential treatment program site. This program serves highly traumatized adjudicated male youth as an alternative to incarceration, providing one-on-one and group therapy, drug and alcohol counseling, an on-site school and personalized treatment plans to build the skills they will need to go back into the community. 

As part of her role, Ameyalli engages these youth in the outdoors, partners with Indigenous community members and organizations, and collaborates with environmental organizations and agencies. By leading restoration through an Indigenous stewardship lens, prioritizing traditional ecological knowledge and service to the local Indigenous communities, the Cultural Ecology Program demonstrates a dedication to Indigenous peoples beyond land acknowledgment statements.  

A debrief and dialogue around the 2024 NW Justice Forum. Breakout conversations and circle practices will structure this event designed for those who attended as well as those who wish they could have made it.

About the NWJF: ​The NW Justice Forum fosters the gathering of individuals committed to, or interested in learning about, the principles and values of Restorative Justice. We gather to increase understanding, share practical application, ensure cultural inclusion, and explore theoretical implications of living and working restoratively in the Northwest.

About the Session: This workshop guides participants through the tools of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) with a decolonial and trauma-informed lens. New practitioners can expect to receive a framework for understanding how and why conflict occurs along with tools to explore to compassionate reconnection following rupture. Practitioners previously familiar with NVC can expect to receive fresh perspectives on how to approach the concept of relational non-violence within a global context of systemic oppression, power, and privilege. 

About the Presenter: Meenadchi is a somatic healing practitioner, TEDx speaker, and communications expert whose work centers social change and embodied transformation. Using a blend of Family Constellation Therapy and Non-Violent Communication, Meenadchi supports individuals and changemakers in reconnecting with the intuitive wisdom of our bodies so that we can co-create intergenerational healing by changing the way we speak to ourselves, each other, and the universe. Meenadchi holds a clinical license in occupational therapy and has historically served communities impacted by gender-based violence, complex trauma, and serious mental illness. She is the author of Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication(2019). 

A comprehensive discussion around the effects of recent legislation (HB 4002) on the 2020 Oregon Ballot Measure 110, which decriminalized low-level possession of drugs in Oregon. 

This panel conversation features representatives from the first cohort of programs funded by House Bill 2204 (2021) and the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC). Organizations are in various stages of program design and implementation and are developing unique community partnerships. All programs were created to address criminalized harm by intervening with the legal system and providing alternative paths to healing, safety, and justice.

This session features renowned author, photographer, distinguished professor and restorative justice practitioner Howard Zehr who will share about his most recent book publication: Restorative Justice - Insights and Stories from My Journey. He is joined by Barb Toews, associate professor of criminal justice at University of Washington, Tacoma, who will share about their portrait photography project collaboration Still Doing Life. The session will include open discussion as well as Q&A. 

This session features a panel of restorative justice advocates and practitioners speaking about the recently passed SB 586 and its implications for Oregon RJ programs and processes. We discuss the history of this legislative concept, explore why confidentiality protections are necessary for accountability to occur, and examine the practical applications of the new confidentiality statute, including important exceptions.

Science offers us some astoundingly powerful evidence that our heart has its own intelligence, and is a powerful living organism that can shift our ability to regulate, and thus connect. When we work with complex harm and conflict cases, one of the largest obstacles to going deeper into needs and repair is individual dysregulation. At the cutting edge of facilitation practices is the incorporation of simple practices for self and others that can and do support cultivating the optimal potential for trust, truth, and potential increases that restorative transformation might even occur.

Red Sea Road (RSR) aims to bring intentional relationships from the margins to the center. Restorative Justice philosophy and values practice has existed in collective-centered communities for generations. Native & Indigenous cultures have shared their wisdom through the ages. RSR seeks to continue to honor and share these practices, hoping that a more collective-centered community practice can exist in many different contexts.

“The Golden Repair” comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, in which broken objects are often repaired with Gold. Instead of “the flaw,” the broken object fixed by gold is seen as a unique part of the object's history and thus only adds to its beauty.

Hear from RSR founder Sidney Morgan informational session about RSR's 9-week offering for individuals that aspire to be RJ practitioners or want to deepen their current practice.

RJCO recently requested feedback from its Membership around what we should be prioritizing at this unique time in the Restorative Justice movement. This session was a conversation around the information we have received, as well as a group discussion to name other directions we may want to move in as a Coalition. 

Thanks to all who participated!

Restorative Justice is not only a set of principles, values, and practices for application in response to harm caused. Restorative Justice, rooted in relationship-building, accountability, trust and communication, and healing agreements, can inspire a way of life that approaches everyday contexts and conflicts in a restorative way. 

In this session we addressed: 

• What does it mean to live restoratively? 
• How can Restorative Justice inform our lives outside of conflict resolution processes? 
• What can we learn from Restorative Justice about how to live meaningfully? 
  

Because Restorative Practices are also relational practices, they ask us as educators to manage our biases and assumptions and be accountable for modeling the kind of speech and behavior we're asking our students to practice. This simple fact has profound implications for equity outcomes in schools? which continue to show disparities in exclusionary discipline practices on students of color? and it places RJin the middle of current political divisions making their way into school boards. In small groups and all together, we will explore what Restorative Practices can really look like in modern schools, and we will ask each other questions about how to navigate the highly charged atmosphere of schools and school boards.

Presenter Darren Reiley is a long-time educator currently serving as the RJ in Schools Program Manager at the Center for Dialogue and Resolution in Eugene, Oregon. Within that role, he offers professional services to researchers, teachers, administrators, and school communities as they look for ways to holistically implement restorative practices and philosophies into educational cultures.

Just Outcomes consultancy has had the opportunity to engage in multiple systems-change processes focused on implementing restorative justice values and principles within a variety of institutional and community settings.  Join us in an exploration of our missteps, lessons learned, and the considerations that now frame our systems-change work.  Participants will have the opportunity to discuss how these considerations might apply to their contexts.

Panelists include:  (Presenter bios HERE)

Matthew Hartman, MA

Co-Founder & Principal, Just Outcomes

Cara Walsh, MA

Senior Consultant and Facilitator, Just Outcomes

(RJCO members will also be able to continue the conversation in a forum on the Members page, link to be provided after the session.)

To register, click HERE

The Insight Development Group (IDG)  is a community based restorative justice education program serving those incarcerated at the Oregon State Correctional Institution since 2009. Our presentation will be an overview and exploration into our 10 years of evolutionary work around restorative justice capacity building on the inside. Restorative justice encompasses a wide paradigm of community and justice practices. In Oregon, the incarcerated adults, and those who are justice involved still remain extremely underserved when it comes to restorative justice opportunities. We will share with you our greatest take-aways and challenges of restorative justice capacity building on the inside, and invite the RJ community into discussion on (adult) prison based RJ opportunities. 

Presenters include:

Gina Ronning, IDG Program Director/Facilitator

Carmaleta Aufderheide, IDG Assistant Program Director/Facilitator

Kevin Roper, Former Adult in Custody Lifer, IDG Inside Founder/Program Mentor

RJCO Member Link to Post-RJ Cafe Chat HERE

Please join us for a presentation on applying Restorative Justice to serious harms/crimes.

Topics addressed:

• Use of RJ as an alternative to criminal and juvenile system prosecution;
• Restoratively navigating serious person harms/crimes; 
• Working with legal system referring agencies and remaining survivor-oriented; 
• Practical challenges of getting new services up and running on short notice and with limited resources.

Presentation by Amore Alvarenga, Erica Washington, and Sandra Rodriguez from Impact Justice, a national innovation and research center advancing new ideas and solutions for justice reform.

House Bill 2204 directs the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) to establish a program to award $4 million in grants to public and private entities for restorative justice programs throughout Oregon.

Tristen Edwards, Public Defender and co-writer of HB 2204 presented along with other RJCO and CJC committee members. The discussion will include: an overview of the bill, process and timeline updates, small group and large group discussion, and time for Q&A.  

Presenter Sidney Morgan cotinues the conversation begun in December.  She has been working as a Restorative Justice Practitioner for 17 years.  She has worked with Multnomah County Juvenile Justice, Portland Public Schools, and is currently engaged in her own Red Sea Road Consulting agency to support organizations in Race, Equity, and Restorative Justice work.  Sidney believes that this work is a marathon, not a sprint, and it will take more personal and professional efforts to see change happen.  

What kinds of resistance to RJ have you encountered?  What are your own areas of resistance, hesitations, or concerns?  How can we address resistance to RJ?

Facilitators:

Carley Adams, Program Manager Beaverton Center for Mediation and Dialogue  

Lisa Fitzgerald, Program Coordinator Beaverton Center for Mediation and Dialogue

Join our panelists in a discussion of strategies for RJ implementation and success in schools during COVID.

Panelists include:

Raphaelle (Raphi) Miller, Director of RJ at Medford Resolve

Char Hutson, Community Outreach Coordinator at PPS

Darren Reiley, RJ in Schools Program Manager at Eugene CDR

Maria Scanelli, Co-Director of Restorative Justice at Portland Resolutions Northwest

Presenter Sidney Morgan has been working as a Restorative Justice Practitioner for 17 years.  She has worked with Multnomah County Juvenile Justice, Portland Public Schools, and is currently engaged in her own Red Sea Road Consulting agency to support organizations in Race, Equity, and Restorative Justice work. 

Sidney believes that this work is a marathon, not a sprint, and it will take more personal and professional efforts, to see change happen.