NVC and Restorative Justice

"No social workers. No police. No parents. No offenders. No victims. No judges. No teachers. Just human beings."

-Dominic Barter

Restorative Circles
Justly known for its unique cultural celebrations of life, Brazil also represents one of the most racially diverse and economically unequal countries on earth.

Youth are particularly affected, with urban death rates for those under 25 surpassing those of many war zones. In this context the UN calculates that with 2.8% of the world's population, Brazil has over 13% of all the world's murders. With the education, justice and social welfare systems suffering overwhelming pressure the Brazilian authorities invited Dominic Barter to develop a response based on Restorative Justice principles and Nonviolent Communication.

Here is a report from Dominic, founder of the NVC & Restorative Circles process, on Sat July 19, from Sao Paolo, Brazil:

This year's reworking of the Sao Paulo Restorative Justice (RJ) project - which includes teams I am training visiting schools and community spaces, and round-table supervision sessions with me for court workers - has been producing markedly more effective results, and this has translated into greater public interest in Restorative Circles. It has also brought a great deal of relief for those of us who are investing our lives in this process, and long to see it serving people in meaningful ways.

The changes have also enabled us to evaluate more of the implementation process in the three areas of focus, which has given us data which further attracts attention to what Circles make possible and the support they bring to our daily lives.

We were recently the subject of a two-page spread in a large circulation Sao Paolo daily
newspaper, which showed a photograph of a Circle in a school and featured interviews with participants, facilitators, school directors, parents and judges. Many tens of thousands of people now know that 93% of the Circles in SP conclude in an agreement all participants feel satisfied with, and 95% of those action plans are carried out.

What they don't know is that we've seen the number of cases 'judicialized' - reaching the judge - diminish significantly where the Circles are present in the schools and community. In one case there has been a 50% drop. I can't believe we 're the only factor in this (though the drop corresponds to when we began) but so far we've have been unable to find other factors.

I hope to write up these stats more fully later this year. One more for now: my favourite school that's implemented the Circles has now done over 100, with 1000 students participating - that's over a 3rd of the student body. The principle - retiring at the end of this year after 3 decades in the same school - says she's never seen such a shift in the culture of a school.

Last week, as a response to these results, I was invited to offer training to a large group of education administrators, in the first move by the State Education Authority to train its own key workers. One moment particularly touched me: a Circle formed to practice, and brought together a school director, education administrators, a public prosecutor and others who had - until a week ago - been on opposing sides of the recent teacher's strike.

The tears of gratitude at the process, shared with the whole group, as well as the insights reported, resounded on many levels. What kind of world would we be living in if responding to differences this way were as obvious as fear and seperation presently are?

Two national TV news channels covered the Circles last week. (All in all we were featured in 10 newspaper and news web sites this week). The one I most enjoyed interviewed me at length and then used my words, in the voice of the journalist, to illustrate the Restorative system and it's workings.

Far more powerful than my hopeful testimony and odd accent was the sight of the camera panning round the RJC room in an school where Circles are now the norm as the voice-over paraphrased my sense that these rooms are a wholly new kind of space in the school community, nothing like classrooms. I'd been even clearer to the school district administrators: for me, Circles in schools are trojan horses. I dream of RJ principles
bringing nurturing to every space the school includes, and beyond.

The next day, in São Paulo's largest shanty town, I got to see the new space they have dedicated to RJ Circle's - right across the alleyway from their community center. The guys were getting ready to graffiti the building, to make sure everyone knew it's purpose. They are working with adults now too - for the first time here - and getting great results. They now want NVC training as well.

The next morning we met with the State Educational Secretary and agreed to form a working group to implement Circles in the schools of another 15 cities in the state (which with 6 million students is one of the 10 largest education authorities on the planet).

The details of this request represent a significant next step in the journey from
'project' to 'public policy'. I get a wonderful feeling of expansion and calm when I reflect on what it took to get to the stage of having the maturity necessary to dialogue at this level with security in our offerings. After the meeting I was shown round their new videoconference studio, which allows me interactive contact with 12,000 teachers in 91 video-linked classrooms a day (4,000 in each of 3 shifts). We recorded a pilot, to go out early August.

With the rest of the day I worked with 100 community leaders - the third such group this week- and then met the Ecology secretary for the city in the evening at a celebration of Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday. As information on the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in South Africa was shared I saw people exchanging smiles and glances. 'Hey, that's the same principle we've just been working with in the workshop!'

On the just-as-significant small scale I did a Circle with the senior judge tipped to become president of the justice system in SP in a few years time. He requested the Circle, with the presence of another judge and a single mother from a shantytown. She is going blind with
a brain tumur and wants to know how she can protect her down-syndrome 11 year old son from the man who raped him. I was struck by how her face changed as she listened to me reflect back how I heard her requests for vengeance. And then the shift in her voice as she began to get clear on her specific requests of his family. She said she felt more ease at the end, and smiled.

And I had very rich meetings with judges and psychologists and mediators and community leaders who are in conflict with our work, or with me about the NVC content in the training and process. This was the toughest, and am very satisfied that I managed to look after myself all the way through.

Thanks for reading this far. And for helping make all this possible with what you do. We're in a web together.

Thanks,
Dom

Dominc Barter contact@restorativecircles.org

For a ten minute video introduction by Dominic to his work, please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFF09Wwcj-w

See attached flyer for details on the Montreal workshop, March 21 & 22, 2009.