Home Restorative justice circle processes course offered at EMU: For teachers, police, social workers
Local

Restorative justice circle processes course offered at EMU: For teachers, police, social workers

Contributors

EMU logo - newEastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding offers a Circle Processes course, taught by Kay Pranis, from February 5-7, 2016. This one-hour, for-credit course is ideal for teachers, police, social workers and others working in restorative justice.

This course will use the peacemaking circle process as the primary form of group work and will provide experience in the circle process as well as an understanding of the foundational values and key structural elements for designing and conducting peacemaking circles. The class will prepare students to design and facilitate peacemaking circles in a variety of situations

Topics include:

  • foundational values and philosophy of peacemaking circles,
  • conflict as opportunity to build relationships,
  • creating safe, respectful space for dialogue,
  • consensus decision making,
  • structure of the circle process,
  • facilitation of the circle process
  • practical applications of circle process, and
  • problems and challenges in circles.

Instructor Kay Pranis is one of the globally recognized experts and leaders in restorative justice specializing in peace circle processes.  From 1994-2003,  she served as the restorative justice planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections\. Before that, she worked six years as the director of research services at the Citizen’s Council on Crime and Justice.

She has written and presented papers on peacemaking circles and restorative justice in the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan, and is the author of multiple books about how to use circles in a variety of contexts.

Since 1998, Kay has conducted circle trainings in a diverse range of communities—from schools to prisons to workplaces to churches, from rural farm towns in Minnesota to Chicago’s South Side.

Cost is $650. To apply, visit emu.edu/cjp/grad/admission/ and register by Jan. 5, 2016. Space will fill quickly, so please register early.

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.