Overview
Groundswell Restorative Schools Program seeks to address the ineffectiveness and disproportionality that arises in more traditional school discipline systems by bringing a Restorative Justice perspective to the school setting. Accomplishing this goal requires the school community to commit the time and resources necessary to create a school culture focused on the core values of respect, relationship and responsibility. When contracted by a school, Groundswell will work collaboratively with school community stakeholders to embed Restorative Practices, a combination of community-building and restorative justice techniques, in the following areas:
Area of Focus | Objective |
|---|---|
Classroom & School-wide Culture | Build community, de-escalate conflict and foster accountability in a positive supportive environment in the classroom and across the campus |
Restorative Discipline Intervention | Directly engage those involved in and impacted by an incident in understanding what happened and deciding how to make things right |
At-Promise students receive Community-engaged support | Support individual students by bringing them together with community members in a collective process to understand their needs and provide avenues for success |
Implementation Approach
Successful implementation involves providing a Restorative Practices [RP] Coordinator with a designated space on campus to perform the following functions:
Area of Focus | Objective |
|---|---|
Consulting | Bring a Restorative Justice perspective into school-wide planning initiatives as well as program implementation and evaluation efforts |
Modeling | Lead RP activities where school community members can experience a restorative approach firsthand |
Training | Provide a series of training and workshops in RP techniques accessible to the whole school community- teachers, administrators, students, and parents |
Mentoring | Work directly with individual staff members to effectively and authentically embed RP skills in their everyday work in the classroom and across the school campus |
Managing Cases | Provide an opportunity for students referred for disciplinary action to participate in a Restorative Justice process in lieu of or in conjunction with standard school disciplinary protocols |
Restorative Justice by the Numbers
Groundswell’s Restorative Justice Program is currently running in eight Orange County Schools: Ball Jr. High School, Brookhurst Jr. High School, Columbus Tustin Middle School, Dale Jr. High School, La Quinta High School, Pacifica High School, Sycamore Junior High & Tustin High School.
Since 2017 our team has offered:
- 1,308 Consultations – meetings about program implementation and/or working 1:1 with adult educators to use restorative practices
- 826 Mentoring Sessions – strategic meeting with staff member on how they will utilize specific RP techniques in their role in the school and/or providing feedback after observing them
- 538 Modeling Sessions – a restorative practice is provided by a RJ Specialist to model the practice and help adults and students learn about restorative justice
- 1,312 Student Development Sessions – direct work with students utilizing restorative practices to support
Over 1,000 cases have been referred for a restorative conflict resolution process with an average resolution rate of 97%.
Bridges Testimonials and Success Stories:
To learn how to create safe schools, please contact the Director of Youth & Education Programs, Gagandeep Kaur Mann-Saechao, at [email protected].
