Resource Guide for Restorative Practices
Welcome to the open-source resource guide for Restorative Practices at Vassar College. Included here are links to resources for restorative work, along with basic descriptions of those resources. If you’ve been to a Restorative Practices training, you’ll find links to tools and resources covered in the training. Resources include copyright information on the documents whenever available—please credit the creators if you make public use of them. Have a question, or want to add a resource? Email Amanda: rp@vassar.edu. Want to do more in-depth research? Try the Vassar Library.
Circle Work
- Types of Restorative Circles, Circles by Tier
- Circle: Essential Elements and Organizing a Talking Circle, chapter by Kay Pranis
- Video: Community Building Circle in Oakland Public Schools
Communities of Practice
Cultivating Inner Life Literacy / Empathy for Self and Others:
- Folder: Identifying Feelings, Needs, & Values
- How-To: S.I.F.T. Exercise (Sensations, Images, Feelings, Thoughts)
- Folder: Responding to Feelings, Needs, & Values
- Online Toolkit Emotional and Mental Health Toolkit from B.E.A.M.: Library of infographics and printables for self-care, community care, practices for mental and physical health and wellness, conflict engagement and resolution processes, and more, designed in particular by and for the Black community by the Black Emotional And Mental Health Collective (B.E.A.M.).
Some favorites:- P.A.U.S.E. (5 steps for self-de-escalation)
- Healing & Accountability Wheel (for close relationships)
- Peer Support & Village Care (how to care in community)
- Online Toolkit: GoodConflict—Scroll down to see how to differentiate between “Good Conflict” (productive) and “High Conflict” (intractable), as well as one pagers on asking good questions, listening with curiosity, etc.
Community Organizing + Consensus Organizing
- “Consensus Organizing model is a method of community organizing that focuses on finding and developing areas of mutual self-interest between community stakeholders, as opposed to traditional conflict-based organizing strategies”. Learn more from San Diego State’s Consensus Organizing Center
- Leading Change Network, Marshall Ganz / Harvard Kennedy School
- “Let this Radicalize You” book/workbook from abolitionist organizers Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes. Great distinction between “activist” and “organizer.”
- The Craft of Campaigns Podcast, Organizing Skills Institute/Training for Change
- The Commons Social Change Library
- Issue Areas Resource Guides, United States Institute of Peace
De-Escalation
- CLARA method of de-escalation (Center, Listen, Affirm, Respond, Add Information)
- Active Bystander & De-escalation Overview from DC Peace Team (includes CLARA method detail)
- How to De-Escalate a Fight in Public: Wisdom from a Veteran City Bus Driver (podcast, Amanda Ripley/Good Conflict)
Dialogue
- Student-Focused Guide on Empathy, Dialogue and Community Care Tools from Barnard College
- Dialogue & DIfference intro from Barnard College Center for Engaged Pedagogy
- “What is Intergroup Dialogue?”: University of Michigan IGR program (see What is IGR? video)
- Bridging Differences in Higher Education Playbook, from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley
Facilitation Basics / Group Work
- Vassar Restorative Practices List of Facilitation Resources: Links to activities, tools, and places to learn more about how to effectively facilitate groups and group decision-making, build consensus as well as respectfully surface differences.
- 100 Conversation-Starting Questions
- Online Toolkit: Good Conflict
- Online Toolkit: Liberating Structures
- Online Toolkit: Training for Change
Nonviolence
- International Center for Nonviolent Conflict: tracks and resources nonviolent people power movements around the world
- James Lawson Institute: learn about Nonviolent Direct Action
- Kingian Nonviolence Resources: Discover more about MLK Jr.’s nonviolent organizing philosophy and civil rights struggle strategy from The King Center, Eastpoint Peace Academy, Stanford University’s King Institute
(Compassionate) Nonviolent Communication
- Folder: CNVC Basics
- How-To Videos: Yoram (12 min.); Maria (11 min.); Roxy (30 min.)
- DC Peace Team Pay-What-You-Can Trainings
Power
- Learn about power over, power to, power with, and power within on pages 9 and 10 of the Youth Framework for Peacebuilding from the United States Institute for Peace
- Brené Brown on power and leadership
Restorative Practices
- What is Restorative Practices? (Video from IIRP)
- Restorative Practices as a Social Science Field, International Institute for Restorative Practices
- Restorative Practice Guidebooks (Oakland, Chicago Public Schools)
Restorative Justice
- Proactive Circles and Responsive Conferences from Dutchess Mediation Center
- What is Restorative Justice? Zehr Center for Restorative Justice
- Restorative Justice in Higher Education, University of San Diego
Transformative Justice
- What is Transformative Justice? Video from Barnard Center for Research on Women
- Interrupting Criminalization: Abolitionist Accountability content
- RJ & TJ Resource Guide: University of San Francisco Library