Juvenile Restorative Justice Circles
The concept of Restorative Justice is ages old and can be found throughout much of the world’s cultures and history. Restorative Justice focuses on three core pillars: addressing harm and needs, accountability and responsibility, and engagement in the process.
- Addressing Harm and Needs: Restorative Justice recognizes that harm has been done to people and communities and assumes an approach to ensure the victim’s, community, and involved youth needs are met, along with seeking to repair harm as much as possible.
- Accountability and Responsibility: When harm is created, it results in obligations of accountability and responsibility to ensure involved youth understand the impacts of their behavior and responsibility to make things right as much as possible. Alongside this, community members have an opportunity to participate in responsibility for youth being reintegrated back to their community through competency development and pro-social relationships.
- Engagement in the Process: Restorative Justice empowers all three parties impacted, the victim, community, and involved youth, to engage in the process of determining resolution to demonstrate accountability and responsibility along with addressing harm and needs of all stakeholders.
Fairfield County Juvenile Court offers a community-based program, outside of the court setting, called Restorative Justice Circles as a strategy to engage youth, victims, and community volunteers
The overall goal of Restorative Justice Circles is to offer a safe space for youth who have enacted behavior which has negatively impacted relationships with identified victim(s) to engage in dialogue, accountability, and restoration for the victim(s) and community while being supported with competency building.
Restorative Justice Circles can be utilized as a diversionary intervention for youth and those involved in cases being adjudicated directly by the court.
- Victims, youth, and community volunteers will have opportunities to speak and be heard through respectful dialogue and engagement.
- Victims will have opportunities to experience restoration through sharing their lived experience(s) and being part of accountability for youth.
- Youth will have opportunities to demonstrate accountability for the impact of their actions to the victim(s) and community through activities to repair harm and competency development.
- Community volunteers will have opportunities to be part of establishing the expectations for accountability and supporting youth in developing skills that will serve them in reintegrating into the community.
Become a Restorative Justice Circles Community Volunteer
YOU can make a difference in the lives of youth in your community!
Restorative Justice Circles are a community-based program designed to engage youth, victims, and community members in dialogue focused on accountability, restoration, and competency building.
The goal is to empower all members of the circle to give a safe space for voices to be heard while coming to consensus on strategies for youth to demonstrate accountability, address harm caused by their actions, and come together as a community to offer skill-building supports to the youth and family.
Apply to serve as a Community Volunteer for where you live, work, or worship.
Eligibility is open to any adult who is committed to helping youth and who is:
- 18 or older,
- Successful in passing a criminal background check and individual interview,
- Willing to commit to at least one year of availability to serve as a circle community member, and
- Willing to attend and participate in a combination of in- person and online training modules.
You can be a voice for your community and empower youth by being a Restorative Justice Circles Community Volunteer.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Please contact Kimberly Hoover
at 740-652-7492 or Kimberly.Hoover@fairfieldcountyohio.gov.
TO APPLY:
Click on the below link. Print, sign and send your completed application to Kimberly.Hoover@fairfieldcountyohio.gov.
