Restorative Justice Programs
Restorative justice is a philosophy and practice based on the idea of taking responsibility for actions that have hurt or harmed someone else and/or yourself. Rather than focus on punishment and isolation from the community, restorative justice focuses on meaningful accountability, which includes actively engaging in understanding what harms have been done and how to repair those harms.
The vision of the restorative justice work we are doing at Resolutions Northwest is to create safer communities, greater victim satisfaction, and authentic and meaningful accountability. We do this in the juvenile setting, in schools and in prisons. Our Restorative Justice programs are funded primarily through grants from Multnomah County's Department of Community Justice, the Oregon Office for Community Dispute Resolution and the City of Portland. We also rely on donations for a portion of the program's expenses.
The Programs we currently offer include
Victim Offender Meetings (VOM) Our Victim Offender Meetings (VOM) program bring youth offenders and their victims together to talk about the many ripples of harm the criminal behavior has caused not only to their victims and community, but often to their families and ultimately themselves. The process helps them understand that although they can't undo what they did, they can, and do, have a responsibility to repair, as much as possible, the harm they have caused.
This program is currently suspended due to funding cuts but we are hopeful that it will be restored in the very near future.Youth Impact Services The Restorative Justice program at Resolutions Northwest is unique and innovative in the sense that victim offender meetings is one of, but not the only tool that we use. In fact some of the youth who work with our program never actually meet with a victim (often because the victim was unavailable or not interested in meeting). Through the youth impact services, we empower young people of all risk levels and all backgrounds to directly face and participate in repairing the harm they have caused others.
Initially a youth offender may not be appropriate to meet with a victim, but through their work with Resolutions Northwest, offenders can begin to change and more deeply understand their thinking about the harms they have caused, and even become ready to engage in VOM. Our commitment is to create the relationships with victims and offenders that will enable the reparation of the harm when the time is right, even if it is post-drug and alcohol treatment or incarceration.
School-Based Restorative Interventions In our Parkrose School District pilot project, Resolutions Northwest,in collaboration with other local agencies, is providing training, consultation and restorative services to students and administrators at Parkrose Middle and High Schools. The pilot project focuses on introducing restorative ideas and processes into the disciplinary toolboxes of administrators. The overall goal it to alter the outcomes of disciplinary referrals that would have otherwise ended in suspension, expulsion or a referral to the Department of Community Justice.
Through our work, we strive to help young people see that making a bad choice does not mean one is a bad person. We want them to know what they did yesterday, and what they do today, does make a difference--to themselves, to those harmed, their own families and the school community. Coming face-to-face with the person one has harmed takes tremendous courage and young people who go through our program know they will walk away from the experience with new tools to deal effectively with future conflict situations. Learning takes many forms in and out of the classroom. And Resolutions Northwest's Parkrose School District pilot project aims to help schools turn disciplinary situations from negative to positive experiences, with everyone walking away having learned more about themselves and others.
Serious & Violent Crime Facilitated Dialogue Although most requests for these kinds of dialogues happen through the Department of Corrections' Facilitated Dialogue Program (FDP), occasionally RNW will get a dialogue request, the circumstances of which don't fall within the parameters of the FDP. RNW has limited capacity for this service and will consider referrals on a case by case basis.
For more information: For more information about our restorative justice programs contact
