about restorative circles

  • A Restorative Circle provides a supportive, facilitated space for people involved in a conflict to speak with each other and for the conflict to unfold safely.
  • Participants can speak and be heard, better see each other as fellow human beings, and understand the meanings behind others' actions and reactions.
  • Finally, they can collaborate respectfully about what they would like to see happen next.
Dominic Barter designed the Restorative Circles process after working in the inner city of Rio de Janeiro. Barter has studied the interface between societal and personal change, and the role of conflict, since the 1980s. Since 2004 he has worked as consultant and training program director for the Brazilian Restorative Justice pilot projects, in collaboration with the UN Development Program, UNESCO, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education and Special Secretariat for Human Rights.
He has focused on developing effective models and training programs for practitioners to address youth crime and its consequences, as well as working with judges, school administrators, police, social services as well as youth and community leaders in supervising implementation. Dominic coordinates the Restorative Justice Project for the international Center for Nonviolent Communication.
​Restorative Circles recognize that people have conflicts. We live in a culture that tends toward conflict avoidance: It’s not that we don’t have conflicts. We just don’t have them in direct and productive ways. We hold grudges, we pretend things don’t bother us, we let things fester. Sometimes the outcome erodes our sense of community as we gossip or distance ourselves from other people. In other cases, a conflict simmers until it erupts in destructive and often violent ways–whether that violence is physical or emotional or spiritual.
Communities of people — families, schools, workplaces, churches —can set up a restorative system, a sustainable strategy that uses Restorative Circles.

​Such communities proactively transform conflict and even prevent future conflict. They address the immediate as well as long-term underlying causes of division and pain.
Restorative practices in general focus not on punishment but on the possibility of repairing the harm done to people and relationships. A Restorative Circle provides a structure for people involved in an event to speak with each other, and for conflicts surrounding that event to unfold. Participants can speak and be heard, better see each other as fellow human beings, understand the meanings behind actions and reactions. Finally, they can collaborate about what they would like to see happen next.
Are you stuck in a conflict or misunderstanding?
Could a facilitated dialogue help bring about understanding, healing and change?
​
I am trained as a Restorative Circles facilitator
​(as well as a Restorative Congregations facilitator) and would be happy to talk with you
about options for a facilitated circle involving the conflicted parties
(pairs, groups, families, workplaces, churches, etc.). 
​The definitive source for more information about Restorative Circles is the website www.restorativecircles.org.
​There you’ll find discussions, videos, and scheduled training events with Dominic Barter.