While Restorative Justice may be a trend that is just catching on in some settings, the concept is actually both ancient and elementary. Restorative Justice responds to wrongdoing through respectful relationships which seek to repair harm.
Center for Victims has long promoted Restorative Justice by conducting Victim Offender Dialogues (between Allegheny county juvenile offenders and their victims) and is now pleased to extend this service to even more juveniles. For situations in which young people commit offenses that do not have a direct victim (or do have a victim who supports dialogue but is not is able to participate), offending youth will now have the opportunity to meet with community representatives who can help them in a process of taking accountability in a restorative way (telling their story, considering impacts, and taking steps to make things right).
In order to conduct these Community Dialogues we need the help of volunteer community members to participate in the dialogues as Community Representatives.
These volunteers will be invited to participate in dialogues on an as-needed basis. We don’t know yet how extensive the need will be but Center for Victims would like to be ready with a diverse pool of volunteers, representing a range of neighborhoods throughout Allegheny County.
If this is of interest to you, call Dawn Lehman, the Restorative Justice Coordinator at 412-482-3240 ext. 225 to sign-up for our Community Representative Training on Friday, March 20 OR Sunday, March 22, 2015, from 2:00—4:30 PM. RSVP’s are requested by Friday, March 13.
Editor’s Note: This piece was written by one of Coro’s community partners, Dawn Lehman from Center for Victims. Any opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily the views held by the Coro Center for Civic Leadership (“Coro Pittsburgh”). However, we welcome our partners to share stories with - and through - us. If you are interested in making a blog post, please contact Outreach Manager Sarah Miller at [email protected].