Restorative Approaches
Restorative Approaches offers support at every stage along the spectrum of restorative practice processes, from prevention to intervention. With the guidance of skilled facilitators, our services provide students with opportunities to expand their communication and conflict resolution skills to help build safe and inclusive school communities and opportunities to repair harm to resolve their conflicts with their peers.
Our values
- Mutual Respect
- Embracing the diversity and dignity of all people
- The understanding that with support, people have the capacity to be self reflective, accountable, and capable of change
- The belief that given time and support, conflicts and problems can be resolved and harm repaired
- The feelings, needs, and perspectives of all involved are heard and valued and decisions are made collaboratively
Restorative Approaches
Restorative Approaches provide students with opportunities to engage in meaningful, positive support when dealing with conflict and bullying. This program aims to repair harm in a safe environment, assists students in taking accountability for their role and helps create solutions agreeable to all parties, in order to manage difficult situations. This can include:
- Restorative Conversations: These help students tell their stories, navigate peer relationships, and access supports.
- Student Agreements and Mediation: These assist in bridging relationships, understanding different perspectives, and creating healthy boundaries through collaborative agreements.
- Restorative Conferencing: This involves students, families, school staff, and community partners to repair harm, reduce suspensions, and support meaningful reintegration.
Referrals to the Restorative Approaches team are made by School Administrators. After meeting with students, an appropriate restorative process is chosen to address the specific needs and conflicts.
How can I access this support for myself, my child, or my students?
All elementary and secondary students within the TVDSB and the LDCSB can access this support. A referral must be made directly to RA staff by the school administration. Participation in Restorative Approaches is voluntary.
Students under the age of 18 require parent/guardian consent prior to RA staff involvement.
For further information regarding the RA program, contact the Restorative Lead Keri Posno at kposno@slcs.ca and 519-870-3161, or a member of the team at 519-850-3777 ext. 224.
What happens next? Will students in conflict always be brought together?
Once consent to participate is given, an RA staff member will meet with each student individually at the school. Every referral is different, and the restorative intervention will be decided upon by all parties involved. This may include individual support, student agreements, mediation or conferences. There is never an expectation for students to become friends.
What are the benefits of participating in the RA program?
The Restorative Approaches program is an inclusive approach to problem solving where the feelings, needs and views of all those involved are considered. The program provides everyone with the opportunity to share their perspectives and have a voice in the process working toward repairing harm, setting boundaries and contributing towards a respectful school community.
TVDSB Elementary School AdministratorOver the last 15 years I have used the services of St. Leonard’s school-based team to support students and families in a variety of the schools I have been in, all varying socio-economic ability and geographic location in the TVDSB. I have utilized their support in classroom groups, whole divisions and as an individual intervention, as well as for parent information sessions. In every situation the approach of this team is highly professional and confidential, and they have the intent to work restoratively. This is an agency that brings support to schools in a non-judgmental way. Students and families feel supported, heard and validated. In schools we try our best to work through situations but there are times they become bigger than we can repair. St. Leonard’s provides us the ability to restore relationships between students, cohorts, and at times families, many times in ways that allows individuals to heal and move forward from interactions or events that they may have seen as traumatic.
TVDSB Secondary School AdministratorI have been a Secondary Principal for 12 years across 6 secondary schools in both county and city schools. The one consistent resource that has held up and helped students back into a healthier interaction within the schools and facilitated positive relationships, is St. Leonard’s Restorative practices. There are complexities in some damaged relationships that requires a knowledgeable outside source to step in and help students to figure out ways back into their relationships without losing face, either to their peers, their communities or their educators. St. Leonard’s has always helped with that. One short example is the Restorative Justice Circle that included students who reported a peer as a school shooter (because they did not like him), the student who was reported, the Community Resource Officer, the Administrators, and all of the parents whose students were involved. There were some hard truths and heartbreaks shared that day, by the popular students who made the calls, the student and parent who had their house turned upside down by police, the police who had the school surrounded and feared they may have to live their worst nightmare and the administrators who lived through each of the heartbreaks alongside their students, parents and police colleagues. This would not have happened if St. Leonard’s was not involved and did not bring their skills, hearts and facilitation skills to bear in a complex situation that required St. Leonard’s skilled work to allow each of the students and parents to own their part, apologize and return to the school community in a restorative and respectful way. That is one story in so many, but the one that involved the most stakeholders! TVDSB would not be the same organization without St. Leonard’s. I am so hopeful that we can keep [them] in our corner and keep [them] helping our students and our communities.
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