Greetings, eForum members, from day three of "Restoring Community in a Disconnected World, Part 2" in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. Hundreds of restorative practitioners, researchers, policy-makers and advocates from around the world have come together for three days to share their knowledge and achievements and to find support and advice from others doing similar work.

The IIRP is providing daily eForum reports for those who aren't able to travel to Bethlehem to attend the conference. We will also be videotaping all of the plenary sessions and hope to provide video links to them in the coming months.

After welcoming the conference participants, IIRP president Ted Wachtel introduced Wilma Derksen, director, Victims’ Voice, Mennonite Central Committee, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Herself the mother of a murdered child, Derksen discussed the "victim/offender trauma bond," explaining “why a violent crime has such catastrophic impact on victims and why restorative justice (RJ) looks different through the eyes of a crime victim.” Click here to read Derksen’s paper: Understanding Victims of Crime and Their Need to Deal with the Victim/Offender Trauma Bond.

The second plenary presentation was delivered by Frank Früchtel, professor, Fachhochschule Potsdam (University of Applied Sciences), Potsdam, Germany, who spoke about family group conferencing (FGC), also known as family group decision making (FGDM). Früchtel worked with FGC in New Zealand, where the practice was developed, then helped introduce it in Germany. Früchtel spoke of FGC as an approach that functions well within both the “system” (which “fulfils a responsibility of administering to people who have a legal entitlement for support”) and the “lifeworld” (“a network of relationships among people, such as family, friends, colleagues, schoolmates, lovers … [who] support each other because of the affinity and affection they experience in their relationships”). Click here to read Früchtel’s paper: System Rationality Encounters Lifeworld Rationality: The SONI Approach to FGC.

Participants also viewed the film Family Voices, which follows nine culturally, economically and geographically diverse American families on their journey of discovery of family group decision making.

Conference participants then split up to attend the numerous “breakout sessions” being offered by their colleagues.
 
Links to some breakout session papers will be available a few weeks after the conference.