A two-day thought-provoking, interactive experience to provide participants with an opportunity to explore the use of restorative conferencing in response to serious offenses. The use of the circle process provides a truly restorative experience that encourages active participation from everyone attending the seminar. This is a valuable seminar for people working in victim services, courts, corrections, probation, parole, counseling, therapy, faith institutions, and for any other interested groups, including students in a wide variety of disciplines.

Please note: This seminar is not intended to train participants to facilitate restorative conferences, but to enhance their understanding of the potential and the implications of conferencing for serious offenses.

Participants will receive their own copy of the "Conferencing for Serious Offenses: An Exploration" seminar resources kit (normal cost $375 US — click here for more information), so that they may facilitate this experience in their own settings. This “do-it-yourself” resource package provides DVD videos and a CD-ROM with printable documents, including the Facilitator Guide, containing detailed directions for using the videos and running circles.

Day One of the seminar employs Facing the Demons — winner of Australian TV’s 2000 Logie Award for "Most Outstanding Documentary" — to explore conferencing as a response to murder. This riveting film concerns the homicide of a young man and the conference that was held four years later, in which the murder victim’s friends and family confront the offenders face to face. Exclusive videos of follow-up interviews, filmed a year after the conference, highlight the long-term impact of restorative processes on the lives of participants.

On Day Two, video interviews with psychiatrist Donald Nathanson, author of Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self, and prison psychologist Roger Blake provide additional thoughts for group discussion. The focus then shifts to restorative conferencing and sexual abuse. The video Kathy’s Story is a young woman’s remarkably articulate and emotional first-person account of long-term sexual abuse, her troubled passage to adulthood and her journey toward healing, which included a restorative conference.