Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking

The restorative justice model supports the view that a crime is a harmful act against individual victims and members of the community—not just the State. The criminal justice process needs to ensure that offenders repair this harm; respond to victims compassionately, fairly, and justly; and promote safe and secure communities.

The Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking (formerly Center for Restorative Justice & Mediation) at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work (St. Paul campus) was established to provide technical assistance, training, and research in the State of Minnesota, nationally, and internationally to support restorative justice practices and principles.

Through restorative justice, victims, communities, and offenders are placed in active roles to work together to—

• Empower victims in their search for closure.
  
• Impress upon offenders the real human impact of their behavior.
• Promote restitution to victims and communities.

Dialogue and negotiation are central to restorative justice, and problem solving for the future is seen as more important than simply establishing blame for past behavior.

Balance is sought among the legitimate needs of the victim, the community, and the offender to enhance community protection and direct accountability of the offender to the victim and the victimized community.

The Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking offers the following services and training opportunities:

• National Restorative Justice Training Institute at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul campus, through the School of Social Work, College of Human Ecology, and University College/Continuing Education.
  
  
• Regional workshops and training seminars throughout Minnesota and in other locations.
  
  
• Promotion, support, and technical assistance for systemic change in the juvenile justice system that embraces restorative justice policies and programs in correctional systems.
  
  
• Pilot sites in Florida, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania through the Balanced and Restorative Justice Project, a joint project with Florida Atlantic University, supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
  
  
• Introductory victim-offender mediation training and program development assistance (3-day sessions).
  
  
• Advanced mediation training in crimes of severe violence, including homicide (4-day sessions).
  
  
• Graduate coursework on mediation and conflict resolution in communities, schools, families, and workplaces and within the justice system.
  
  
• Mediation services in cases of homicide and other offenses involving severe violence.
  
  
• Cross-national studies of restorative justice and mediation in Canada, England, and the United States.
  
  
• Resource center of video and print materials relating to restorative justice and mediation.

The center can be reached at—

Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking
University of Minnesota School of Social Work
1404 Gortner Avenue, 105 Peters Hall
St. Paul, MN 55108-6160
Phone: 612-624-4923, Fax: 612-625-8224
E-mail: rjp@tlcmail.che.umn.edu

Updates to this Directory may be viewed online at www.ssw.che.umn.edu/rjp.

The University of Minnesota is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.

Programs in this Directory are alphabetized first by State, then by city, and finally by program name. If no programs are listed for a particular city or State, it means that we have no record of a victim-offender mediation program in that city or State; it does not mean that such a program does not exist.

If you know of a program that should be listed in this Directory, please ask that program to fill out the Victim-Offender Mediation Program Survey found at the end of this Directory and send it to—

Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking
University of Minnesota School of Social Work
1404 Gortner Avenue, 105 Peters Hall
St. Paul, MN 55108-6160
Phone: 612-624-4923, Fax: 612-625-8224
E-mail: rjp@tlcmail.che.umn.edu

Updates to this Directory may be viewed online at ssw.che.umn.edu/rjp.