Building a Global Alliance, Part 3 | Sydney, NSW, Australia 2005

Fifth International Conference on Conferencing, Circles and other Restorative Practices | Building a Global Alliance for Restorative Practices and Family Empowerment

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The International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) held the third in a series of three conferences dedicated to the theme of "Building a Global Alliance for Restorative Practices and Family Empowerment," March 3-5, 2005, in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia, in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney.

The IIRP's sister organization, Real Justice Australia, co-hosted the conference. Australia and New Zealand have been important centers for the development and implementation of restorative practices. Terry O'Connell, director of Real Justice Australia, was a police officer in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, when he created the Real Justice conferencing script.

About 275 people from 13 countries attended, including delegates from all Australian states and territories, Bangladesh, Canada, China, England, Greece, Japan, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Thailand and the United States. The conference brought together individuals working in a wide range of fields, including education, social work, criminal justice, youth justice, policing, corrections, public policy, counseling and academia.

Six featured speakers from diverse fields shared their experiences during the conference plenary sessions:

Liz O'Callaghan, an Australian primary school principal, shared her experience of transforming her school's culture with restorative practices.

Related paper:
The MacKillop Model of Restorative Practice
(Speech w/ PowerPoint slides also available here)

Dennis Wong, a professor of social work at City University of Hong Kong and director of a nonprofit organization that provides training, consulting and advocacy, talked about his efforts to bring restorative justice to Hong Kong schools, child welfare agencies and juvenile justice.

Les Davey, a former British police officer and current director of Real Justice UK, reported on the substantial restorative justice developments in the United Kingdom.

Brenda Morrison, an academician and researcher, currently at University of Pennsylvania in the US, shared her experience in implementing and researching restorative justice with bullying in schools in Australia. Her new book on that subject will be published in Australia soon.

Shannon Pakura, Chief Social Worker of New Zealand, will reflected on the 15 years of pioneering family group conferencing with child protection and juvenile offenses in that country.

Jenny Bargen, Director of Youth Justice Conferencing in New South Wales, shared her experience in implementing the almost seven-year-old program for young offenders, their victims and families.

The conference schedule, including breakout session descriptions from the conference program book, is available here.

Papers and related documents from some of the conference sessions are available here.

The next IIRP conference, "The Next Step: Developing Restorative Communities," will be held November 9-11, 2005, in Manchester, England, UK. More information on the Manchester conference here.

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