Hello! Thank you for your interest in taking New York Peace Institute's Introduction to Restorative Justice Training for undergraduate students. For decades, college campuses have served as a hub for young people to organize and advocate for change around issues of social justice and inequality. Often conflicts or issues that are plaguing society become exacerbated on college campuses as the high-stakes, academic and social environment can act like a microcosm of the world. NYPI believes it is important to equip the next generation with the capacity and skills to hold space for their peers to discuss difficult topics and build meaningful relationships. Through this training, we hope to expose young people to a new approach to justice and develop their facilitation skills so that they can use these practices in their communities. It is our goal that college students across the city can connect and bring these practices back to their campuses to facilitate more community dialogue and create a shift around how we respond to conflict and harm.  Circles, a central process of Restorative Practices that hinges on storytelling and equalizing hierarchy, can be used to build relationships, welcome new members into community, resolve conflict, and share skills and knowledge. As more college campuses across the country become fractured due to differing beliefs or clashing values, NYPI hopes circles can be used, through student organizations or University programs, to remind us that we live interconnected lives and, thus we owe each other and our communities compassion, accountability, and dialogue. 

Our training will explore the fundamentals of Restorative Justice and Restorative Practices, including affective language, active listening and circles. On the first day, participants will explore how Restorative Practices can be used to intentionally build community by both experiencing a community building circle and developing their own circle script. For the second day of the training, we will explore conflict and how to use Restorative Justice to respond to different kinds of harm using circles and conferencing. In order to participate, we ask that you complete a brief application, linked here, and pay a $25 fee to hold your spot. The fee will be refunded upon completion of both days of training. If you fail to show up for training, we will charge the $25.

Location: Girls Write Now, 247 W 37th Street, Suite 1000 New York, NY 10018

Dates: January 11th &12th, 2025 

Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm 

Fee: $25 payment to hold your place in training (Please note all fees will be refunded at the end of the training contingent on full attendance)