Restorative Practices Events

A Conversation with Loretta Ross, Author of Calling In 

Friday, October 16, 12 noon – 1:30 p.m.; Joyce Cummings Center, Room 270

Join us for an engaging and thought-provoking conversation with Loretta J. Ross, currently an Associate Professor at Smith College, who is known for her work exploring the practice of calling in. Calling in proposes a transformative approach to conflict that offers an alternative to calling out by inviting empathy, accountability, and grace into difficult conversations. 

Ross is a nationally renowned activist, public intellectual, author, and professor whose work over the past five decades has shaped how we think about human rights, equity, and social change.

Space is limited. Registration is required.

Student Registration

Faculty and Staff Registration

Circle Training Retreat 

Addressing Conflict and Healing Harm Using Restorative Practices with Janet Connors Tier 2 & 3

Friday, October 2, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

This training focuses on how to address conflict and repair harm. Participants will learn how Restorative Practices can be used to navigate conflicts, so they become opportunities for learning and growth. This training will cover the practice of "calling in," how to use the restorative questions, responsive circles and conferencing to address conflict. Participants will also explore listening to understand, consider intent vs impact, and identify unmet needs that can cause conflict to occur.

Community-Building Circle Keeper Facilitator Training

Saturday, October 3, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Interested cultivating connections between people? Want to discover ways to improve your meetings? If so, join our Community-Building Circle Facilitator Training on Saturday, October 3. Circles are rooted in Indigenous ways of being that and are used to strengthen relationships, foster connections and build trust between individuals. Through this hands-on workshop participants will be introduced to the principles of restorative practices and will learn skills to facilitate their own community-building circles.

• Freshmen Student Check-In Circle
• Graduate Student Check-In Circle
• Transfer Student Check-In Circle
• Circle Practice Retreat
• Student Organization Leadership Retreat
• Tier 1 Circle Practice Training Sessions: During the Tier 1 Circle Practice Training, you will be introduced to the principles and general concepts of restorative practices and how they can be applied to community building. You'll get to experience a circle and also learn about your fellow participants. Since there is a large amount of content to cover, each Circle Practice takes place over two, 5-hour sessions. We ask that you attend both training sessions.
• An Evening with Fania E. Davis: Race, Restorative Justice, and Healing in a Time of Awakening, Repair, and Re-imagining: Fania E. Davis is a leading international voice on the intersection of racial and restorative justice. She is a long-time social justice activist, civil rights trial attorney, author, and educator with a PhD in Indigenous Knowledge. Davis came of age in Birmingham, Alabama during the social ferment of the civil rights era. These formative years, particularly the murder of two close childhood friends in the 1963 Sunday School bombing, crystallized within Fania an enduring commitment to social transformation. For the next decades, she was active in the Civil Rights, Black liberation, women’s, prisoners’, peace, anti-racial violence, economic justice and anti-apartheid movements. Apprenticing with African indigenous healers catalyzed Fania’s search for a healing justice, ultimately leading her to become the Founding Director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth and Co-Founding Board Member of the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice. Her numerous honors include the Lifetime Achievement award for excellence in Restorative Justice, the Black Feminist Shapeshifters and Waymakers’ award, the Tikkun (Repair the World) award, the Ella Jo Baker Human Rights award, and the Ebony POWER 100 award. The Los Angeles Times named her a New Civil Rights Leader of the 21st Century. She recently received the Open Society Foundations Justice Rising Award recognizing 16 Black movement leaders working towards racial justice in the United States. Among Davis’ publications is the Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Justice, and U.S. Social Transformation.
• CIRCLE UP Screening and Talk Back with Janet Connors and Clarissa Thomas: After the brutal slaying of her teenage son, Janet Connors reaches out to her son’s killer to offer a chance for forgiveness. They team up with a group of mothers of murdered children to help young people in their community break the chain of violence and revenge. CIRCLE UP is a call to action for reframing approaches to crime and punishment through the lens of restorative justice, forgiveness, and accountability.