New Year Welcome by Leigh Garrett

Welcome to the first RPI newsletter for 2012. RPI is fully committed to ensuring your membership is a valuable asset to you, as we all strive to grow in our learning about restorative practices.
                                                                                                                   Our NZ Conference was fantastic, and a huge thank you must go to Restorative Justice Aotearoa (RJA) for hosting the Conference and helping us make it a great success. The next Conference is scheduled for late 2013 in the Asia Pacific region.  More details will emerge soon.

Following our strategic planning day in NZ, we have decided to streamline membership categories and reduce the costs considerably. We decided that membership must be more accessible to a broader range of practitioners, and your feedback clearly indicated that the cost was too high. You can become a member of RPI for $33 AUD, and enjoy the benefits that we are developing for you.

Our website has undergone some significant changes and new memberships, renewals of membership and donations can be made via secure Paypal or Verisign online payment facilities.

Chapters of RPI are about to emerge across Australia to bring together State based practitioners in local groups to support and nurture the growth of RP in the public policy debate, as well as to facilitate and develop training and education. If you think that you could assist us develop a Chapter in Australia, or in another Country, please email me and I will attempt to facilitate this initiative under the RPI umbrella. Get involved and contribute to the RP agenda wherever you may live.

Most importantly, restorative justice practitioners worldwide need to learn from one another, both educating and being educated within that wonderful dynamic of shared experience.

Wellington Conference

The 3rd International RPI Conference held in Wellington NZ in partnership with RJA in November last year was an outstanding success. As one delegate wrote "my sincere thanks to you and your team for pulling together a wonderful conference...I tried to choose workshops that I felt would expand my knowledge and understanding of RJ and I had no trouble at all doing that.".

Visit RPI's Events page to download a copy of the Conference Handbook as well as PDF versions of many of the Keynote addresses and Workshops.

Planning for our next conference in 2013 is underway. Stay tuned!

Conference keynotes available

Conference organisers arranged to have the keynotes captured on footage which is now available for a small fee. If you couldn't make it to the conference or want to show colleagues what they missed, please follow the links to Cornerstore Media website and keynote flyer.

From one delegate: "I found them all to be stunning. I have no idea of who pulled the strings to get the wide array of superb speakers, but kudos to you. The biggest shame was that I couldn't attend them all!"

Sophia's Story

Sophia, a senior student at Massey (High School, Auckland), comes from a tough family background. Her father is involved in a gang, and both her parents have a deep mistrust in the school system; none of Sophia’s five older siblings has graduated from high school. The issues followed Sophia to school. From her first day at Massey, she has, according to staff, been disrespectful in class, bullied others, and gotten into fights. She has been through so many restorative conferences that she has “lost count.”  Massey staff say that Sophia would have been expelled from any other school a long time ago, probably as early as her first year. Sophia agrees with this.

Find Out More →

Do You Have a Restorative Practices Story?

We would be delighted to include your story in our next Newsletter as part of RPI's mission to connect practitioners by freely sharing information that inspires and educates about best practice.

Click here to email the editors about your story.