1 Facilitating Restorative Group Conferences Lesson 4: Role of the Facilitator Minnesota Department of Corrections with the National Institute of Corrections.

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Facilitating Restorative Group Conferences

Lesson 4: Role of the FacilitatorMinnesota Department of Correctionswith the National Institute of Corrections

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Lesson Objectives (1)

Listen to and communicate effectively with a wide variety of participants

Identify and deal with cultural issues Explain the role of the facilitator

including standards of conduct Understand the legal issues including

confidentiality and mandatory reporting

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Understand the variety of options to repair the harm

Conduct effective initial phone calls and pre-meetings

Assess the readiness of potential participants

Start to determine if the facilitator role is a good fit for you

Evaluate your own competency and that of a co-facilitator

(2)

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Communication Exercise

Who are my people and where did I come from?

Who is my family?

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What was it like to do the exercise? How did it feel to listen? To talk? Was one harder than the other? Were you working against any other kind of

family or cultural training about communicating?

Were your observations & guesses accurate?

If yes, have there been times when assumptions were very inaccurate?

What kind of difficulties did that create? How did you feel talking about your people?

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Dynamics of Difference

White middle class (mainstream) culture has been imposed upon minorities

Used to judge intelligence, mental health, beauty, appropriate communication

Mainstream values applied to others draw mainstream conclusions

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Cultural Competence . . . Ability to work effectively with people

whose culture is different from your own

Requires understanding your own biases

Requires understanding the differences of people with whom you interact

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Cultural Diversity

Race Gender Sexual orientation Power imbalance Age differences Physical abilities

National origin Lifestyle differences Economic level Religion Philosophical beliefs Education

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Implications

Implications in case assessment Which cases are referred for conferencing

Implications during the conference Being impartial to all participants

Drawing conclusions from the conversation

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Cross Cultural Communication Worksheet

Eye contact: looking someone in eye Slow speech, lots of pauses Smiling and laughing during serious

event Sitting slouched down in chair at

conference with arms crossed over chest and eyes on floor

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Assumptions Don’t assume you know a person’s

sexual orientation, race, religion or other cultural practices

It is okay to say you are not knowledgeable about a given culture

It is okay to ask participants to help you understand how their culture affects how the harm was done or how it impacted upon them

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What is a hate crime?

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Hate Crimes (2)

Crimes committed against a person

simply because of some physical

characteristic or belief of theirs, such as

race, sexual orientation, national origin,

or religion

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What distinguishes a hate crime from other crimes?

How might a hate crime feel different to a victim? Why?

What additional considerations or concerns might you (as a facilitator) have with a hate crime case?

Hate Crimes (3)

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Local Culture Activity

How are people different from each other in this community?

What barriers to communication might arise with these differences?

What strategies can be employed to help make all participants in a conference feel safe and empowered?

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Taking Care of Yourself As a Facilitator: Being Centered . . .

enables you to focus through others’ pain, frustration, extreme feelings, and ability or inability to reach agreement

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Care of a Facilitator (1)

Before a pre-meeting or conference, establish a place of inner calm

Sit or stand with body balanced Breathe deeply Afterwards, talk with a colleague or

another facilitator for feedback and self assessment

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Say out loud one thing you did well Breathe! Continue daily care

Care of a Facilitator (2)

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STATISTICS & PEOPLE

ACTIVITY

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Functions of a Facilitator Educate potential participants in pre-meetings Bring conference treats, forms, tissues, and

name tags Create safe atmosphere Allow for free expression of emotion Aid participants’ communication process Help group develop creative, realistic

agreement, if willing Write agreement; get signatures Complete paperwork and follow up on

agreement (or program staff)

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Facilitator As Umpire

You are not one of the game players You watch the game You remind participants of the rules if

necessary You throw the conversational ball back

into the game so participants can play You are not responsible for

the final score--Officer Paul Schnell

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Basic FacilitatorCommunication Skills (1)

Eliminate distractions Demonstrate active listening Suspend judgement Be empathetic Try not to assume

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Be aware and tolerant of differences in communication styles

Allow speakers to vent Model and teach use of "I" statements Be aware of your emotions and biases Acknowledge the speaker's emotions

as existing and legitimate

(2)

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Body Language

Eye contact to all

Physically centered, sitting with body balanced, able to see everyone easily

Alert, but relaxed muscles Use body and eye contact to direct

speaker to talk to all

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Vocal Language

Tone of voice: encouraging, calm, reassuring

“I” statements Neutral word choices Use of silence: 10 counts after

question, 10 counts after answers

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Allowing Emotional Expression

Keep facial expressions neutral or supportive

Gently pass tissues to teary participants Check in on all participants Use silence: count 10 after a strong

emotional expression If participant expresses anger

inappropriately, remind them of ground rules

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Problematic Facilitation Techniques

Talking for participants Interrupting Dominating participants’ discussion Allowing participants to only look at or

talk to facilitator

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How to Give Feedback Using Communication Checklist Separate behavior from person Suggest alternatives Acknowledge skills displayed Be honest, but talk with intention of

helping to improve Look to learn for yourself

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Typical Duties, Responsibilities and Qualifications of Facilitators

See Participant Guide Refer to your agency or program’s job

description

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Summary: Role of the Facilitator

Be compassionate, sincere, respectful Listen! Let people vent their emotions Stay neutral (“equally partial”), while

disapproving of harm done Be a facilitator, not judge or negotiator Do not be directive

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Don’t counsel participants Be aware of community resources Model and teach communication skills Be able to work independently Be willing to keep records Be able to do a very basic readiness

check Be willing to evaluate yourself and

co-facilitator – See tool in manual!

(2)

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Self Assessment

Know thyself.

--Socrates

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Preparation Meetings Enable All Participants to …

Recall and sort out feelings about the incident Gain comfort with the process and facilitator Learn the process expectations and benefits Decide whether to participate Understand the process and agree to the

ground rules Minimize their fears Plan what they want to say about the effects

of the harm done

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Work on their communication skills Work through some of their feelings Decide who they would like as support

people Understand restorative concept and begin

thinking about options for the agreement Decide where and when to meet In a case with many people harmed or

many people doing harm, decide if there will be one or several meetings

Develop realistic expectations

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Pre-Meetings Allow the Facilitator to … Inform potential participants about

conferencing process, to aid their informed choice

Decide whether participants are appropriate and ready for a meeting

Develop a strategy to deal with potential difficulties or complicating factors

Determine which support persons are appropriate and possibly prepare them

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Initial Phone Calls

Offender and parents

Victim and supporter

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Preparing for Pre-Meetings: Safety Issues If juveniles, schedule with parent Never enter or remain at residence in

which you feel uncomfortable Never continue meeting if you feel

parties are too angry or are under influence of a chemical

Be careful about revealing any private information

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Preparing for Pre-Meetings:Conference Co-Facilitation More difficult to coordinate scheduling Increases safety Allows observing things one person

might have missed Helps facilitate difficult or complex

sessions Enables shared feedback, viewpoints

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Preparing for Pre-Meetings:Legal Issues

Confidentiality Admissibility in court Data privacy restrictions Mandatory reporting Protection against lawsuit

– For facilitation– For damage or injury in completing

reparation Parent’s legal financial responsibility

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Preparing for Pre-Meetings:Options for the Agreement

Financial payment Work for victim Work for the charity of victim’s choice Restorative community service Apology Participation in education, assessment, or

program Anything else that feels fair to all participants Combination of the above

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Preparing for Pre-Meetings:Facilitator Standards of Conduct

In small groups, spend 5 minutes brainstorming and recording:

What should be the standards of conduct for conference facilitators?

(Don’t look further in Participant Guide!)

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Model Standards of Conduct

National civil mediator standards are in your manual

Review on your own time

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Pre-Meetings Allow the Offender and Parent to

Consider how the harm may have impacted others

Understand difference between conferencing and disciplinary or justice processes

Perhaps learn about the victim’s attitude and circumstances

Make an informed decision about participating

Consider some ways they might realistically make up for the harm done

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Tips for Working with Parents

Validate the parents’ feelings Allow them to vent Treat them with compassion Allow time for them to talk Find time to visit with the youth alone if

possible

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Parents Needing Special Consideration

Controlling - frequently intervene for their children

Minimizing - make light of the behavior of their child

Angry/punitive - fed up and want their child to be punished

Passive/overwhelmed - have given up emotionally and possibly in every other way

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Offender and Parent(s)Initial Face to Face Meeting

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Processing Questions

How did it feel in each of your roles? What did you see that you liked? Was a reasonable agreement reached? What made it difficult to reach

consensus? What helped to move the group along? How could the facilitator have improved

their performance?

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Pre-Meetings Empower the Victim to … Vent their anger and frustration Experience validation of their feelings Understand the difference between conferencing and

disciplinary or justice processes Learn about rights, alternatives and resources Perhaps learn about the offender Make an informed decision about participating Develop realistic expectations Decide if they wish to speak first

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Victim and Supporter Initial Face to Face Meeting

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Processing Questions

How did it feel in each of your roles? What did you see that you liked? Was a reasonable agreement reached? What made it difficult to reach

consensus? What helped to move the group along? How could the facilitator have improved

their performance?

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Preparing Supporters and Other Community Invite those that belong

Avoid those who are inappropriate

Make sure everyone is clear on roles

Supporters & other community members will:

• Bring resources and knowledge• Bring creative perspective for repairing harm• Help re-integration• Strengthen the community itself• Establish base of support for program

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Problem Points: Multiple Offenders

Preference of the victim Safety of all individuals Power imbalance Offenders disagree about their personal

shares of the culpability

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Conferencing withMultiple OffendersConsider separate conferences when: Victim requests to see them

separately Many offenders and few (or only one)

victim Offenders are in placement Offenders have disproportionate

levels of culpability