Restorative Families

Restorative Families is a restorative approach aimed at the need to address, nurture and repair or reconcile family relations. 

We look forward to working with your family to ​address and nurture your unique needs and repair relations within your home. In addition to the Restorative Families Program, LCCJ offers workshops and training for community members and parents in relation to family conflicts. These workshops are designed to be educational and promote supporting and addressing various sources of familial conflicts using restorative justice practices within the home. ​For information on upcoming workshops or events, please refer to our News/Events page, our Restorative Parenting page or get in touch with us. We look forward to working with your family to ​address and nurture your unique needs and repair relations within your home. 
​This initiative is made possible in part by the financial support of the Perth and District Community Foundation and the County of Lanark.
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Restorative Families: Q & A

What is Restorative Families?

Our program strives to provide Restorative Coaching to youth and their parents, or caregivers, aimed at supporting pathways to reconciliation and demonstrable improvement within the family relationship. 
Goals of Restorative Families: 

• Nurturing healthier family relationships through restorative processes, repair strained relationships.
• Referrals and ongoing supports to address underlying causes of conflict. 
• Training families to use restorative practices to keep their families intact and promote understanding. 
• Reconciliation. 

This program does not  aim to achieve full reconciliation. ​
The program coordinator will provide support in the following capacities:

• focused on a specific objective (identified in pre-forum interviews) 
• lead forum(s) and support reconnection
• develop an agreement on what needs to happen to make the relationship better moving forward (repair the relationship)​

What should my family expect?

The key components of our Restorative Families Program includes:

• Intake and assessment (including initial risk assessment) of the family: this process will assess the strengths, supports, challenges, risks and needs of your family. 
• Learning how to incorporate Restorative Practices into the home and family life: goal setting with youth and family will incorporate the risk and needs assessment to prioritize the safety and wellbeing of the youth involved. 
• Follow up services such as counselling and referrals to other agencies or appropriate services to promote reparation. 

The goals of the project are to:

• Help parents and caregivers of teens reduce family conflict and learn new skills to improve their relationship with the teenager in their lives.
• Find out why your teenager reacts the way they do & how you can help them cope
• Real strategies to motivate your teenager to be part of family life
• Learn how to diffuse volatile situations and guide your teenager's behaviour
• Help your teenager make smart decisions & keep themselves safe
• Learn how to use restorative conversations in communicating with your teen

Why ParticipatE in Restorative Families?

Restorative practices focus on the harm that was caused in the relationship, understanding the impact of one's choices and actions, and figuring out what needs to happen to "make it right". Prior to the forums, family members will be interviewed separately by highly trained facilitators or staff in preparation of the Restorative Family Forum(s) that will take place. The Facilitator will collect information to help them build a plan to address the conflicts each family member feels they are facing. These findings will be prepared for the forum. During the forum process, the Facilitator will ask specific questions and follow proven methodology for achieving restorative justice within a family context.

Referrals and Community Supports

By taking part in the Restorative Families Program, you will have the opportunity to connect with other community resources in the event that your family requires additional support to meet your needs. We may also receive a referral for your family form one of these community partners. Through the Restorative Families Program, Facilitators will work with your family to identify additional supports as necessary. Some of those additional supports could be: 

• Justice Partners
• Addictions 
• Mental Health 
• Housing 
• Income Support 
• Parenting and/or Life Skill Lessons
• Domestic Violence 
• other supports available on a case by case basis.