Three Rivers to host training sessions

Three Rivers Restorative Justice, the only restorative justice nonprofit in southeast Minnesota will host training sessions for those who want to become involved.

One of the sessions, a circle training, is billed as a “16-hour interactive training for aspiring circle keepers.”

“Learn through lecture, role-play, and practice how to guide restorative dialogue in cases involving youth, adults, victims, families, and support people,” the event description stated.  A Circle Keeping book is included in training.

The training is set for Tuesday, Nov. 11, and Thursday, Nov. 13, from 4 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In addition, Three Rivers will host a 16-hour interactive training for aspiring facilitators.

“Learn through lecture, role-play, and practice how to guide restorative dialogue in cases involving youth, adults, victims, families, and support people,” the event description stated.

That training is Thursday, Nov. 6, and Friday, Nov. 7, 4 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 8, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Both trainings are at Christ United Methodist Church in Rochester, and refreshments and light meals will be provided at the training sessions.

The facilitator training is $225 and the circle training is $315, but there is a fee waiver offer for anyone who commits to volunteering for a year with Three Rivers.

To learn more contact 507-396-4095 or email programmanager@trrj.org

What is Restorative Justice?

Three Rivers program manager Rebecca Smith explained the organization works with juveniles; usually, those who have yet to be formally charged with a crime. The alleged offenses may be anything from assault to theft, or myriad others in between.

Police departments, county attorney offices, or community corrections departments can refer someone to the program. 

Once a case is accepted, Three Rivers works to get all the parties involved to share their stories.

“Our goal is to get the victim and the offender together,” Smith said.

For example, she explained, when meeting with offenders, they learn what is going on in their lives and “just kind of stressors, because there's always usually an underlying factor of why something's happened.”

They also meet with the victim, asking them what they ultimately hope to see happen.

“Restorative justice’s focus is on the victim and making sure that the victim gets resolution,”

Smith said. “So we always ask our harmed party, or the victim, what it is that they would like to see happen. Do they just want an apology? Do they want to understand why this happened to them, or do they want something more substantial?”

Both parties then come together for a final conference, where they talk through the situation. 

“We talk about how this affected everybody, so we always start with the harming party, or the offender, and we talk about why you did this, how this has affected your life,” Smith said. “What could you have done differently? And then, we talk to the victim, and we ask how it's affected them. What would you like to see? How could you have things be better, and how has this affected you?”

From there, the team decides what the reparation should be.

“It could be an apology letter to the victim, the school, the community; it can be  that we assigned therapy or that we assigned community service. And sometimes, the schools ask for them to come into the school and help out, so it just kind of depends on what the charges and what the reparations would look like,” Smith said.

Similar to treatment courts, Smith said once someone fulfills their reparations, charges aren’t filed. If the offender does not complete reparations, they’re sent back to the referring agency and may face charges.

Also, she said, individuals sometimes are referred to Three Rivers after they’ve been charged.

“This is a way for them to work through the process instead of being detained in the juvenile justice system,” Smith said.