Restorative Systems with Dominic Barter

FOR SIGN UP AND INFORMATION ABOUT THIS EVENT, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

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The complexity of the times invite us to bring our whole hearts and intelligence to our current dilemmas and our next steps in facing them. Given the moment we are in, how are we to rediscover the art of designing social systems that listen and learn?

How do we forge community or organisational agreements that consistently meet common needs, increase social cohesion and help us heal from division?

In the midst of such cultural and institutional disorientation what does it take to strengthen collective resilience and regenerate a playful balance between our unity as living beings and the infinite diversity of each one of us, in each moment?

Over the last 28 years, Dominic and his colleagues in Brazil have been developing successful new ways of arriving at liberatory ends through liberatory means. Guided by the work of Marshall Rosenberg their dialogical social systems have been applied in contexts from gang-controlled favela shanty towns to family businesses, in contexts as diverse as civil wars, school systems, environmental disasters, online communities, churches and government and have inspired and supported programs in over 50 countries.

A doorway into this work is to look at how communities, groups, organisations and families respond to the emergence of conflict. That is, how we build justice systems designed to strengthen social cohesion, rather than separate and punish.

This event starts with a Friday evening over view of Dialogical System Design, including images and stories of different systems designed dialogically, such as the Beta Space high school and the network of Empathic Support Systems helping people in crisis situations.  over the last 28 odd years.

On Saturday and Sunday we continue with two introductory, interactive days of demonstration and experiential learning presenting the Restorative Circles approach to justice.

Though the name is now sometimes used in a more generic sense, here Restorative Circles refers to the community process for supporting those in conflict developed in the favelas of Brazil in the mid 1990s.

You are welcome to come just to the Friday evening or for the whole weekend, including Friday evening. These are the two options we hold to, rather than making exceptions and welcoming requests to miss a section of the whole time due to other commitments, which affects the collaborative nature of the learning.

If there is interest, we are committed to continuing this learning sequence over the next few years, so that opportunities for further learning will be available.

As you will see as you got through the two-step sign up process there are a series of distinct aspects to the event, which serve both to increase access and to offer us experiential learning opportunities.

These involve making space and caring for any children who might be with us, caring for our food, caring for resources – so that participants are not excluded and the work and costs are also cared for – and for each other while we are together.

We will work in English, with self-organised translation available for when we expect to get stuck.

The Financial Corresponsibility model used for the event extends to the hosting.

Please take note that registration for the event and reservation for accommodation are both required! (see below how to do this).