On June 1 and 2 in Yellow Springs, Antioch College and the Community Empowerment Organization (CEO) will host their second Restorative Justice Conference on the Antioch Campus. The theme of this year's discussions center around "Are We There Yet? Healing Harms in Sexual and Family Violence and the Role of Restorative Justice."
CEO director, Jalyn Roe, says the conference, just as it did in 2017, will feature expert speakers who are at the forefront when it comes to applying restorative practices to a host of social issues.
"We actually put a strategic plan together, Jennifer Berman (with Antioch College) and myself for the conferences," Roe said. "We have different subject matters - we are looking at Ohio's opioid crises, we are looking at what's going on in K-12 school systems so we'll be doing a conference on that."
Roe says many of the issues to be discussed were born out of the first conference in 2017 and this year's subject matter of sexual violence was planned some time ago.
"We had this conference setup prior to everything that is in the headlines right now. We had it prior to the #metoo movement because we recognized that restorative justice can play a role, restorative practices can play a role in these harms that are being done."
The conference opens on Friday, June 1, with a free, open-to-the-public Community Circle at Yellow Springs’ Bryan Center. It then continues with an all day training program on Saturday.
Registration, with cost, is required for the Saturday training but Roe says "If you're curious, if you're a practitioner, if you have dealt with this type of harm in the past you are welcome. Everyone will benefit and we're really looking at anyone with the interest in learning about or applying human-centered principles and methods. These can be educators, they can be Title 9 coordinators, we're looking at business leaders, school counnselors, we know this is a problem within our school system."
Although the Saturday training entails a registration cost, Roe says several community partners have stepped up to offer scholarships for participants who can't meet the financial cost. Sponsors for the 2018 conference include the Yellow Springs Community Foundation and the Yellow Springs Human Resource Commission, among others.
For scholarship or spnsorship information, for this or future Restorative Justice conferences, contact Jalyn Roe at ceononprofit00@gmail.com or Jennifer Berman at jberman@antiochcollege.edu.
