The Restorative Justice
 Resource Center

Our History

In 2006, several members of the restorative justice community came together to create the Restorative Justice Resource Center.  We called ourselves the Leadership Council.  The Leadership Council envisioned an organization that would serve victims/survivors, offenders, their family members, and communities by providing information, resources, victim offender mediation and dialogues, and training to promote restorative justice.  Unlike many excellent RJ informational sites, we wanted to make the information user friendly, easy to access for beginners who were victims/survivors, offenders, or community members wanting to know how to get started with restorative justice. We also wanted the web site and our services to be cost effective for communities so they'd be encouraged to institute RJ programs.  The web-site/database is a work in-progress.

 After several months of building an organizational foundation (vision, mission, by-laws), the Leadership Council began to work with Pat Downing who was a key player in another restorative justice organization, the Restorative Justice Resource Group, which had an aligned mission. A board meeting was convened and it was agreed that our organizations would merge, change the name to Restorative Justice Resource Center and that the Leadership Council would go forward with the blessings of the former RJRG.

Today

The Restorative Justice Resource Center led by  Kim Wright, Lyra D. Monroe, and Pat Downing is a 501c3 non-profit organization with offices in North Carolina and California. The Center provides training and consulting services to communities around the world. RJRC is also developing projects that serve individuals as well as communities.  Marty Price is our Project Director for International Education and Outreach.

In North Carolina, the Restorative Justice Task Force of Western North Carolina provides opportunities for concerned citizens to work together with community organizations and local governments to expand existing programs and to develop new restorative approaches that support healing and empowerment for victims, offenders, and their families. The RJ Task Force of WNC is our working model. Marty Price and Pat Downing bring their considerable backgrounds and talents to  the Task Force, establishing RJ programs in their home community while having a practical laboratory. Their training and educational programs are not just theoretical but based upon their own experience.

Task Force Action Teams provide an opportunity for interested citizens to become involved in specific aspects of Restorative Justice. Action Teams assess existing services, identify needs and develop plans to expand or create new restorative approaches in specific areas. For a list of the developing projects of the RJ Task Force of WNC. click here.

Anyone interested in joining an Action Team or becoming involved with the Task Force can contact Pat Downing.

RJRC services include a speaker’s bureau, victim offender mediation training, victim offender mediation services, media consultation, community organizing, systemic consulting, and a victim offender education group. 

Restorative Justice is community-based justice, because crime is a community problem, requiring a community solution. We will never be able to hire enough police, prosecutors, judges and prison guards to solve our crime problem for us. We can be, and must be, part of the solution.  Marty Price

 

The Restorative Justice Resource Center

information@restorativejustice.info