Restorative Justice Practices

Restorative Justice Practices & Conflict Engagement Services

In alignment with Loyola Marymount University’s mission of education of the whole person, LMU Restore aims to help students grow in their development of skills for managing conflict when it naturally occurs through providing education and resolution options. LMU Restore also fosters relationship building and harm prevention efforts for the campus community focused on transformative, equity-based policy, practice and systems change. 

Community Building and Problem-Solving Circles

Embodying a participatory, egalitarian and meaningful way to enhance and strengthen the campus community, these conversations break down barriers and in the case of problem-solving circles, offer a process for decision-making. The aim is to help build a positive campus climate where everyone can potentially feel heard and valued. A trained, impartial LMU facilitator would ask a group to determine the topic(s) ahead of time.

Goals

• Provide a safe and structured space for voluntary group conversations.
• Offer a way for the group to express their concerns and generate action plans.

Restorative Conferences

The Restorative Conference brings everyone affected by harm, along with their supporters, together to provide an opportunity to resolve things collectively. The goal of this process is to hold people accountable for their actions and to give everyone a chance to be heard with a focus on how things could be resolved to move forward. This process requires a trained, impartial, Restorative Conferencing facilitator to ask the group three key questions:

1. What happened?
2. Who has been affected and how?
3. What can be done to repair the harm?

In response to Student Conduct Code violations, the initial determination of eligibility for a Restorative Justice process will be left to the discretion of OSCCR and OSCCR reserves the right to terminate the process at any time. OSCCR may opt to postpone initiation of the conduct process in matters deemed potentially appropriate for a Restorative Justice Process.

Individual Consultation 

An opportunity to privately discuss a concern or issue with an impartial staff member. The meeting is an opportunity to learn about resources, explore options, including for a facilitated resolution process, although this does not have to be the goal or reason for the visit.   

Conflict Profile: LMU Restore also offers a free online, brief Conflict Assessment for students who are interested in gaining more insight and awareness of their behavior around conflict. 

Group or Organization Consultation  

An impartial staff member is available to meet and work with student groups and Registered Student Organizations. This resource can take multiple forms, all beginning with a consultation with the impartial staff member to listen to the concern, assist with identifying goals and collaboratively generating options for moving forward. The consultation can take place with an individual or multiple members of the group or organization.  

Facilitation 

An informal process that assists groups in respectful dialogue, collaborative decision-making, establishing or resetting group norms and expectations. An impartial staff member guides the facilitation to help two or more people achieve mutual understanding or reach a decision. The goal of facilitation is to help individuals and groups efficiently and collaboratively work together toward their larger common goals and interests.