Could you imagine interviewing and then convening a meeting to address harm between people involved in a serious incident or crime?

Please tell us about yourself and why you might want to facilitate restorative justice processes as a volunteer with Advoz.

Upon completion of the Advoz Restorative Conferencing training, volunteers are expected to meet the following criteria. Inability to meet these criteria may result in additional training and/or mentoring prior to individual case assignments. A signed copy acknowledging these expectations will be reviewed with each volunteer and maintained in their volunteer file.

• Fair toward all parties involved in the Restorative Conferencing process
• Friendly, establishes rapport and puts people at ease
• Able to verbalize thoughts and the Restorative Conferencing process clearly
• Flexible, patient, able to tolerate delay and maintain perseverance to follow through on a case
• Able to listen actively to both sides of a crime experience
• One who deals with and explores confusing and sometimes contradictory factual and emotional information, assisting all parties in finding a constructive resolution to crime
• Able to put aside personal judgments about others’ actions and reactions
• Accepting of others who are different than him/her and make different life choices
• Committed to restorative justice and the victim-offender process as outlined in the Restorative Conferencing Facilitator Training/Manual

Upon completion of Restorative Conferencing Facilitator Training, Facilitators are responsible for:

• Meeting with the victim and offender to explain Restorative Conferencing and to invite them to voluntarily attend a Conference
• Arranging and leading the Conference, assuring physical and emotional safety of all parties
• Arranging and leading a follow-up meeting if necessary.
• Returning all case material to the Advoz office immediately following the Conference

Additionally, Advoz expects all Restorative Conferencing Volunteers to:

• Be responsible for case assignments and communication with the Program Coordinator
• Receiving cases. On average, one case takes approximately 3- 4 hours over 3-6 weeks. Meetings are conducted at a time that is convenient for all the parties involved, with most meetings occurring after school/business hours as well as on weekends.
• Keeping the Case Manager updated on the status of a case no less frequent than 7-10 days
• Asking the Case Manager to make any necessary connections with Juvenile Probation or other referral sources
• Each Restorative Conferencing Facilitator commits to working with a minimum of 6 cases per year.
• Additional cases are available should the Facilitator so desire.

To discuss volunteering with Advoz as a mediator and facilitator, contact Ra’Nyah Oden at mediate@advoz.org.