I volunteer weekly at Silas Bartsch Elementary School where my daughters attend school. I am on the school site council, work with the PTC, and work as a parent volunteer in the classroom. I addition, my husband and I are the lead Pastors of Heritage Church in Reedley. Each year we participate in various community events, such as the Commuity Easter Carnival, the Policeman’s Appreciation Breakfast. For the past three years, our church, along with community partners, has sponsored a Community Thanksgiving Dinner. In three short years, the event has grown from serving four hundred to almost seven hundred and fifty people. We serve a traditional Thanksgiving meal: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, and all the fixings. We love this event because it brings us closer to our community and its people. …show more content…
This program gives the youth of our community, who are first time offenders, a chance to go through mediation with their victim without being formally charged with a crime. I am a trained mediator for RPBI, and I have mediated two cases. It is my job to facilitate an environment where the victim, the offender, and their families can come together to work toward reconciliation. I feel that this program is a great opportunity for youth offenders to face their victims and take responsibility for their offence. A lot of times when a crime has been committed the victim, and offender(s) are not reunited until they are sitting before a judge. RPBI gives them another way to achieve a peaceful
Since I knew who I was volunteering with, I was able to enjoy volunteering with them. It also helped me become closer to some of the girls. I also love kids and teaching them new things. In addition, the topic I was teaching about also interests me so it was easy to teach them something I was very familiar with, I also gives a sense of achievement when I am able to successfully teach someone something that they can pass on to the next generation. I loved the feeling I got from volunteering.
However, most of my volunteer work comes from outside of the school, such as; Pelotonia, Light the Night for leukemia and lymphoma, Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities, etc. For many of these organizations I have volunteered more than once. Volunteering at Light the Night has a story. For my 16th Birthday party, I wanted to have my friends and I volunteer for the day while having fun at night. So I had 7 boys and girls, along with me, volunteer for Light the Night, organized by me.
My first experience that involved contribution to a community was in an organization known as girls as pearls. In this organization we participated in many volunteer activities, both domestic and global such as making dresses for girls in africa or volunteering at the samaritan ministry. Consequently, this early volunteerism experience influenced my involvement in the community as a high school student. I became involved in organizations such as key club, an organization focused in volunteerism. Additionally, I began to tutor middle school students and volunteering at the local church. Many of the volunteer activities that I have participate in involved children and this due to the reason that I want to be able to become a positive guide and role model for children. I want to contribute to their motivation of continuing their education and to reach for goals that they believe they can achieve. As a hispanic american I have been provided the opportunity of experiencing life from two different viewpoints which has provided me with various life lessons that aided in my development in becoming a successful and well- rounded
Restorative justice practices aim to rehabilitate the offender and repair the damages that were done to the victims and the community. A component of restorative justice system is victim-offender mediation. Victim-offender mediation comprises of “a mediator, who is a neutral third party, the offender and the victim are able to resolve the conflict and consequences cause by the offence and, ultimately, to understand each other” (Griffiths, 2011, p.310). Through meeting with the victims of the crime, the criminal justice system reduces the chances of secondary victimization, victims feeling mistreated by the criminal justice system (Orth, 2002 p.314). Victim-offender mediation hopes to reduce the likelihood of secondary victimization by incorporating the victim’s thoughts and feelings into
Umbreit, M. S. (1998). Restorative Justice Through Victim-Offender Mediation: A Multi-Site Assessment. Western Criminology Review, 1(1). Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v1n1/umbreit.html
There are better ways to punish criminals and protect society than mass incarceration. The state and local governments should be tough on crime, but “in ways that emphasize personal responsibility, promote rehabilitation and treatment, and allow for the provision of victim restitution where applicable” (Alec, 2014). The government also succeeds in overseeing punishment but fails to “…take into account the needs of offenders, victims, and their communities.” (Morris, 2002: Pg. 1 and 2). Alternatives to incarceration, such as sentencing circles, victim offender mediation, and family conferences, can successfully hold criminals responsible while allowing them a chance to get “back on their feet”. Research has proven that rehabilitation has lowered the rate of re-offenders, reducing the crime rate, protecting communities and also saves a lot of
By using a qualitative study Choi and his team were able to see how each of the participants interacted during the restorative justice program. After the program each juvenile was interviewed to discuss their experience and what they learned from the program. Choi, Green, and Gilbert conducted 34 interviews with 37 participants. The participants included “eight juvenile offenders, eight parents, eight adult victims, 10 mediators, and three staff members” (Choi et al. 2011, p.342). Out of eight juvenile offenders, 7 were Caucasian and 1 was African American. The offender’s ages ranged from 13-17 years old. The cases involved included misdemeanors and two violent felony charges. During the Victim-Offender Mediation (VOM) program observations were made as the participants in groups interacted. By observing the groups interactions, Choi, Green, and Gilbert were able to see how each juvenile transformed throughout the program. Choi, Green, and Gilbert found that “restorative justice programs help the offender relate and empathize with victims,” and “the role of reintegrative shaming is effective in creating new identities among the juveniles about violence and criminal behavior”(Choi et al. 2011, p.350,
Community panels, also known as, community reparative boards, have been utilized throughout the United States since the early 1900’s (Brazemore & Umbriet, 2015). This restorative practice is being used most often for low-level juvenile offenders (Brazemore & Umbriet, 2015). In this process, a small group of trained citizens conduct public, face-to-face meetings with offenders that are court order to participate (Brazemore & Umbreit, 2015). Being that this process is court-ordered, community panels are not used throughout prions. However, they are one of the most restorative approaches and could be used as a diversion technique from prison. Therefore, it is essential to discuss the values and objectives of this practice to understand the importance of its use.
When I found out that I had to do seven hours of volunteer work I immediately knew that I wanted it to involve children. I attended the volunteer fair that was held earlier in the semester and signed up for programs such as Louie’s Kids and Wings for Kids. Unfortunately I could not volunteer for either of these programs because they were not in walking distance of the college and I did not have transportation. A couple weeks after that I saw a flyer advertising for “Reading Partners.” I attended an informational event that they held and signed up to volunteer at Memminger Elementary, which is about two blocks from the college.
Similarly, Zehr discussed these similar restorative justice approaches used in the CLJ system with focusing on fixing broken relationships with the victims who were harmed and the offender taking responsibility. Also, the restorative justice method in prison is gaining popularity at least 300 victim/offender mediation programs have sprung up. These mediation programs give the victim and offender a chance to grow together. When discussing whether restorative justice method is more effective for adults or juveniles, Tusi and Payne and Kelly agreed that restorative justice will be more effective for juveniles rather than adults. However, Payne and Kelly stated that “Restorative justice is best applied in the educational domain rather than in a criminal justice system, due to the close relationships within schools.”() Students spend more time with their peers during school than in their communities. There are plenty of positive and negative social interactions between students daily. Restorative justice in schools offers a disciplinary model that can reduce the frequency of negative events and the severity of
The program is modeled after similar programs that begun in the 1970s and 1980s in New Zealand and Australia (Lawson 2004). It is used in schools, juvenile courts, and youth centers. However, for this discussion I will use the facts from Catherine Lawson’s restorative justice study in Missouri. In Lawson’s writings she references Derek R. Brookes, who came up with the conclusion that restorative justice attempts to produce these three outcomes: reconciliation, reparation, and transformation. Reconciliation is stage where all the apologies happen. Reparation is the stage at which the offender takes responsibility for his or actions, by providing fair restitution to the victim and lastly transformation is the stage where the offender is re-guided back into society as a productive member and is out of the cycle of
Umbreit, M. and Coates, R. (1992) Victim offender mediation: an analysis of programs in four states of the US Minneapolis: Minnesota Citizens’ Council on Crime & Justice
Therefore, there is a growing need to progress towards the restorative justice (RJ) system. According to RJ perspective, a crime is considered a conflict between individuals that results in harm to victims, communities, and offenders, and so these parties are also involved in responding to it. One of the prevalent programs of the RJ system is the victim-offender mediation (VOM) program. The VOM program is a process which provides interested victims an opportunity to meet the offender, in a safe and structured setting, with the goal of holding the offender directly accountable for their behaviour while providing assistance and compensation to the victims; mediators do not impose settlements. Over the years, the VOM program has proved to be beneficial to both, the victim and the offender.
This approach has introduced a criminal justice policy agenda. In the past, victims to criminal activities have been outsiders to the criminal conflict. In recent times, many efforts have been made to give the victims a more central role in the criminal justice system. Some of these efforts were introduced a few years back, though even at that time, these efforts were seen as long overdue. Some of these efforts include access to state compensation and forms of practical support. For advocates of restorative justice, crime is perceived primarily as a violation of people and relationships, and the aim is to make amends for all the harm suffered by victims, offenders and communities. The most commonly used forms of restorative justice include direct mediation, indirect mediation, restorative cautioning, sentencing panels or circles and conferencing. In recent...
Another good investment in your child’s education is to volunteer. What you do will depend on the needs at your school and your abilities, but usually the possibilities are endless.