Restorative Practices

Restorative Practices (RP) offers a path to prevent or respond to conflict/harm in a community while prioritizing a journey of healing, social support, and active accountability. Rooted in indigenous traditions, RP can also prevent harm with Community and Trust Building Circles (aka Tier 1), which strengthen relationships and offer lenses into each member of our community, going beyond their roles, particular actions or beliefs. These Tier 1 practices are akin to laying a foundation whereby campus colleagues bring a lens of curiosity to understand and explore differences, vs judgment. RP’s Tier 2 conferences respond to conflict by helping identify harms, needs, and solutions through an inclusive and collaborative decision-making process. Tier 3 Circles are a support process for reintegrating individuals after an absence. They can also be adapted to rebuild trust in a group or community while all members of the team provide support.

The process typically uses a circle of support and accountability.

  • Restorative Practices are increasingly attractive for institutions where the institutional scaffolding, support and systems for Tier 2 are outside the scope of the hosting units. Thus, they focus on Tier 1 and 3, and often include a Tier 0 (Restorative Mindset). 


Stanford Medicine’s Restorative Justice Hub is pivoting to the Restorative Practices Learning Community.

Anchored within PRESENCE, a Stanford Medicine Center, the focus is on building institutional capacity via individual skills with a Restorative Mindset. In partnership with Stanford Medicine’s:

  • Office of Medical Student Affairs to serve students and trainees
  • Human Resources Group to serve staff
  • Office of Faculty Diversity and Development to serve faculty.

 

Built on the indigenous wisdom the world over, Restorative Practices is a communal approach to prevent or respond to reintegration after a team conflict, with an emphasis on healing, social support, and active accountability. It is non-adversarial, multipartial, relational and benefits from  an empowered and collaborative multi-constituent decision-making process.

Source: Adapted by the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, RJ History and Introduction, Webinar: RJ Overview by Stanford Medicine, January

Our focus is to support Tier I and TIer 0 Restorative Practices across Stanford Medicine (i.e. prevention) as well as Tier 3 practices (integrating people back into and supporting communities after the close of a formal investigation or leave (personal or otherwise).  

Objectives:

  1. Build institutional capacity for trained colleagues to lead circles for building trust such that individuals seek curiosity to understand differences, and thus prevent escalations and conflict. Examples include (but are not limited to) giving constructive feedback - early, often and honestly; rebuild stronger working teams after a conflict has been resolved via other University processes; xx
  2. Socialize the ideas and activities associated with Restorative Practices throughout the organization to maximize the adoption and effectiveness of trust building efforts.
  3. Initial efforts will include the socialization of campus colleagues around the language, and activities that are associated with practice. This can include leaders recommending team members, and introducing Restorative Practices principles to their meeting agendas.

Examples include (and are not limited to):

  1. Prevent or de-escalate conflict at the local level via training and internal capacity building for Tier 1 and 3. The focus is not to resolve conflict, which is currently being done by many existing offices. 
  2. Focused training eg. constructive group dynamics in research labs or new teams or for group projects or tbd  
  3. Serve as a mentoring/consultant, if/where needed + defer to existing resources eg Ombuds or Faculty/Staff Support office(s) or Student Affairs, etc. 
  4. Assess the work (via a separate team) to inform continuous improvement

RJ Stanford Medicine Steering Committee


Magali Fassiotto
Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity, SoM - Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity
Mijiza M. Sanchez-Guzman
Associate Dean, Office of Medical Student Affairs, SoM Office of Student Services
Matthew Griffith
Asst Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) ? Strategy, School of Medicine - Human Resources Group
Terrance Mayes, EdD
Interim Associate Dean of HR, Central Operations Units
Sonoo Thadaney Israni
Executive Director, Presence + Program in Bedside Medicine, Med/Program/Bedside Med