Comments on: A Community of Rewilding Means Adults Maintaining Accord http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/ Revitalizing Riddles, Mythic Story, Family, Village and Land. Sun, 1 Aug 2010 07:09:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Willem http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24580 Willem Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:34:45 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24580 Billy tried to post this, but couldn't and sent it via email; so I'd like to quote his email here: <blockquote>Getting the story from the person who was offended against is not usually difficult. They generally want to tell it and are glad to have a chance to spell out the bigger picture of how this has affected them. Like; " I work doing surveying in the forest and you stole my trailer with my two snowmobiles that I use for work and destroyed them. My insurance is not going to reimburse me enough to replace both of them so now my partner and I have to get another loan to get new ones. Meanwhile we are out of work until we can do all that. This is our first year in business and we operate on a real shoestring budget. We will be defaulting on our contract deadline because of this and paying a penalty. It looks like I will miss my house payment this month and my partner is in pretty much the same situation. We are both family men with kids and..........................What are you gonna do about this?" Getting the offender to tell the whole story in detail can be more of a challenge. Often they will choose to leave out key parts of the story in an effort to minimize what happend or at least their role in it. The facilitator has a script that is supposed to be followed. This script is designed to bring out the story. Honestly it has been a few years for me so I don't remember the script in detail. I would have to dig up my material on it. You said, "...make space for that and encourage them to tell their stories openly?" That is one technique. Make space. We are taught to leave long gaps of silence after a person speaks before we say anything or move on to the next question. Silently and slowly counting to ten after the speaker seems to be done, leaves a big gap that makes people uncomfortable. Usually the offender is the most uncomfortable with that silence so they will often say something more to fill in that awkward silence. They may say something that they were intending to leave out because it is the thing that is right there in their conciousness. The next thing in line, so to speak.</blockquote> Billy tried to post this, but couldn’t and sent it via email; so I’d like to quote his email here:

Getting the story from the person who was offended against is not usually difficult. They generally want to tell it and are glad to have a chance to spell out the bigger picture of how this has affected them.
Like; ” I work doing surveying in the forest and you stole my trailer with my two snowmobiles that I use for work and destroyed them. My insurance is not going to reimburse me enough to replace both of them so now my partner and I have to get another loan to get new ones. Meanwhile we are out of work until we can do all that. This is our first year in business and we operate on a real shoestring budget. We will be defaulting on our contract deadline because of this and paying a penalty. It looks like I will miss my house payment this month and my partner is in pretty much the same situation. We are both family men with kids and……………………..What are you gonna do about this?”
Getting the offender to tell the whole story in detail can be more of a challenge. Often they will choose to leave out key parts of the story in an effort to minimize what happend or at least their role in it.
The facilitator has a script that is supposed to be followed. This script is designed to bring out the story. Honestly it has been a few years for me so I don’t remember the script in detail. I would have to dig up my material on it.
You said, “…make space for that and encourage them to tell their stories openly?”
That is one technique. Make space. We are taught to leave long gaps of silence after a person speaks before we say anything or move on to the next question. Silently and slowly counting to ten after the speaker seems to be done, leaves a big gap that makes people uncomfortable. Usually the offender is the most uncomfortable with that silence so they will often say something more to fill in that awkward silence. They may say something that they were intending to leave out because it is the thing that is right there in their conciousness. The next thing in line, so to speak.

]]> By: The College of Mythic Cartography » Blog Archive » Widening Conversational Scope: A Preamble http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24536 The College of Mythic Cartography » Blog Archive » Widening Conversational Scope: A Preamble Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:28:59 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24536 [...] the articles A Community of Rewilding Means Adults Maintaining Accord, and When the State Assigns Blame, I started a line of inquiry I want to continue here. Using the [...] […] the articles A Community of Rewilding Means Adults Maintaining Accord, and When the State Assigns Blame, I started a line of inquiry I want to continue here. Using the […]

]]> By: Billy http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24510 Billy Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:02:33 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24510 Sorry I just wrote a pretty long response and it did not post. Now it's gone!!! oohhh woe is me. I'll try later. Sorry I just wrote a pretty long response and it did not post. Now it’s gone!!! oohhh woe is me. I’ll try later.

]]> By: Willem http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24508 Willem Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:35:47 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24508 Could you tell me more about "the story of the parties involved"? That sounds really interesting - how do you make space for that and encourage them to tell their stories openly? Could you tell me more about “the story of the parties involved”? That sounds really interesting - how do you make space for that and encourage them to tell their stories openly?

]]> By: billy http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24502 billy Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:01:00 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24502 Actually reading what I wrote earlier, I didn't word that right. The ideas are the same as other group facilitaion but the facilitator here has a definite script. Previous facilitaion would definitely help but there is some specifics needed here. The story of the parties involved is what is essential. Actually reading what I wrote earlier, I didn’t word that right. The ideas are the same as other group facilitaion but the facilitator here has a definite script. Previous facilitaion would definitely help but there is some specifics needed here. The story of the parties involved is what is essential.

]]> By: Billy http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24501 Billy Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:32:36 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24501 If you do a googoo search for "restorative justice" there is a ton of stuff. I recieved the training from a person who came to our community from the Justice Institute in Vancouver. It can be tough to get the local justice system on board with this program mostly because there is a perception that the offender gets of easy, which is not the case. The other fear is that the "victim" (not the best choice of terms) may be further traumatized by having to be face to face with the offender. This is why we have to pick and choose which cases get handled this way. In our community we have gone through a long spell of very little support from the local RCMP and the group of us became very discouraged. There seems to be a new opening so I've been getting calls to get involved again. The training is very much like other group facilitation skills. Willem, I'm sure you already have much of it as second nature from your background. If you do a googoo search for “restorative justice” there is a ton of stuff. I recieved the training from a person who came to our community from the Justice Institute in Vancouver.
It can be tough to get the local justice system on board with this program mostly because there is a perception that the offender gets of easy, which is not the case. The other fear is that the “victim” (not the best choice of terms) may be further traumatized by having to be face to face with the offender. This is why we have to pick and choose which cases get handled this way. In our community we have gone through a long spell of very little support from the local RCMP and the group of us became very discouraged. There seems to be a new opening so I’ve been getting calls to get involved again.

The training is very much like other group facilitation skills. Willem, I’m sure you already have much of it as second nature from your background.

]]> By: Willem http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24499 Willem Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:06:24 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24499 Billy- Totally, totally wonderful and fascinating. Could you give some resources or links to information about the "specific training" you mention? This sounds exactly like the stuff that we all need to learn and start building. Billy-
Totally, totally wonderful and fascinating. Could you give some resources or links to information about the “specific training” you mention? This sounds exactly like the stuff that we all need to learn and start building.

]]> By: Billy http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24498 Billy Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:55:05 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24498 Oh yeah, The rate of re-offending for young first timers is very low after going through this process. Many choose this, thinking it will be the easy way out compared to going to court. Often the restitution involves much more of a commitment to making things good again than the sentence they would have recieved in a court and also involves direct interaction between the two parties rather than some totally unrelated community service hours that the mainstream courts often give young offenders. Oh yeah, The rate of re-offending for young first timers is very low after going through this process. Many choose this, thinking it will be the easy way out compared to going to court. Often the restitution involves much more of a commitment to making things good again than the sentence they would have recieved in a court and also involves direct interaction between the two parties rather than some totally unrelated community service hours that the mainstream courts often give young offenders.

]]> By: Billy http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24497 Billy Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:35:53 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24497 I've been part of a program called restorative justice here. Mostly we deal with "young offenders", first offences, generally property things like vandalism or theft. The cases have to be referred to a restorative justice cricle so it is up to the police or a judge to do that and then up to the "offender" and the person they offended against to all decide that this is the route they want to go. It is basically a talking circle comprised of the two parties and people directly affected or supporting them. People get a chance to say how this incident has affected them in terms of cost, inconvienience, feelings of loss, fear, anything. And the other party is able to give their story. It is not about determining guilt. In these cases the basic facts of who, what ,where,e when are already established. This is possibly about "why" to a certain degree but mostly about how do we make things right between these two parties so that we can all move forward in a good way. The main ways that this is an improvement over the traditional legal system, particularly for young offenders, is that the parties come face to face. They talk to each other. Restitution is made to the party that was offended. Both parties must agee to the outcome. This process is usually resolved much faster than a case making it's wway through the court system. This is based on a model used in many Aboriginal communities sometimes called a sentencing circle. Facilitating these circles requires a specific training. I’ve been part of a program called restorative justice here. Mostly we deal with “young offenders”, first offences, generally property things like vandalism or theft.
The cases have to be referred to a restorative justice cricle so it is up to the police or a judge to do that and then up to the “offender” and the person they offended against to all decide that this is the route they want to go.
It is basically a talking circle comprised of the two parties and people directly affected or supporting them. People get a chance to say how this incident has affected them in terms of cost, inconvienience, feelings of loss, fear, anything. And the other party is able to give their story.
It is not about determining guilt. In these cases the basic facts of who, what ,where,e when are already established. This is possibly about “why” to a certain degree but mostly about how do we make things right between these two parties so that we can all move forward in a good way.
The main ways that this is an improvement over the traditional legal system, particularly for young offenders, is that the parties come face to face. They talk to each other. Restitution is made to the party that was offended. Both parties must agee to the outcome. This process is usually resolved much faster than a case making it’s wway through the court system.
This is based on a model used in many Aboriginal communities sometimes called a sentencing circle. Facilitating these circles requires a specific training.

]]> By: The College of Mythic Cartography » Blog Archive » When the State Assigns Blame http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24482 The College of Mythic Cartography » Blog Archive » When the State Assigns Blame Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:43:21 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2009/02/14/an-adult-community-of-rewilding-the-accord/#comment-24482 [...] « A Community of Rewilding Means Adults in Accord [...] […] « A Community of Rewilding Means Adults in Accord […]

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