Episode 8 of Season 2 finds us in conversation with Stephen and Alan from the STARS programme - Talking about the impact of restorative practice training and application of restorative skills and thats transforming individuals and their connection within their communities.

It's great to hear stories like Alan's and how learning about restorative practice and putting it into practice has had an impact on his life and on the programme he runs, Sea Change.

Join us on the next episode when we look at other ways we have been supporting people within our communities at Northern Ireland Alternatives where restorative practice isn't just a way of doing things, its a way of life.

Episode 7 finds us in conversation with Billy Drummond and other partners in the BUILD (Better Understanding in Local Development)Project. Looking at some of the development issues faced by the Greater Shankill community and how this project seeks to address them.

Episode 6 finds us in conversation with STARs workers, Jonny Armstrong and Stephen Hollywood, talking about the work of the STARS project, the impact that it is having on participants and how participants are living out restorative values in their personal lives and within the wider community.

This episode finds us in conversation with our friends at Longmont Community Justice Partnership, talking about their documentary "How to love your enemy", We are joined by Kathleen McGoey, Dan Sidders and Matt Battalgia talking about the reason behind the documentary and the success RJ has been in their community and specifically the relationship LCJP has with local police.

The documentary can be found here:

https://freethepeople.org/how-to-love-your-enemy-a-restorative-justice-story/

Here is what Free the People say about it on their website:

Longmont is a city in Colorado that tries a different kind of justice system, powerful enough to transform a broken system of mass incarceration in the United States. Instead of locking up non-violent offenders, these advocates focus on the challenging but rewarding process of individual responsibility, forgiveness, and redemption that radically shifts our idea of justice and our part in it.

Free the People created this original documentary film and it was the winner of Best Feature and Best Director at Front Range Film Festival and was selected at numerous other film festivals across the country, then postponed due to COVID-19. Free the People is releasing the full film ahead of schedule to join the conversation happening about police violence and racial disparities in our justice system in the United States. “How To Love Your Enemy” is an emotionally compelling story about real people working to make things right, and a tutorial for other communities looking to restore faith in their justice systems and law enforcement. Co-directed by Sam Martin and Matt Battaglia.

To celebrate restorative justice week we are releasing a special episode of the podcast that finds us in conversation with James Simon the CEO of Restorative Justice Council UK. James has a long history of implementing restorative practices within schools and shares how he was introduced to restorative practice, and the story of that first implementation in school he was head teacher at. He then goes on to share about how he became involved with the RJC.

Check out our Twitter and Facebook feeds for more posts duet restorative justice week.

Episode 3 is a live broadcast that was facilitated via Streamyard and broadcast live to our YouTube channel to celebrate Good Relations week in Northern Ireland. Featuring the LINCS programme facilitated by NI Alternatives and a programme from one of our partner organisations CRJI, namely their Travellers, as well as our jointly delivered new restorative practice project STARS. We talk about the importance of good relations work and the role that restorative practices have to play in facilitating it.

Episode 2 of our new season finds us in conversation with Howard Zehr. Howard is one of the pioneers of the restorative justice movement and his books Changing Lenses and the Little Book of Restorative Justice are well known and required reading across the field. We caught up with Howard during lockdown to have this conversation via Zoom. His wealth of experience and insight was an absolute privilege to listen to, and we hope you enjoy the episode just as much as we did in having the conversation with Howard.

Welcome to the first episode of our brand new season! This episode launches a brand new project that aims to expand the use of restorative justice practice across a range of identified communitites. Funded by The Executive Office and Cooperation Ireland, and facilitated by CRJI and NIA, STARS (Striving Towards A Restorative Society)seeks to train and enable community based volunteers to implement restorative practices to enhance community based social work. We are joined on the podcast by representatives from the funders and the delivery partners, discussing the hopes for the project and the potential outcomes they would like to achieve.

Episode 10 is very different from what we at Talking Piece had originally planned. Our way of life has been seriously affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

NI Alternatives is working to provide support to the most vulnerable in our communities during this time and all 5 of our sites are working to provide:

• daily telephone support to families

• sharing essential information with families who require additional support

• Distribution of food packages to local families, especially those that include, elderly, children, young people and those with underlying health issues

• Assistance with and advice on utilities, prescriptions and other essential services

• Provision of telephone counselling for people struggling with their mental health or coping issues.

• Provision of youth resource packs

• Online support and training for young people

• Helping people stay in touch via social media eg Facebook & Zoom

• Point of contact for statutory group for coordinated response

• Partnering with other community organisation to share information and appropriate response and delivery of services.

We have 5 sites across Belfast and Bangor, Northern Ireland. If you are from one of the following areas, contact your local office if you are in need of support.

North Belfast - Joan Totten - 02890 717077

East Belfast - Mandy Kearns - 02890 456766

South Belfast - Debbie Hammill - 07415461287

Greater Shankill - Billy Drummond - 07519762488

Bangor - Pete Wray - 07410920118

Episode 9 finds us in conversation with Lindsey Pointer and Kathleen McGoey, two respected restorative trainers and practitioners from Colorado, USA. Lindsey and Kathleen are about to release their book "The Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools" on March 10th. The book aims to provide trainers and facilitators with interactive games to teach the principles and practices of restorative justice. The book is available to order from Amazon, the link is available below. Alongside the book, there is a web site also being launched with even more games that couldn't be published in the book to provide an interactive resource for trainers. Lindsey and Kathleen will be hosting a webinar on 18th March and discussing the book in detail as well as delivering a course in August exploring the use of games in the training arena. This episode has some insight into how the book was written and how they chose games to be included and we also develop the beginnings of a new game for training in the episode as well!! Happy listening and as always please get in touch if you would like to find out more via [email protected]

To sign up for the webinar use the following link:

https://zehr-institute.org/webinars/rj-teaching-tools-book-launch.html

To sign up for the game of the month visit:

www.restorativeteachingtools.com

To get your copy of the book from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Book-Restorative-Teaching-Tools/dp/168099588X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=little+book+of+restorative+teaching+tools&qid=1583749768&sr=8-1