One Facilitator’s Reflections & Questions
by Katie Golieb, MSW https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-golieb-msw-97888a19/
There have been and will continue (hopefully) to be RJ programs and evaluations nation-wide; the question I have as a professional evaluator and MSW is: as a national team, how can we ensure there is accountability and common language in RJ practices and programs to be both evidence-based and successful long-term? And, on a smaller-scale, how do we ensure accountability for the implementers and facilitators themselves? How do we ensure we are all on the same page and that we do no harm as we build the car while driving it?
It has been over a decade since my first facilitator experience and training, but to this day the memories, lessons and emotions continue to drive me as an advocate for Restorative Justice.
I had my first facilitator experience as a young adult; I had participated and returned for several years to an interfaith international conflict resolution program in New York. Our participants were comprised of 50+ teenagers from areas of conflict (Middle East, Africa, Ireland, and the United States). Some of the key components of the program were: geographically removing affected parties (youth who had been directly impacted by the conflict in their countries) to a more secluded environment; teaching and practicing intentional listening, communication, and story-telling; embracing our differences as a means of finding common ground; and following the two-week summer intensive with a one-year follow-up program in each of our countries. One of the largest building blocks in these relationships was empathy, and to provide students with the opportunity to put a face to their enemies.
During my first year as a participant I saw the relationship between one of my Palestinian friends and one of my Israeli friends transformed. The Israeli participant had recently lost three friends in a suicide bombing, and when he arrived at the program, he came with the purpose of putting a face to those he would protect his country against, and potentially kill, as an Israeli soldier. When he left, those faces were of friends with stories and losses of their own. We all returned the following summer to continue our dialogue, relationships, and to be trained as facilitators for the same program (Leaders in Training); the following summer I returned as a staff member and facilitator.
This year I am both excited and anxious to be a Restorative Justice program facilitator. I realize I am carrying with me memories of a utopian environment for dialogue, conflict resolution, and healing. As facilitators in this program, we worked, slept and learned together as a team. As programs expand and enter the macro playing fields, it is harder to maintain that type of camaraderie, support, and accountability. In my previous facilitation program, we were constantly checking in with each other, observing and advising others on how to improve their facilitation skills, and we were ‘safe’ in a removed environment; none of that carries over when we enter the broader, community-based programs. To clarify, interfaith dialogue and Restorative Justice are not the same forums or programs, but the role of a facilitator remains the same; our needs, fears, and required skill sets remain the same.
I recently attended a Restorative Justice facilitator training, and during one role-play, the group’s facilitator jumped out of their role to express their discomfort with the agreements being made between the (acting) victim and offender. Our team took a break to remind ourselves what our interpretation of a facilitator was, and the importance of facilitators’ recognizing and realizing their own potential triggers. I flashed back to what the process had looked like when I was in a smaller, intensive training as a united team; our current group was still in its growth stage both in camaraderie and practice. I was grateful then that I had several facilitators holding me accountable for my work and words, and I left the practice wondering ‘who will hold us facilitators accountable when we falter?’
Restorative Justice, in my humble opinion, has the potential to change our nation’s justice system, how we respond to and treat offenders, and how we personally and on a community-level resolve and recover from wrongdoings. I strongly believe it would be a disservice to our work, programs and advocacy efforts if we do not ask these questions now, and that as members of the RJ movement, we must continue learning, building, communicating and evaluating on a shared, macro level to ensure its continuation and success.
