COVID-19 Planning and Resources
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Restorative Practices at Grinnell

Our Mission

The Grinnell College Restorative Practice Initiative strengthens our community. Our mission is to promote inclusion and honor the inherent dignity of every member of the community. We believe in the interconnectedness and interdependence of our community and strive to empower community members to address issues of concern in healthy, respectful, and transformative ways.

Our Approach

The Grinnell College approach emphasizes assisting those who have been harmed in voicing the full impact of what they’ve experienced. It strives to ensure that needs for safety and healing are addressed and that all participants have a powerful voice in shaping justice. The approach also emphasizes the ways that those who have committed harm may step into accountability and restore their best selves. Lastly, the approach’s restorative justice orientation seeks to rebuild communities that have been harmed.

Jodie Geddes
Jodie Geddes to Present Scholar’s Convocation, Workshops, and Mini Trainings

On Thursday, Oct. 27, Geddes, an international speaker on restorative justice, author, and advocate for racial healing and justice, will present the Scholar’s Convocation, “Defining Community: Resistance and Discovery,” at 11 a.m. and a book talk (registration required) at 3 p.m.

  • Grinnell students, faculty, and staff in a restorative practices workshop

    Training

    Restorative practitioners at Grinnell College offer training in restorative processes and practices to all students, staff, and faculty. These trainings help shift perspectives from an emphasis on retribution and punishment to more holistic approaches and resolutions that focus on healing, social responsibility, and strengthening community ties.

  • One person passing an item to the left in a community circle

    Community Circles

    Community circles have a variety of purposes. They can be used proactively to develop relationships and build community, or reactively to respond to conflict, misconduct, and violations of community standards.

    Circle discussions foster trust-building and inclusion. Utilized reactively, a community circle often allows for communal responses that create opportunities for those harmed and those responsible for causing harm to be part of the process of defining accountability and restoring trust and community dialogue.

    Explore community circles
  • three participants meeting with a facilitator

    Facilitated Dialogues

    A facilitated dialogue is a conversation that brings together people who have experienced harm with those responsible for that harm in a supportive and confidential environment. The outcome is a unique agreement that the parties work out jointly through a process that can be healing and empowering for everyone.

    Learn more about facilitated dialogues

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