Restorative Justice Speaker

Barb Toews is a restorative justice practitioner and trainer working with incarcerated individuals in Pennsylvania. As a Program Manager for the Pennsylvania Prison Society, she applies restorative justice in prison settings, incorporates the philosophy into offender and offender family programs and collaborates with incarcerated men and women as they develop their own restorative projects.

“My passion for restorative justice has grown dramatically since I began my work with people in prison. This is largely due
to my relationships with incarcerated men and women who have served as my teachers, colleagues and co-practitioners.  Their commitment to restorative justice demonstrates that the philosophy can provide a path to accountability, healing and relationship."

Barb’s recent book, The Little Book of Restorative Justice for People in Prison (Good Books, 2006), suggests ways in which people in prison can practice restorative justice themselves. She has also created resources, including a workbook of restorative justice reflections, for those who are interested in exploring the meaning and practice of RJ in prison.

Barb also serves as a volunteer facilitator for Pennsylvania’s mediation program for victims of violent crime. In addition, she facilitates victim offender conferencing and restorative justice training for community organizations. Previously, Barb was the founding director of the Lancaster Area Victim Offender Reconciliation Program. She holds a Masters degree in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University and is a PhD student at Bryn Mawr College’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.

“I have learned that restorative justice challenges society as a whole. How can we live so that we embrace those who offend and recognize our own capacity to harm others? How can we create a restorative society in which all people are equal and valued members, including in times when we offend? Restorative justice takes us beyond criminal justice and toward social justice and daily living.” 

-- Barb Toews

 Friday Workshop Leaders

The Friday Workshops will be held on 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on May 22.

Trauma Healing Workshop Leader

The workshop will be facilitated by Nadine Hoover, who has been conducting Trauma Healing workshops in Aceh Province in Indonesia to deal with the aftermath of the tsunami and 25 years of warfare.

 “I have worked in three different war zones and most of the people I currently work with have been tortured and/or severely traumatized.”

Nadine first went to Indonesia with Friends World College in the 1980's.  She is now coordinating the Indonesia Initiative of Friends Peace Teams. She spends part of every year in Indonesia, and it is this work that led to the Trauma Workshops presented at this conference

Nadine has been an AVP facilitator in 1978, She earned a PhD from Florida State University in International Development
and Education in 1988.

Advanced Facilitation Workshop Leaders

Daniel Hunter was trained as a HIPP facilitator in high school. He is a now a trainer, organizer, and strategist, doing much of his work through Training for Change.  He has worked with thousands of activists in over a dozen countries, giving social movements around the world technical assistance in the skill sets of strategic nonviolence and social change.  His work includes anti-death penalty, environmental justice, housing justice and anti-sweatshop movements.  In addition to writing training manuals, Daniel is the author of  articles including “How Presence Stopped a Riot” and “When Non-Violent Intervention Meets Terrorism:  Which Side Wins?”

Co-facilitator Margaret Lechner is a former faculty member at Earlham College, board member of the Association for Experiential Education, and mediation center director.   She is currently a member of the AVP-NY state board and an AVP facilitator/trainer, volunteering with the men in Sing Sing and the women in Bedford Hills Correctional Facilities.

Margaret and Daniel write, “We are different in many ways; Baptist and Quaker, mixed-race and white, activist and academic/administrator, youth and elder.  Together we have over 50 years of experience in facilitator training.  We look forward to sharing our insights with AVP facilitators from around the country, celebrating the wisdom that each participant brings to the workshop and challenge everyone to take their next step as trainers.  We will draw practical lessons from experiential education theory and from our activities together.”
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