About the Conflict Clinic
The University of Illinois Conflict Clinic is directed by Dr.
Mikhail Lyubansky. The mission of the Conflict Clinic is
to support campus units, organizations and communities in
working with conflict in healthy and adaptive ways. As part of
this work, we strive to:
- PARTNER
with organizations, schools, and campus units that want to
explore more constructive or restorative ways of getting
through painful conflicts and events.
- SHARE
knowledge about restorative justice through courses,
workshops, publications, media and dialogue.
- LEARN
about restorative ways of working through conflict through
research, study, teaching, and practice.
Since we started in 2010, we have worked with organizations,
schools, and campus units in Champaign-Urbana, the surrounding
Midwest area (Chicago, southern Illinois, Missouri, Indiana,
and Ohio), and other communities around the United States,
including Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and New Mexico.
Conflict Consultation
The Conflict Clinic offers confidential conflict
consultations to organizations, schools, and campus units. We
listen to you and offer resources and recommendations, with no
pressure to work with us.
Conflict Workshops and Classes
- The Conflict Clinic team can create a unique workshop on
restorative practices, restorative justice, restorative
dialogues or Restorative Circles for your organization,
school or campus unit. Workshops are interactive, hands-on
experiences that range from 60 minute introductions to
multi-day learning events. Some of the local organizations
to whom we have offered workshops include:
- Cebrin Goodman Teen Institute
- UIUC Residence Halls
- Urbana School District
- UIUC Career Empowerment Program
- Community Elements
- READY program
- Region Office of Education #9
- Community Circle about Centennial High School event (click
here for News Gazette article)
Professor Lyubansky teaches undergraduate/graduate courses on
restorative justice every year. His current teaching schedule
and course information can be found here.
Research and Evaluation
The Conflict Clinic’s current research is focused on
evaluating school implementation of different restorative
practices: We use a combination of survey and qualitative
methods in order to (a) identify best practices in
implementation and (b) better understand the individual and
group-level changes (e.g., social and emotional learning,
school climate, discipline referrals) associated with a
transition to addressing conflict and harm restoratively.
As part of the above, the Conflict Clinic team has developed
a Restorative Evaluation Toolbox for projects that utilize
restorative justice principles and approaches. We are also
happy to help your organization, school, or classroom consider
the best way to approach the evaluation of your RJ project.
Note: Our reports are written for the school districts and
are technically their property. Here's one
of our published, peer-reviewed studies. In addition, this
chapter and this
article describe our philosophy and some of the
different ways we work with schools. We'll post more of our
published research when it is available. In the meantime, here
are a few restorative justice research reports (authored by
others) available online:
Between the Lines Blog
The
Between the Lines blog features essays on restorative
justice and race relations. Articles and other resources about
Dominic Barter’s Restorative Circles (RC) process can also be
found in this Restorative
Circles article archive, which I also maintain. Below is a
sample article from the archive.
The Fight Room
By Elaine Shpungin and Dominic Barter
Originally published in Tikkun
Magazine on January 10, 2012
In 1854, Dr. John Snow, an early epidemiological pioneer,
interrupted a deadly epidemic of cholera by tracing the
source of the “poison” in sewage-tainted water to a specific
London water pump. For two decades prior to this, Snow had
made unsuccessful attempts to shift the prevailing belief
that cholera was caused by “miasma in the air.” The cost of
societal failure to embrace a new understanding of the
origins and spread of disease was over 10,000 lives.
Today we continue to struggle with other epidemics, such as
the widespread persistence of interpersonal violence,
structural violence, and violence based in inter-racial and
inter-ethnic tensions. Not only is the cost great in terms
of lost lives and personal trauma, but considerable
resources are also spent on attempts to subdue, redirect,
and control the violence. Yet, as in nineteenth-century
London, we may continue to make little progress in treating
this disease until we are willing to honestly re-examine our
deeply held beliefs about its origins.
One such “epidemiological” re-examination comes from
Dominic Barter’s work in Brazil, which has led him to posit
that violence increases as we attempt to suppress
painful conflict. Rather than being dangerous, conflict
holds within it vital messages regarding unmet needs and
areas of necessary change. Given this understanding,
safety is increased not by avoiding conflict, but by
moving toward it with the intention of hearing the
messages within…
…Continue reading The
Fight Room here
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