Restorative practices are ways of proactively building strong relationships and responding to conflict or harm by bringing people together to listen, understand what happened, and decide what should happen next. They can help people take responsibility for their actions, repair relationships when possible, and make plans to prevent future harm. Restorative practices are not only used after something goes wrong. Meetings, schools, workplaces, families, and other communities can use them to build trust and create healthier ways of talking with one another.

Some parts of restorative practice may already feel familiar to Friends. Worship sharing, clearness committees, and Quaker decision-making all ask us to listen carefully and make room for different voices. Restorative practices build on similar habits while offering tools for difficult conversations and community building. They encourage us to ask simple but important questions: What happened? Who was affected? What do people need? What can we do to make things as right as possible?

Pages related to Quaker restorative practices may include:

• What Are Restorative Practices? Core ideas, values, and common terms, including the difference between restorative practices and restorative justice.
• Restorative Practices and Quaker Faith. Connections with worship, listening, discernment, accountability, right relationship, and continuing revelation.
• Building Restorative Communities. Using restorative practices proactively to build trust, belonging, communication, and healthy relationships before conflict happens.
• Restorative Circles. What circles are, when to use them, basic circle structure, and guidance for holding a simple circle.
• Responding to Conflict and Harm. Restorative questions and processes for understanding impact, taking responsibility, repairing harm, and deciding what comes next.
• Facilitating Restorative Conversations. Practical guidance for facilitators, including preparation, listening, questions, agreements, and managing difficult moments.
• When Restorative Practices Are Not Appropriate. Limits of restorative processes, including safety, power differences, consent, serious misconduct, and situations requiring professional help.
• Biblical Foundations of Restoration. How stories from the Bible illustrate theological connections and implications for restorative practices.
• Resources and Further Learning. Books, organizations, training opportunities, downloadable tools, sample questions, and other materials for Friends who want to go deeper.

On this page, FGC will gather information about restorative practices, tools for holding conversations and circles, opportunities for further learning, and resources that connect this work with Quaker faith and practice. This resource page will be fully launched by the end of the year, with help from Friends like you. If you have experience with restorative practices and would like to volunteer to write a section (approximately 1,200 to 1,700 words), please contact outreach@fgcquaker.org.

---

---

Preliminary Resources

• International Institute for Restorative Practices
• Restorative Practices – Informal and Formal Processes for Addressing Behavior