Case Study
Developing Restorative Human Resources in a Nonprofit Workplace
The ways in which tensions and harms are addressed among co-workers and colleagues can have a major effect on the lives of workers. Contemplating these issues through principled and collaborative methods can be a significant source of growth and development within organizations.
UNITI is an award-winning British Columbia-based nonprofit organization that supports adults with developmental disabilities. In alignment with its guiding philosophy of Person-Centered Practices, UNITI made the decision to align its staff dispute resolution, harm intervention, and grievance procedures with a restorative approach. Just Outcomes was invited to lead a core team from across the organization in a process of developing a Restorative Practice Hub at UNITI.
We knew as soon as we were invited to guide this process that it was an organization ready to take initiative and serve as a model for other organizations wishing to make a shift toward restorative approaches.
Over a several-month period, our team worked to support an internal committee that was representative of all facets of the organization’s leadership and staff. Together we generated a map of all the necessary issues for developing new programs, from confidentiality expectations, to facilitator recruitment and training, to referral parameters, and beyond. After a period of education and training by Just Outcomes, committee members took on the task of drafting program manual content in each of the identified areas. Just Outcomes provided oversight, technical expertise, editing, coordination, and facilitation along the way.
By the launch of the program, the committee had cultivated their individual and collective knowledge and capacity in remarkable ways. We had no doubt their program would succeed long after our departure – and it has!