The Fraser-Burrard Community Youth Justice Program has chosen resolution conferencing as its restorative justice model.

This involves inviting the youth and the victim, as well as families and supportive people, to a conference in order to come to an agreement that will enable harms and relationships to be repaired.

Trained volunteers use an adaptation of the VORP process to facilitate and plan the meeting.

All participants may express how the incident has affected them and are instrumental in formulating a resolution that is acceptable to all parties.

Resolution conferencing incorporates strengths from Family Group Conferencing (FGC) as well as from Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs (VORP).

 
VORP Strengths:

• Pre-conference preparation - preliminary meetings are crucial to building rapport and trust. Ensuring that the different parties are adequately prepared enables them to take a greater role in the process and assists in opening up dialogue. The mediator assesses the needs and expectations of the parties, which enables him/her to be sensitive to all parties.

• Victim sensitivity - recognition of the complainants and the youths as equal participants is crucial to ensuring that the needs of the victim are met, rather than having an unbalanced focus on the offender. 

• Neutrality - the use of trained volunteers to act as neutral facilitators (rather than probation or police officers or other public officials) prevents the mediator from assuming an overly authoritarian role - which could result in a "shaming and blaming" exercise, rather than treating the youths and their families with respect in an egalitarian manner. This neutral, rather than authoritarian, approach is more conducive to enabling youths to feel safe enough to express themselves in the presence of adults. 

• Flexibility - VORP, rather than using a scripted approach as many FGC programs do (particularly the Australian and Real Justice models), enables the facilitator to adapt to cultural and individual differences. Although this necessitates more extensive training of volunteers, we consider this flexibility to be crucial in a diverse community.

FGC Strengths:

• FGCs traditionally involve more people from the community to discuss the offence, its effects and how to remedy the harm. This approach recognizes that offences occur within a social context and that there are more people impacted than merely the primary complainant and the youth who committed the offence.

By involving a wider range of people in the resolution, both the healing of the victim and the reintegration of the youth within the community is more effectively facilitated and the importance of the role played by families is recognized.