BARJ in Illinois - Cook County

Peacemaker Services
2105 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60614

Phone: (773) 472-5339
Email: steve@peacemakerservices.com
Contact: Steve Beyer

What RJ practice/s do you use?
Our basic model is the council process, adapted to embrace conferencing and circles of all kinds, with the goal of inclusive participation within a community. We thus provide training and facilitation in council, conflict transformation, peacemaking circles, communication skills, mediation, restorative justice principles, and community building.

Specific services offered:
Facilitation, advocacy, and training in council processes, conflict transformation, peacemaking circles, communication skills, mediation, restorative justice, and community building. Our workshops and programs may be modified to meet the goals and needs of the client. We often work with clients to help nurture community-building initiatives and processes on a continuing basis.

What population do you serve?
Peacemaker Services is a builder of communities. We provide organizations, businesses, and institutions with the tools they need to create, nurture, and sustain community. We have offered our peacemaker workshops to social workers, therapists, social work students, psychology graduate students, law students, residents of intentional communities, churches, wilderness and outdoor leaders, wilderness therapists, nature educators, and middle-school students, high-school students, teachers, principals, and staff at Montessori, charter, alternative, and public schools .

How/where do you get referrals?
We are a private fee-for-service provider of facilitation, advocacy, and training, and our referrals are largely word-of-mouth recommendations from satisfied clients.

Does your process, program or activity show equal concern for victims, offenders and the community of those affected?
Yes.

Does the process, program or activity encourage the offender to feel accountable for his conduct, and be willing to repair the harm caused to the victim and the community of those affected, in a way that focuses on the competency development of the offender?
Yes.

Does the process, program or activity provide opportunities for dialogue, direct and/or indirect, between all of the community of those affected, including the victim and offender?
Yes.

Does the process, program or activity encourage collaboration to restore and develop positive relationships among the members of the community of those affected, including the victim and the offender?
Our work has been primarily with ongoing communities, so a primary aim has been to provide practical and ceremonial tools for the reintegration of all participants in a conflict.

Does the process, program or activity empower the community of those affected to increase its capacity to recognize and respond to harm and crime in a restorative justice way?
Yes.

In what ways are you evaluating your program?
Workshop participants are provided with evaluation forms. In many cases, the relationship with the client institution is a continuing one, providing the opportunity for constant feedback and evaluation.