As Vincentian students return to their classrooms today, the IMPACT Justice regional project is partnering with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College to host two workshops this week, addressing violence and conflict in schools.
The Restorative Practices Workshops will be held from today January 6th to 9th, and will target students of the College’s Teacher Education Programme. The facilitators for the 2nd workshop will be Ann Hamilton Dopwell, Lecturer in Teacher Education at the Community College; and Restorative Practices Trainer Patricia Warner, Senior Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, in Barbados.
The opening ceremony for the second workshop, will be held on Wednesday January 8th at the Conference Room of the Sunset Shores Hotel, at Villa from 9:00am
Remarks will be given by Professor Velma Newton, Regional Project Director of the IMPACT Justice Project, a representative of the Ministry of Education; Nigel Scott, the Director of the Community College, and Harriette Da Silva, Dean of the Teacher Education Department.
The IMPACT Justice Project aims to improve access to justice for citizens in the 13 CARICOM countries in which the Project is being implemented.
One of the ways the Project has sought to reach this objective is through the promotion of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques, to assist persons in resolving their disputes. One of the ADR mechanisms focused on by the Project is Restorative Practices, which has been proven to be effective in addressing instances of violence and conflict within schools.