A Jornalista Mary Shafer visitou duas dessas casas (da CSF), uma para raparigas e outra para rapazes, onde observou e entrevistou os jovens, os educadores e outros elementos da equipe. O seu entusiamo é claro à medida que, pela primeira vez, testemunha a aplicação das práticas restaurativas:
“When I arrived at the Community Service Foundation’s (CSF) foster girls’ group home in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, USA, houseparent Linda Anschuetz showed me into the dining room. She motioned me to a chair by the table, around which six pairs of teen-age eyes—alternately curious and suspicious—focused on me. Who was this stranger who’d arrived in the midst of their safe, carefully structured environment, and what did I want?
(…)
Throughout my visits and interviews, I witnessed a willingness on the part of all CSF participants to take an honest, critical look at their own behaviour. All the staff I interviewed were unbelievably open about their backgrounds, which all seemed to include serious struggles of their own. It became clear that their dedication was born of the compassion of common experience.
This realization sparked the first of many times throughout the process of researching this article when I said to myself, “This is incredible! These people are so real, and honest. Why is this fantastic method only practiced at CSF, after people have gotten in trouble with the law? Why aren’t we all living restorative practices every day?”
I can’t say I found the answers, but I did find something valuable. Since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, I had been looking for something to feel hopeful about. In a world that increasingly devalues children and denies doing so, I have found an honest attempt to face our society’s self-delusion and say, “No more.” My heart has responded to a place that the children our society has deemed least desirable can call “home.”
And if that’s not something hopeful… check your pulse."
Para ler o artigo, consulte:
http://www.realjustice.org/library/csfresidential.html
Para fazer o download (versão PDF):
http://fp.enter.net/restorativepractices/csfresidential.pdf
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