The 80/20 Principle: Restorative Practices knowledge, capacity, and community building

80/20 Project: Orienting UMBC to a Restorative Campus

This year's 80/20 project is focused on orienting UMBC to what it means to be a restorative campus, moving the institution toward a shared understanding of restorative practices (RP) as a way of being in community together.

This series highlights Restorative Practices Foundations, Exploring Fair Process and Inclusive Design, Using Circles for Community Building and Problem Solving, and Reframing Accountability, with several opportunities woven throughout to practice community building in circles with colleagues.

Session One: "Building Before Breaking – RP Foundations"

Featuring: b.a. medina, Director of Bias Incident Support Services, University of Maryland, College Park 

This foundational session reintroduces restorative practices as a proactive framework for community building. Too often, RP gets introduced only in moments of conflict or crisis, which limits its potential and reinforces the idea that restorative work is remedial. This session repositions RP as infrastructure, something a community builds and practices continuously, so that when harm does occur, there is already a foundation of trust and shared language to draw on.

Participants will explore the social discipline window, examining how different combinations of support and accountability shape the way we engage with one another, and unpacking what it looks like to lead with a community. The session will also introduce proactive RP behaviors, practices like affective statements, community-building circles, and relationship-first norms, that create the conditions for belonging before harm ever enters the picture.

This session lays the groundwork for the rest of the series, which will go on to explore:

• Fair process & participatory design: how decision-making processes themselves can build or erode trust and buy-in
• Reframing accountability: shifting toward accountability rooted in relationship and repair
• Circling Up!: deepening facilitation skills and comfort with circle practice as a core community-building tool in a restorative context

Help us spread the word! Download and share the attached flyer.

To request accommodation(s) or to inquire about event accessibility, please get in touch with us via email, culture.umbc.edu, with "[Brief Event Name]" in the subject line. All sessions are open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.