Values Centered Practice
Ron Loewen
https://loewencoaching.com/
When I began my work with Mennonite Central Committee Canada as Restorative Justice Coordinator, I was doing so as a Mennonite Christian. I come from a long line of Mennonites; it is a faith, an ethnicity, and a community to me. I quickly learned that most of the restorative justice (RJ) programs I worked with were community-focused, meaning not faith-forward. Their primary method of engaging with each other and with their community and clientele was values-centered. The primary motivation for this was accessibility and respect.
The shared values of those who created these organisations generated a specific vision that allowed them to stay focused and deliver meaningful and consistent programs to their communities. It gave them a framework to measure whether they were having the impact they wanted to. If they were a victim-centered program, the feedback of the victims and communities they supported was critical to assessing their effectiveness. If they were offender-focused, then the offender, victim, and community feedback was central to their feedback system.
Values:
The ability to bridge the distance between us and those who have different beliefs begins with values. To be the person you want to be, you must first know who it is you want to be. The foundation of that is your values. These are the guideposts, the deep meaning we hold in the world. This may be connected, sourced, and influenced by our faith, or they may be handed to us by our families and culture. I have found that there is an entangled relationship between my values and beliefs, with each one able to inform a need to change my behaviours based on the impact I have had.
When we know our values, we can then shape a vision for our lives and mission in an inclusive and open way. We can build feedback loops to assess whether or not we are having an impact consistent with our vision or not, and ultimately, whether we are living by our values and faith.
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