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Communities of Practice:
Tending to Our Collective Well-Being

June 23-24, 2026

Welcome Reception: June 22, 2026

Register Here!

For many of us, restorative justice feels like a set of values that guide not just the way we do educational practice, but the way we want to live our lives. It is a way of living that often requires us to swim upstream, a journey that is not intended to be walked alone. 

The 2026 RJE Conference will focus on nurturing communities of practice - not just talking about learning and working collaboratively, but actually practicing a collaborative approach to restorative justice in educational spaces.  We hope to emphasize depth over breadth, offering time to reflect, process, and apply the wisdom from each speaker through a variety of creative and relational modalities, including writing, movement, art, Circle process, and facilitated dialogue. 

With a schedule designed around a small number of featured speakers and intentional collective processing, we invite both newcomers and experienced practitioners to join us in nurturing and being nurtured, restoring and being restored, as we explore the transformative and healing potential of RJE together.

Full conference description            Meet the Speakers

TENTATIVE CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

  • 9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Opening and Coming Together

    Main speaker sessions

  • 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Reflective Processing Spaces

    Individual and collective processing, imagining, and mapping where we go from here. 

    Circle Processing: Within this space, Circle keepers will facilitate a Circle for processing personal reflections, hearing from others, and considering potential action steps. The size of the Circle will be limited to 20 with another room available if needed to keep the number of participants at or below 20. 

    World Cafe Processing: Facilitators will host conversations in small groups, structured to create intentional space where questions are asked, new ideas are fostered, and wisdom is shared and will provide opportunities for imagining next steps. 

    Movement-based Processing: Perhaps you’re a person who needs to process using your body, not your words. This space is for you. Guided by facilitators with experience in dance, yoga, and other embodied practices, this room will be open for those wishing to talk less and move more.

    Arts-based Processing: In this processing space, facilitators will create opportunities for participants to work with their hands in various artist expressions. A wide variety of materials will be provided, including but not limited to crayons, acrylics, collage, and sidewalk chalk.

    Facilitated Dialogue: In this space, facilitators will create opportunities for dialogue, conversations, and processing through words. Less structured than a Circle or World Cafe, participants are invited to explore together reflections, responses, and action steps related to the presentations by speakers.

    Written Processing: For those of you who are looking for a space to write within a community of other writers, this room will be facilitated by an experienced writing coach. Prompts will be provided with opportunities to share or not share your writing. This will be a semi-structured session; for those looking for an unstructured opportunity for processing through writing, there are ample outdoor spaces on campus for sitting under a tree, walking up the hill, or finding a bench to write, in addition to indoor spaces around the Campus Center or the Lounge area. 

    In addition to these facilitated spaces, there are unfacilitated options for personal reflection and/or small group conversations. Outside on Thomas Plaza, the lounge area in the Campus Center meeting hall, Walk up to the Hill, multiple places around campus for dialogue, quiet meditation, etc.

  • 12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m.: Lunch

    EMU Caf

  • 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: Coming Together

    Main speaker session

  • 3:15 p.m.-4:30 p.m.: Reflective Processing Spaces

    Individual and collective processing, imagining, and mapping where we go from here.

    In addition to the facilitated spaces, there are unfacilitated options for personal reflection and/or small group conversations. Outside on Thomas Plaza, the lounge area in the Campus Center meeting hall, Walk up to the Hill, multiple places around campus for dialogue, quiet meditation, etc.

  • 4:45 p.m.-5:30p.m.: Closing Circle

     

Bluestone Vineyard Logo

WELCOME RECEPTION

Bluestone Vineyard, Bridgewater, VA
Monday, June 22, 2026 
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Join us at Bluestone Vineyard for the first in person event to open the conference! Cash bar and light appetizers will be available. Grab a glass of their EMU branded wine, 1200 Park, as you mix and mingle with fellow RJE practitioners, EMU faculty and staff. If you have not already done so, please RSVP to the welcome reception when you register for the conference (it's included in the cost!).

Even if you can't make the conference but would like to connect with RJE practitioners while in the Shenandoah Valley Area, we would love to see you at the Welcome Reception!

Welcome Reception Only: $10.00

Please register by Friday, June 19, 2026.

Register Today

Questions? Contact the Continuing and Professional Education office at cape@emu.edu.

RJE Conference History Slide Show by EMU Grad and Professional Programs