C. Dave Dyck, MA ’00
Winnipeg, Canada
Reflecting on the 10 years since he finished his master’s degree, Dave Dyck says two memories loom large:
(1) The joyful time spent in community, experiencing meaningful relationships.
(2) The way that his restorative justice professor, Howard Zehr, “handed off power.” Dave recalls that Howard had a way of empowering others, of encouraging his students to come along with him. “Howard is a busy man – he could easily be excused for not grooming other people. But he always found time to be helpful to others in his humble way.”
Immediately after graduation, Dave founded and coordinated Circles of Support & Accountability, a program aimed at the safe re-integration of sex offenders in his hometown of Winnipeg.
In 1999, the art interests of Dave’s wife, Tammy Sutherland, took them to Nova Scotia, where he became the lead trainer of people working with the Nova Scotia Restorative Justice Initiative. This program brought restorative justice options into the court system for all youth in the province.
In 2003, the couple returned to Winnipeg, where Dave offers his services through two agencies: (1) Facilitated Solutions, where he is one of the partners/owners among nine mediators and conflict-management specialists, and (2) Mediation Services, a community-based, conflict resolution agency where he serves as a trainer and volunteer victim-offender mediator.
From 2001 through 2004, Dave taught at EMU’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI). He now teaches at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding, which opened in 2009 at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg. The school is co-directed by Jarem Sawatsky, a 2001 alumnus of CJP, and is organized similarly to SPI.
Dave and Tammy have two sons, aged 3 and 4. Dave has given up one workday, Monday, to be their full-time caregiver on that day. (Tammy, a textile artist who also coordinates the Manitoba Craft Council, stays home with them on Wednesday and Thursday. Grandparents and paid caregivers cover the other two weekdays.) Dave notes that it has been both humbling and fun to try to mediate the disputes that arise among the boys.