FYI: Service Learning and Balanced and Restorative Justice

Balanced and restorative justice and school-based service learning share many of the same goals and objectives. Because of these shared goals and objectives, justice agencies can take advantage of the expertise that educators have developed about service learning to make mandated community service more meaningful.

As with court-mandated service, school-based service learning revolves around the concept of community service. With community service learning, respondents can explore their potential as citizens by helping communities meet their education, public safety, human, and environmental needs. With community service learning, respondents become resources who provide service, rather than recipients who are always in the role of being served. Hopefully, by following these procedures, you can help young offenders become better citizens while they give back to the community.

This chart from Giving Back: A Community Service-Learning Manual for Youth Courts offers a quick comparison between educational and restorative justice principles.