Restorative and Solution-Focused Family Conference Pilot
In 1999, when Hawaii Friends implemented its first restorative juvenile justice project with the Honolulu Police Department, we discovered the need for more effective interventions for youth and families involved with status offenses. These offenses are usually for runaway, truancy, and beyond parental control. Status offenses only apply to minors. If the youth were age 18 there would be no offense.
In 2008, we worked for several months on the basic design of the Solution-Focused Family Conference and conducted the first one on March 13, 2009. The youth were referred from the Family Court of the First Circuit in Honolulu in collaboration with the court and at the suggestion of Judge Bode Uale.
We have provided 13 interventions for families, which they reported were helpful in preventing the youths’ further involvement with the justice system. If you are interested in the report on the pilot please contact [email protected] for a copy (it is one of our only pilots we have yet to publish a paper about).