A featured article in the July/August issue of The Nebraska Lawyer, Expansion of Restorative Justice Initiatives for Youth in Nebraska, was written by Kristen M. Blankley, the Henry M. Grether, Jr., Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law and a member of the Supreme Court’s Dispute Resolution Advisory Council, and Nicole Britten, Program Specialist for the Office of Dispute Resolution (ODR). Professor Blankley and Nicole collaborated to provide an overview of the current restorative justice processes available through the approved mediation centers and what the future holds with the help of grant funding.

To build upon the current restorative justice services available across the state, the ODR received a $1M grant from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The grant provides funding for three important tasks:

1. To provide expanded juvenile restorative justice services through the mediation centers
2. To evaluate juvenile restorative justice services, and
3. To research attitudes and barriers with the goal of increasing restorative justice statewide.

These three overarching tasks will be completed through a collaboration of stakeholders, including the approved mediation centers, the Juvenile Justice Institute at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and an interdisciplinary team at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Other collaborators include the Court Improvement Project and the Nebraska Crime Commission’s Juvenile Programs and Interventions Division.

To learn more about the expanded juvenile restorative justice processes available, the evaluation of juvenile restorative justice services, and the statewide stakeholder research, read The Nebraska Lawyer’s article, Expansion of Restorative Justice Initiatives for Youth in Nebraska, available online at https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.nebar.com/resource/resmgr/nebraskalawyer_2017plus/2022/julyaugust/TNL-0722c.pdf