Mission & Values

Our Mission...

The current mission of the Insight Development Group is to provide a transformative learning environment where offenders seeking restorative responses to crime, can safely explore the underlying causes of harm doing, and understand more deeply the impact their harms have had upon their victims and the community. We seek to inspire greater levels of personal awareness as a means for emotional liberation and nonviolent social change. We seek to fulfill our mission by offering a critical and integrated curriculum exploring and developing personal awareness and skills in the areas of:

Restorative Justice
Empathy Development
Nonviolent Communication
Compassionate Listening
Victim Impacts & Victim Awareness
Crime Accountability
Critical Consciousness
Transpersonal Awareness
Global Conciousness
Community Service Learning Projects
Nonviolent Social Change

"It is our goal to understand the depth of our actions - those that brought us here and those that led up to our crimes - and how they have affected victims and those around us. In doing so, we will be more able to perceive situations with empathy and make decisions that take into account our communities and families. This program is intended purely for personal growth, knowledge and rebuilding our ability to connect to the community. It will not result in a certificate of completion or letters of recommendation."

- Original Mission Statement of the Founding Four Inmates of the IDG, 2008

Our Values . . .

We value whole systems thinking. Existing in a complex web of relationships, we must break out of the habit of binary thinking. Higher levels of awareness, understanding and empathy, as well as creative problem solving techniques emerge when we are able to visualize the 'bigger picture'.

We value consensus based decision making. We are aware of the dangers that can arise with an oppressive or unjust majority, and so we believe the philosophy of restorative justice calls us to engage in democratic processes which truly engage the needs and voice of all. Consensus based processes take time, and demand a high level of commitment and patience with the process.

We value both the means and the end. In so doing we recognize that our practice must reconcile with our overarching values as a program. We believe we must promote and utilize pedagogical practices such as those found within transformational learning theory, democratic education, and liberation psychology, which uphold these values, and not to be afraid to challenge paradigms of teaching, or interventions which do not uphold these values.

We value ethical practice. As outsiders working with a highly vulnerable population we hold ourselves to a high standard of ethical practice. We understand that at times institutional culture and practices may be unjust and uneththical. In such times IDG calls forth a higher moral ground and will operate with higher ethical integrity. We also require ourselves to role model the very processes we hold in such high regard, as best to our ability.

We value critical consciousness. We are aware that society is not inherently just, and there are those who fall victim to inequality, oppression, racism, privilege, and other forms of discriminations which have made healthy and nonviolent living difficult, and challenging. Although we not always fully understand the experience of those most affected by various forms of oppression, we are committed to serving as allies in the fight for social justice. We remain committed to educating ourselves on critical issues, and understanding more deeply our role in oppression, so we may serve as advocates for change.

We value the establishment of healthy boundaries. We believe that we must help participants and those affected by crime in developing boundaries that reflect where they are and where they would like to go. We believe the establishment of healthy boundaries also supports accountability and self-determination.

We value critical self-reflection. We believe that we offer our participants a chance to engage in meaningful self-reflection. It is our hope that this self-reflection will aid participants in developing the skills and perspectives necessary to engage in restorative processes. We also believe that we, as volunteers, must be constantly engaging in self-reflection in order to be healthy and effective in this process.

We value evolution based on needs. We believe that restorative justice is a process that is never fully finished and that is determined by the needs of those involved. As a result, we aim to grow and we believe we must be open to change and evolution. We value questioning at all costs and seek to meet the needs of those affected by crime.

We value the process. We believe that restorative justice is a way of thinking, being, and doing, not an outcome. As such, we recognize that it may elicit more questions than answers. Given this, we value the process of engaging with these questions and value ambiguity over righteousness.

We value dialogue as a process that can lead to greater levels of restoration, transformation, and healing. While dialogue often takes longer than traditional methods, we believe it allows for deeper understanding and buy-in to the process by all involved. We value using dialogue as the primary source of knowledge gain whenever possible but acknowledge and allow for other educational tools when appropriate.

We value the knowledge, experiences and needs of those affected by crime. We seek to offer our participants a forum to engage in self-reflection and restorative processes that make sense for them. We feel in order for this to happen, it is imperative that offenders play a critical role in planning and building the program they receive. Without their knowledge of atmosphere, their experience, and their own needs we cannot be effective in offering them restorative opportunities.

We value collaboration and diversity of perspective. We seek to engage and utilize as many critical voices, perspectives and resources as possible in this work. This ensures that we offer our group participants several different vehicles to self-discovery and engagement in restoration. We also aim to use collaboration as often as possible.

We value accountability and self-determination. We seek to promote these values both amongst participants and amongst each other. By promoting accountability and self-determination to the participants, we believe we are preparing them to engage in the restorative processes that are available to them now as well as those that may be available to them in the future.