Bill Hansberry's picture
Practitioner: 
Bill Hansberry
Focus: 
Restorative Practice
Organisation: 
Hansberry Educational Consulting

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About the Practitioner

Field of Interest: 

Bill is a teacher with a Masters Degree in counselling, and since 2006 has specialised in implementing Restorative Practice in schools throughout Australia.

Bill believes that retributive responses to wrongdoing can't deliver connectedness and that RP is an excellent vehicle for achieving school improvement and safer schools. However, this does not mean disregarding sensible behaviour management that have always been good practice. In a world that is increasingly fragmenting into ideologically divided tribes, schools must teach students to dialogue, listen and understand other perspectives. Our democracy depends on it.

He has developed a series of workshops for implementing a Restorative culture in schools and works with the school community to introduce and imbed this culture change.

Bill has authored a number of published books and resources for schools on Restorative Practices.

Motivation: 

Over 20 years ago, working as a teacher and School Counsellor at Lonsdale Heights Primary School in Adelaide, Bill, along with his colleagues, instinctively knew there must be a better process of developing behaviour change, and began searching for a way to both address conflict and hold young people accountable for their actions, whilst also keeping relationships in tact.

The key guiding question was "does the way we do discipline strengthen or erode relationships in our schools?".

During his search, Bill discovered the notion of 'restitution instead of retribution' in a program called "The Virtues Project" and a parent at the school serendipitously came across the 'Centre for Restorative Justice'.

Bill trained with CRJ, Marg Thorsborne and Peta Blood, and read and reviewed everything he could get his hands on and used it to form the basis of the program that was implemented at Lonsdale Heights Primary, and since 2006 at schools throughout Australia

Brings to the Discussion: 

Bill has more than 20 years experience of working in schools and demonstrating the significant role that Restorative Practice plays in both discipline and community building.

Organisation

Organisational Role(s): 
  • Academic - lecturer,
  • CEO
  • Co-Founder
  • Consultant
  • Facilitator
  • Individual Advocacy
  • Mediator
  • Mentor coach
  • Practitioner
  • School 
  • Trainer
Jurisdiction: 
  • School
Services Offered: 
  • Advocacy
  • Child and Family support services
  • Coaching
  • Community Development/Education 
  • Consultancy
  • Counselling
  • Culture change
  • Facilitation
  • Family Dispute Mediation
  • Family Dispute Resolution
  • Leadership development
  • Management and HR Training
  • Management Training
  • Peer support services
  • Policy development
  • Program development
  • Reflective practice
  • Research
  • Restorative Circles
  • Restorative Conferencing
  • Restorative Practice meetings
  • Rights of people with disabilities
  • Rights of those experiencing mental ill health
  • School - K-12
  • Support groups
  • Team Building
  • Training
  • Workplace Conferencing
  • Workplace Training

Practitioner Location and Reach

Location: 
Glenelg, SA, 5045
Area Covered: 
State -SA

Practitioner Internet Presence