Case study · Charity · Midland, Ontario

This website has to welcome the person who was harmed. And the person who caused it.

FACE Circles is a registered charity that has offered restorative justice in Midland and North Simcoe since 1999. The old site printed its own page-builder code and had no working referral form. The new one gives everyone who arrives a seat, and a way in.

Visit facecircles.org Take a seat

The new FACE Circles home page on a laptop: Face it, together, beside a photo of people talking in a circle of chairs.

People sitting in a circle of chairs, talking.

A registered charity serving North Simcoe: 1999
Paid staff. Every circle is run by volunteers: 0
Has FACE turned down a request for a circle: Never
Lighthouse in all four categories, phone and desktop: 100

Before · Getting ready

We met everyone first.

Before a circle, two facilitators meet each person on their own. We started the same way: with everyone who arrives at facecircles.org, and what each of them came for. They rarely want the same thing. Pass the talking piece around the circle.

Holding the talking piece

A police officer

facecircles.org/referrals

What they need

To divert a matter instead of laying a charge, and a form to do it with.

Their way in

Police, Crown & court: make a referral, in the green bar at the top of every page. It opens a referral form that asks for the badge number, the occurrence number and whether a charge was laid.

1 of 8 · pass it on →

Phase one · What happened, and who it affected

The old site was talking over itself.

In a circle, the person responsible speaks first and explains what happened. So, plainly: the old WordPress site had broken in ways nobody inside the charity could see from the dashboard.

The old home page: lines of page-builder code such as [vc_column_text] and [vc_row] printed between the sections, and testimonials signed Offender and Mother of an offender. — The old home page, partway down. Every page had stray code like this.

The old Police Referral Form page: a grey banner, then a single line of code, [wpforms id=3512], and empty space where the form should be. — The old police referral form.

The police referral form was one line of code. There was no form.

For a charity that takes its referrals from police, the Crown and the courts, the page built for them could not take one. The contact page had the same problem.

And who it affected

The same words, signed differently.

Restorative justice is careful about labels, because a label is the thing a circle tries to see past. The old site signed real quotes with the word the circle avoids. The new site keeps every word of the quote and changes only the name under it.

“Now I see police officers in a different way, more as normal men who sometimes have a difficult job…”
Old site~~Offender~~New sitePerson who caused harm
“The circle was an amazing way to bring together such wisdom, honesty and support together for the benefit of our son…”
Old site~~Mother of an offender~~New siteParent of a participant

Phase two · Making things right

Then, together, what makes it right.

Paper, sand and forest green, a soft serif with a terracotta italic, round photographs, and the same concentric rings behind every heading. Nothing loud: people often arrive here on a bad day. Scroll the home page: laptop and phone move together.

Section 01
Face it, together.
What FACE does in two sentences, with two doors: Request a circle, and Police & court referrals.
Section 02
Since 1999 · Voluntary · Volunteers · No set fee
Four facts that answer the first worries.
Section 03
Repairing harm. Building understanding.
What restorative justice asks that court does not, and where it comes from.
Section 04
Three ways into a circle
Court and police referrals, families, and neighbours, each with its own page.
Section 05
One room. One conversation. Everyone heard.
Who sits in the circle, drawn as a circle, beside the four steps.
Section 06
Truth telling. Acceptance. Respect.
The three principles every circle rests on.
Section 07
What people say after a circle
Three voices, named by their part in the circle, never by a label.
Section 08
Powered by volunteers
No paid staff and no set fee: donate, or volunteer.
Section 09
Not sure where to start?
Call or write, and someone will listen first.

Section 01
Face it, together.
What FACE does in two sentences, with two doors: Request a circle, and Police & court referrals.
Section 02
Since 1999 · Voluntary · Volunteers · No set fee
Four facts that answer the first worries.
Section 03
Repairing harm. Building understanding.
What restorative justice asks that court does not, and where it comes from.
Section 04
Three ways into a circle
Court and police referrals, families, and neighbours, each with its own page.
Section 05
One room. One conversation. Everyone heard.
Who sits in the circle, drawn as a circle, beside the four steps.
Section 06
Truth telling. Acceptance. Respect.
The three principles every circle rests on.
Section 07
What people say after a circle
Three voices, named by their part in the circle, never by a label.
Section 08
Powered by volunteers
No paid staff and no set fee: donate, or volunteer.
Section 09
Not sure where to start?
Call or write, and someone will listen first.

Court & police referrals

A form an officer can actually send.

Above the form, the page answers the questions an officer or Crown attorney asks first: why refer, what happens after, and who can be referred. The form itself asks for what the facilitators need to prepare a circle, and nothing more.

1About youName, rank or role, and who the referral is from: police, Crown attorney, court or probation, a school, a lawyer or another agency. Badge or employee number.
2The incidentOccurrence or file number, the date, where it happened (Midland, Penetanguishene, Tiny or Tay), and whether a charge was laid: pre-charge diversion, post-charge, or not yet decided.
3The people involvedThe person responsible, with a parent or guardian for anyone under 18, and the person or business harmed.

facecircles.org/referrals

The full Court and police referrals page: why refer to FACE, what happens after you refer in five steps, who can be referred, and the referral form with sections for the referrer, the incident and the people involved.

The whole page. Scroll inside the frame.

Several hands stacked together on a wooden table.

Support FACE

A donate page that says what the money would do.

a year would fund a paid coordinator and a small office with a meeting space: $60,000
paid staff today. Volunteers facilitate the circles and fill the coordinator role: 0
has FACE turned down a request for a circle: Never

Then how to give: by phone or email, by cheque to the charity’s legal name, with tax receipts over $20, and what a volunteer facilitator actually commits to.

After · The circle agreement

Written down, and completed.

A circle ends with an agreement: the conditions everyone settled on, written down, with a set time to complete them. These were ours.

Circle agreementFACE Circles × Vortio

1.Every visitor gets their own way in: court and police referrals, families, neighbours, and schools.
2.Police, Crown and court get a referral form they can actually send, one click from every page.
3.A circle is explained step by step, in plain language, before anyone has to pick up the phone.
4.People are named by their part in what happened, never by a label.
5.Names stay private. Every story on the site is attributed by role only.
6.The site works for everyone who arrives: fast, readable and accessible on any phone.