RestoCovidCircles

The practice was developed with L’Innominato (an informal intermediary body). During the COVID-19 crisis, it intercepted the suffering of its community (in phase 1) and increasing polarisation among its community members (phase 2) and started asking itself what it could do with that suffering/polarising community. In this context, RestoCovidCircles were created.

Circles were preceded by a careful engagement and preliminary active and empathic listening to the interested people by facilitators. They used a facilitation style based on restorative justice values and principles.

Type of Organisation: Other

COVID-19 had a relevant impact on society, economy and politics of European societies, including in Italy. The European Council of Foreign Relations report (2021) revealed that European society was profoundly divided by the COVID-19 crisis, identifying three main divisions: an intergenerational division; a division between those experiencing the COVID-19 crisis as a health crisis and those experiencing it as an economic crisis; a “freedom divide”. Europeans were also divided when it came to those to be held responsible for the impact of the COVID crisis: 34% of the surveyed citizens considered that disobedient individuals were responsible compared to 16% that considered their national governments to be responsible. 

The divisions between citizens increased even more with the introduction of mandatory vaccines and the Digital Covid Certificate resulting often into conflicts interrupting work, social or family relations. Citizens’ polarised views resulted into conflicts, producing strong social fractures in interpersonal relations within families and in society (at the workplace, schools, hospitals, etc.). When it comes to the specific context of Lecco, citizens’ polarised views, especially in the case of unvaccinated people, were grounded in critical views on science, communication sources and freedom of speech as well as in the lack of trust in institutions. 

Unvaccinated people’s critical views regarded, in particular, the limited freedom of speech of all parties, the limited transparency and completeness of official communication sources and the consideration of scientific findings as absolute truth, while science has always been based on constructive debates between various perspectives. In a context of increased mistrust, resentment and “blame hunting”, Lecco restorative city used a community restorative justice approach and the RestoCovidCircles practice to restore damaged relations and address polarisation following the COVID-19 crisis. The practice is based on the circle method commonly used in restorative justice. 

According to UNDOC (2020, page 38), circles can be used in various community settings: “(…) within local neighbourhoods to address residents’ concerns over crime or anti-social behaviour, or to resolve complaints against members of law enforcement or correctional agencies. (…) They have been implemented in schools to deal with minor offences and resolve conflicts. They can be implemented in cases of inter-communal conflict and hate crime. They can also be used to build better relationships and reduce violence within prisons and other detention facilities. 

They can even support the reintegration of prisoners returning to the community or young people returning to school after a period of detention.“ Circles are communal dialogues based on inclusiveness and the lack of hierarchy. As pointed out by UNDOC (2020, page 46) “circles have proven to be a flexible and effective means of building relationships, maintaining peace, dealing with trauma (particularly healing circles) and problem solving.” 

The dialogue practice was facilitated by facilitators with good knowledge of restorative justice values, principles and methods. The practice was implemented in three phases, each with a different aim: 

• Phase 1 (2020) aimed to allow citizens of Lecco that have been impacted by COVID-19 to share the COVID- 19 trauma, to listen to each other’s truth and to be listened to, giving voice to their memories of a recent traumatic past in order to construct a shared truth of the traumatic period they went through; 
• Phase 2 (2021-2022) aimed to open a dialogue between parties in order to deconstruct polarisation around the topic of anti-COVID-19 vaccines and in particular the Green certificate and to restore interrupted interpersonal relations. 
• Phase 3 (2023) was targeted to conflicting people belonging to an Association of Lecco with the aim to bring together the people who, after two decades of sharing social activities, had stopped participating in the activities of the Association, communicating, and interacting with each other for a year and a half, some struggling to speak when they met by chance, due to the different positions on the Green Pass. The association had "split" within a few months in the summer of '21, and those who left were those who had not been vaccinated and wanted to find a way, even against the rules, to continue activities without obtaining the Green Pass. The association assembly had decided otherwise, but it was contested and accused of not having been conducted democratically. Part of the board had resigned from their positions and left. In this context, the aim of the practice was to open a dialogue between the people who had left and those who had remained to share their feelings and experiences.

Several subtitled videos on the first two phases of the practice are available at the following links:

Lecco Restorative City - RestoCovid Circles (2021, video 9 min)

A Restorative City in Times of a Pandemic (2021, webinar recordings 1 hr 36 min)

Lecco was also invited to present the RestoCovid Circles by the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) in May 2021

Contact person: Bruna Dighera
bruna [dot] digheraoutlook [dot] it (Email) | Website