VORP - About Marty Price

Marty Price is the founder and director of the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) Information and Resource Center, www.vorp.com in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a founding member of Restorative Justice Resource Center, www.restorativejustice.info. He is the founder and former director of the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) of Clackamas County (near Portland) Oregon and previously served on the Board of the VORP of Multnomah County (in Portland). He is a former board member and Co-Chair of the Victim-Offender Mediation Association (VOMA), a non-profit, international, educational and advocacy organization that promotes Restorative Justice and supports victim-offender mediation and reconciliation programs. Mr. Price holds Juris Doctor (Doctor of Law) and Bachelor of Social Work degrees from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.

Marty Price provides consultation and training to victim-offender mediation programs throughout the United States and around the world. In 2006, he toured Argentina and Chile as a restorative justice speaker, at the request of their governments. The tour was sponsored and funded by the U.S. Department of State Democracy and Human Rights International Information Program. In 2007, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to return to Argentina. Under the Fulbright program, he taught restorative justice in the Ph.D. program at the John F. Kennedy University of Argentina School of Law (Buenos Aires), provided mediation training at the University of Buenos Aires School of Law, trained mediators at Provincial Dispute Resolution Centers, and served as a keynote speaker at the VII International Symposium on Restorative Justice, Penal Mediation and Probation, in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

Mr. Price has also served as a consultant and trainer to victim-offender mediation programs in most of the United States, the Territory of Guam, in Mexico and in Central and South America; also as a consultant to restorative justice initiatives in Eastern Europe. Price's articles have been published in numerous professional journals. His ground-breaking mediation work with drunk-driving fatality cases has been recognized internationally.

Mr. Price has presented his work on the mediation of seriously violent offenses at conferences on the treatment and prevention of crime, both nationally and internationally. Other speaking and training venues have included the National Restorative Justice Conference at Schreiner University, TX (2007), Community Conferences and trainings for Cochise and Yuma counties in Arizona (2007 and 2006), the Renaissance Lawyer Society “The Role of Peacemakers in Healing Polarization” Summer Peacemaking Camp for Lawyers (2005), U. S. Dept. of Justice Restorative Justice Symposium (1997), National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution (NCPCR, 1993-1999), the Annual Conference of the Victim Offender Mediation Association (1993-2007), the Restorative Justice Roundtable of the American Probation and Parole Association (1996), the conference of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR, 1996-98) and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD, 1997). He served on the faculty of the National Restorative Justice Training Institute Advanced Training for the Mediation of Seriously Violent Crimes at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work (1996).

Mr. Price is an attorney and social worker who has worked as a mediator for over 20 years. Previously practicing in Michigan, he transformed his domestic relations litigation practice into a "non-adversarial family law practice," offering peaceful and collaborative resolutions in divorces, child custody and visitation, child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, adoption and guardianship cases. He was a co-founder of the Michigan Mediation Association, which allied lawyer-mediators and mental health therapist-mediators to do "interdisciplinary team mediation" in family law disputes.

Mr. Price teaches Restorative Justice at Warren Wilson College near Asheville, North Carolina. He also has been an administrator and an Adjunct Faculty member at Wayne County Community College, in Detroit. While residing in Michigan, he served on the board of directors of The Haven, a shelter for victims of domestic violence and he provided pro bono legal representation for clients of The Haven.

Marty Price frequently consults with the media. Since appearing in an ABC 20/20 episode about restorative justice, he has had the opportunity to consult on numerous documentaries and television shows about restorative justice including the A&E series “Confronting Justice”, the Oprah episode about restorative justice, and many others.

Mr. Price recognizes that his mission in life is to bring restorative justice reform to our criminal justice system, empowering victims, offenders and communities to heal the effects of crime and curb recidivism, offering our society a more effective and humanistic alternative to the growing outcry for more prisons and more punishment.

Pat Downing is the Coordinator of the Western North Carolina Restorative Justice Task Force and a member of the Leadership Team of the Restorative Justice Resource Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Trained as a mediator in 1997, she has experience in civil cases, Victim-Offender mediation and family mediation.

Pat’s career reflects her skills in counseling, group facilitation and peace-making. Areas of expertise include training, conflict resolution, inter-agency coordination and consumer advocacy. Her career reflects hard work, flexibility, a strong belief in solutions and a willingness to take on new challenges.

As co-founder and Executive Director of the Smart Choices Program in Asheville, Pat worked for five years with teenagers referred by the courts, empowering them to make better choices and to create successful lives. She conducted family mediations with the teens and their parents, helping them to address the underlying issues that led to the delinquent behavior. She led weekly group sessions with the teens and parents, and recruited, trained and supervised volunteer mentors.

Pat worked for eight years with the Maricopa County Social Services Department in Phoenix, Arizona. As Case Management Coordinator, she developed and implemented a county-wide case management system for 13 Community Action Programs, supervised Case Managers, planned and facilitated monthly in-service training workshops. As Social Services Planner and Contract Administrator, she administered grants, monitored social services contracts and worked with representatives from local governments, social service agencies and citizens to develop solutions to local problems

As Researcher for a gubernatorial candidate in the mid-1980‘s, Pat conducted research in Arizona and other states in criminal justice issues. Her exposure to innovative community corrections programs in other states fueled her commitment to creating a more compassionate and effective approach to justice.

Pat’s volunteer activities reflect her commitment to bringing about healing and empowerment for people whose lives had been impacted by crime. She worked with a statewide group to promote Restorative Justice principles and practices in North Carolina; with prison inmates in a crime prevention program in Arizona; and with families of incarcerated adults. She advocated with the DOC and Arizona legislature for changes in prison conditions. She also served on the Advisory Board of the Sex Offender Treatment Program for the Arizona Department of Corrections and the Citizens Advisory Council on Community Services.

Pat has extensive experience as a trainer. She currently teaches parenting classes and has written a book and many articles for parents. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Arizona Transit Association, she planned and directed several annual conventions; and as Director of Public Relations for the International Childbirth Education Association, she provided PR training to members of local childbirth groups. She taught childbirth preparation classes for several years and helped conduct training workshops for new childbirth instructors.

Now living outside Asheville, North Carolina, Pat enjoys hiking in the mountains, writing, dancing and hanging out with her 2 ½ year old grand-daughter.

Lyra D. Monroe is the Co-Director of the Restorative Justice Resource Center. The Center is devoted to supporting communities and individuals (including victims and offenders) to integrate restorative justice into their lives.

Lyra has over 20 years of experience working in the criminal justice community. She has worked directly with victims of violent crimes as well as offenders of violent crimes. Lyra Monroe is a trained Victim Liaison in capital murder cases. She is a certified mediator and the former director of a community mediation center. Lyra has been trained as a Victim Offender Mediator in crimes of severe violence by David Doerfler, and received the Victim Liaison training at Eastern Mennonite University taught by Howard Zehr and his associates.

Lyra has spent extensive time in Mexico and worked closely with the Human Rights Commission of Queretaro, Mexico and is fluent in Spanish. Lyra has facilitated programs at Chuckawalla Prison in an effort to decrease inmate violence. She currently leads a Victim Offender Education Group program with inmates convicted of murder and attempted murder at California Men’s Colony Prison in California. Lyra is dedicated to supporting individuals, families, and communities in healing the wounds caused by violent crime.