Kirk Blackard is the recipient of the 2006 Governor’s Award for the Restorative Justice Volunteer of the Year in the state of Texas. He has made significant contributions to the Restorative Justice movement in Texas.
Kirk has been an active and loyal volunteer as a facilitator for the Bridges To Life program since 2000. He has participated in 14 projects during these past six years, contributing hundreds of hours and driving many miles to prisons all over Texas. Each project involves 12-14 weekly meetings inside the prison. Kirk has actively participated as a facilitator in projects at the following eight prisons: Central Unit, Jester 3 Unit, Huntsville Unit, Wynne Unit, Henley Unit, Lychner State Jail, Hamilton Unit, and LeBlanc Unit. He has also visited a number of other prisons attending graduation ceremonies in Dallas, Palestine, and Kyle. He continues to give his time and treasure to Bridges To Life as a volunteer, a donor, and a Board member.
Kirk’s background gives him a unique set of skills that help him to be very effective as a facilitator in Bridges To Life. He spent 30 years as an executive with Shell Oil Company, specializing in employee relations. Since retiring from Shell five years ago, Kirk as become an arbitrator and mediator for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
Although the volunteer service has great merit, Kirk’s most significant contribution to restorative justice is writing and publishing the book, Restoring Peace, Using Lessons From Prison to Mend Broken Relationships. Kirk worked countless hours and incurred significant financial costs in the writing, editing and publishing of the book. He did all of this on a volunteer basis and donated the book to Bridges To Life. Since the book was published in last 2004, Kirk has made presentations at workshops and conferences to further explain the book and the role of restorative justice in the criminal justice system.
Restoring Peace explains the restorative justice process on a step-by-step basis utilizing actual inmate and victim stories told in the Bridges To Life program. Furthermore, Kirk is co-author of the Restoring Peace Offender Study Guide. This workbook, along with the Restoring Peace book are now the basis for a new 14-week restorative justice program, Restoring Peace, which is coordinated by Bridges To Life. In 2005, Bridges To Life completed fourteen projects in eleven Texas prisons, involving approximately 60 volunteers and 350 inmates. This innovative approach covers the same principles as the standard Bridges To Life program, but requires less volunteers and less space. This allows more prisons to conduct the program and has been very well received by the inmate participants. We know the book is also influencing inmates who do not participate in our program. After the first meeting at Central Unit this year, one of the participant’s bunkmate read Restoring Peace during the night. He went to the chaplain’s office the next morning pleading to be added to the Restoring Peace project.
The Restoring Peace program continues to grow and prosper. In 2006, there are 26 projects planned in 13 Texas prisons. Join us in congratulating Kirk for his years of dedicated service.