The University of Wisconsin Law School's Restorative Justice Project and Center for Patient Partnerships have been selected for recognition at the 2003 Chancellor's University-Community Partnership Recognition Reception on July 16. The event will honor a total of eight university and community partnerships joining forces to extend education out of the classroom and into the community.

The Restorative Justice Project, directed by Clinical Associate Professor Pete DeWind, has partnered with the Dane County District Attorney's Office's Deferred Prosecution Unit since the mid-to-late 1990s to provide victim-offender conferencing in cases that both offices deem appropriate. The mission of the program is to provide people victimized by crime with the opportunity to meet with the people who offended against them, giving crime victims an empowering mechanism that often stands in contrast with the typical experience of victims of crime.

The Center for Patient Partnerships, directed by Clinical Associate Professor Meg Gaines, is a joint project of the Schools of Law, Medicine and Nursing, created in 2001, to teach future doctors, lawyers, nurses, social workers and pharmacists to work together to become better advocates for their patients. Students are placed in multidisciplinary teams to work with individual patients recently diagnosed with cancer or other serious illnesses. Three major community partners working with the Center are the American Cancer Society, the Don & Marilyn Anderson HospiceCare Center, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The two Law School programs will be among eight programs honored at the seventh annual reception, to be held at Olin House, the Chancellor's residence.

Submitted by on June 17, 2003

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