RESTORATIVE & TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE

Our Restorative Justice (RJ) programs are our staple programs that provide an alternative to traditional punitive consequences found in the criminal justice system. Our RJ programs focus on healing and not causing further harm or broken lives through retribution. Restorative Justice focuses on building relationships, transforming lives and creating a community of accountability anchored in love not punishment. Our programs are incorporate storytelling and relationship building, truth-telling, reparative action, focus on the strengths of the youth, and connect participants to traditional cultural ways of accountability.

In response to feed-back from various stakeholders and the needs of youth and their families, CCFC has evolved in many amazing ways. We have continued to embrace values that focus on healing harm that has been caused and have taken Restorative Justice to a deeper level of Transformative Justice.

CCFC captures Transformative Justice (TR) by taking the principles and practices of Restorative Justice beyond the criminal justice system. It is a way of practicing alternative justice (and in our case healing justice) which acknowledges individual experiences, identities and societal factors and works to actively resist the criminalization of youth, keep them in school, out of the criminal justice system and transform the systems that cause harm.

The focus of TR is to begin a journey of transformational healing for youth, families, and community by focusing on the root causes of harm (crime). This is done by addressing generational wounds and trauma caused by societal oppression (racism, poverty, etc.) to inspire youth to empathize with survivors of crime and heal the harm they’ve caused and transform decision making .

Transformative Justice also actively works to transform systems that cause harm to particular communities, especially communities of color through systems such as the school to prison pipeline, mass incarceration, and the prison industrial complex.

We offer the following Restorative Justice Programs:

RESTORE: Works with youth who have received “gateway” tickets in municipal court in partnership with juvenile court, juvenile diversion and juvenile probation. Youth and their families participate in a 10 hour group process with other youth and families to focus on repairing and rebuilding in order to strengthen relationships, community and bring about accountability and social harmony. The process includes a harm impact circle, a youth accountability circle, a parent support circle, a healing circle, a community agreement to repair ham and make things right and a reintegration circle. Upon successful completion of the program youth’s criminal tickets are expunged. Current recidivism rates from court records for participants is under 4%.
Community Group Circles: Engages youth with more serious wrongdoing (often times felonies) in a restorative justice process that is more intimate, includes their families or support systems, community volunteers who have been impacted by the same kind of wrong doing (to act as the person harmed) and a circle keeper. The youth goes through the same process as above however they have the opportunity to hear from person/s who have been directly harmed by the same wrong doing they are responsible for. Depending on the level of wrong doing the youth’s ticket is either expunged or legal charges are lessoned.
FacetoFace Healing Circle: Face2Face restorative justice healing circles are when the person who committed wrong doing is brought face to face with the person they harmed. Families and supportive folks are also included in the process. A healing circle is facilitated by staff and trained community volunteers in which all parties tell their story and express how they were impacted by the wrong doing. Harm is acknowledged and youth take responsibility for their wrongdoing through a community agreement with input from all participants, especially the person who was caused harm. Through this community agreement youth work to makes things right, heal all parties involved and transform decision making. Depending on the level of wrong doing the youth’s ticket is either expunged or legal charges are lessoned.

All of our Restorative Justice Programs are anchored in positive youth development approaches, transformational healing, La Cultura Cura, interconnectedness, community accountability, theory intersectionality and critical race theory.

We also honor and incorporate two the indigenous philosophies of

In la’kech – tu eres mi otro yo – you are my other me from the Mayan tradition

Ubuntu – I am because we are and we are because I am – A person is a person through their relationships from South African tribal tradition