I’ve been waiting to tell you this news for some time. Today, Equal Justice USA officially welcomed the Restorative Justice Project onto our team. Impact Justice, an ally organization in the justice movement, has been operating the Project, launched by the visionary sujatha baliga, since 2015. Impact Justice felt like now was the right time… Continue reading Expanding Our Vision to Include Restorative Justice
Tag: community-centered
Healing for Network Members
Have you ever thought about your relationship with your breath? To your body? For Black, brown, indigenous, queer, and trans people working on the frontlines of violence intervention, the relationship to the body and breath can be simultaneously sacred, tenuous, and uncertain. BlPOC communities have experienced generations of surveillance from police, forced labor, and bodily… Continue reading Healing for Network Members
Baton Rouge Explores Trauma
Lionel Latouche, our director of Trauma to Trust (T2T), turned the lights back on as the video of Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul apologizing for the killing of Alton Sterling came to a close. My chest was tight, feeling the tension of the room as Baton Rouge community members and police officers waited for… Continue reading Baton Rouge Explores Trauma
Newark’s Community-Centered Public Safety Ecosystem
In 2018, I left the Department of Justice after a dozen years as a prosecutor. I had seen our criminal legal system up close and came away certain that it was too big, too rigid, and too steeped in its racist origins to ever deliver true justice. I wanted to find the solutions to violence,… Continue reading Newark’s Community-Centered Public Safety Ecosystem
How Do I Talk to My Kids About Gun Violence?
Early last week I got an automated message on my phone from my kids’ school that there was an active shooter within two miles and that the school was under a shelter-in-place order from the Charlottesville Police Department. I went through the arc of emotions: fear to worry to curiosity to a trust in my… Continue reading How Do I Talk to My Kids About Gun Violence?
Blocking Black History Is Just The Beginning
Black History Month ended yesterday. It’s traditionally been a month where we celebrate the achievements of Black people, some iconic and some lesser known but still vital to U.S. history. Our history is deep, long, complex, and incredibly inspiring to me. It is also an important lens for our work, which is why the growing… Continue reading Blocking Black History Is Just The Beginning
The Death of Tyre Nichols
We remain shaken by the murder of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man and father of a 4-year-old son, at the hands of Memphis police in a horrifying display of brutality. The pain we all feel is the too familiar, relentless trauma that policing inflicts. We have been here so many times before. After Minneapolis… Continue reading The Death of Tyre Nichols
What Is Trauma-Informed Policing?
Six Newark, NJ, residents and five police officers sit in a semi-circle in a local community center. They’re listening as a Black man, mid forties, recounts a tale of being hit in the head by a police officer as a teenager while hanging out with his friends after school. As he finishes his story, he… Continue reading What Is Trauma-Informed Policing?
Punitive Systems Only Create More Cycles of Trauma
Reimagining Justice This Month: September Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence — responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism. Alternatives to Police and Prisons: Activists Share How to Better Address Violence, Teen Vogue Justice reimagined is not only possible, it’s already here. Youth leaders in communities… Continue reading Punitive Systems Only Create More Cycles of Trauma
Newark: A Blueprint for Safety and Healing
Reimagining Justice This Month: June Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence — responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism. Newark: A Blueprint for Safety and Healing, NewarkSafety.org Newark, as moved through and lived in by its people, is a healing city. It is a city… Continue reading Newark: A Blueprint for Safety and Healing