We are a small group of restorative justice (RJ) practitioners, mostly based in New York City, who came together in October 2019 to study RJ practice through our perspectives as members of under-represented communities. Our parallel sister initiative is with members from the Colectivo Internacional de Practicantes Restaurativas (CIPR) in Guatemala. We use a Participatory Action Research approach to work in co-inquiry with each other.

In addition to researching our own practices through a collaborative approach, we aim to raise underrepresented voices in the field of RJ, especially practitioners of color or practitioners from the Global South, and to anchor the roots of restorative practices in response to their modern-day commodification.

Our collaboration is facilitated by Rochelle Arms Almengor, Assistant Professor at Berea College, formerly at John Jay College of Criminal Justice – CUNY. Our first two years of work were supported through funding from a PSC-CUNY grant.

Our learning is in service of our larger RJ community. We look forward to sharing over time.