RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Creating a sense of belonging, healing through Restorative Practices

WA-BLOC partners with schools, educators, students, and families to implement Restorative Practices in Seattle Public Schools. We create spaces for belonging, healing, and joy among Black and brown youth and work to transform school systems that have perpetuated cycles of trauma and harm through the implementation of school-wide Restorative Practices. We believe Restorative Practices should not be considered a short-term solution or tool for behavior management; but rather a long-term investment in building community through relationships centered around our humanity that ultimately empower us to respond to harm holistically.

Restorative Justice is a philosophy and set of practices, rooted in Indigenous teachings, that emphasize our interconnection by repairing relationships when harm occurs while proactively building and maintaining relationships to prevent future harm.
(Amplify RJ)
In schools, this looks like community building to bring awareness to our interconnectedness and to strengthen our bonds. When harm happens, we are intentional about centering the relationships and understanding impact and how to repair the harm in ways that restore relationships as much as possible so that our community can thrive.
Statistics show that using restorative practices keeps students in school, improves student academic achievement, and reduces suspension rates/disparities and mental health challenges.
Restorative Justice IS NOT a behavior management tool, adult-centered, or a linear process. It can take it can take three to five years to implement within a school site.
WA-BLOC was trained in Peacemaking Circle by Huayruro, a practice passed on by the Tagish and Tlingit, who are First Nations peoples of what we know to be southern Alaska and the Yukon territory of Canada, in addition to Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY).

HOW WE DO IT

We support local SPS schools to become restorative school communities through site-based, multi-year partnerships.

Our on-site Restorative Justice Practitioners and WA-BLOC team support schools via:

Weekly Tier 1 Community Building Circles and Curriculum
Whole school community building strategies and supports
Quarterly Professional Development trainings (in circle)
Participation in school committee (RET/PBIS) to build out restorative supports
Student leadership and training in Restorative Practices
Equipping staff/students to address harm restoratively
Restorative Family Engagement

2023 School Partnerships include: Emerson Elementary, Wing Luke Elementary, Madrona Elementary, John Muir Elementary, Lowell Elementary, Licton Springs K-8, Pathfinder K-8

School Partnerships

Restorative Practices have been happening for a long time in our schools and communities without the support or recognition from institutions like Seattle Public Schools. After years of community advocacy for Restorative Practices, SPS hired a Restorative Practices Program Manager in Spring of 2021.

WA-BLOC is intentionally building relationship and capacity with the new SPS team to help ensure this work is grounded in community connection, youth voice and equity/anti-racism. Last year, WA-BLOC co-hosted a two-part “Restorative Justice Kickoff” event for SPS educators and building leaders to build community with one another, explore what is working well and supports are needed for RJ practices/systems in schools, and building shared vision/framework for Restorative Justice in SPS.

We are continuing this work this school year through:

Quarterly Community of Practice sessions for building administrators, educators, and support staff
District-wide Intro to Restorative Justice training series
Ongoing advocacy and policy efforts to increase resources and capacity for Restorative Practices in Seattle Public Schools.

We appreciate the City of Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL) for being a key champion and support of this work in Seattle schools.

District-wide

Consultation

We provide Restorative Practices consultation to districts, school leaders, and classroom educators as capacity allows. This includes:

Thought-partnership with school leadership/committees
Professional development
Holding circles for educators and/or classrooms

A Nod to Rainier Beach and Our History

WA-BLOC and South Seattle’s movement of Restorative Justice is rooted in the No New Youth Jail Movement starting in April 2012, which brought together organizers opposed to the spending of $210,000,000 to build a new youth jail - believing that incarceration is not what helps our communities thrive and heal. The Rainier Beach Restorative Justice Project was a community-based initiative started in 2015 as a partnership between members of Rainier Beach Action Coalition and members of Ending Prison Industrial Complex with a goal to “Implement a community-led alternative to detention model that utilizes Restorative Justice Principles to reduce Juvenile Incarceration and Recidivism rates of youth residing in Rainier Beach.” Organizers from both groups as well as many RJ practitioners of color came together to hold events (town hall at Langston Hughes and at Emerald City Bible Fellowship) with hopes of implementing real community-based restorative justice into South Seattle. Much of the initial training and modeling was provided by Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, an organization in Oakland founded by Fania Davis, a career attorney and the sister of Black Panther, Angela Davis. In 2015-16, organizers traveled to Oakland to meet Fania Davis and learn of her work as co-founder of Restorative Justice for Oaklands Youth (RJOY). Organizers were also trained in Peace-making, as was originally practiced by Tagish Tlingit First Nation Peoples by Saroeum Phoung and Keiko Ozeki.

Afam Ayika, an EPIC organizer who was helping to lead the work in the restorative justice community (as part of the initial Zero Youth Detention grant) was installed as the first Restorative Justice Coordinator in state history; at Rainier Beach High School. Afam worked alongside WA-BLOC and others at RBHS and the surrounding community, passing his knowledge of restorative practices/justice along.

We have hope that this work along with work of many others in our community is the beginning of sustainable Restorative Justice systems in our neighborhood and across Seattle Public Schools.