Common Justice Community Workshops

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About

We’re excited to announce the launch of the Common Justice Community Workshops—a virtual series where we will gather with our broader community, explore the core principles that guide our work, and learn alongside each other as we navigate this moment in our shared history. 

We welcome both experienced practitioners and people newly drawn to this work to join us in conversation about how we approach restorative justice and violence, and to explore critical questions about safety, accountability, and racial equity in the context of addressing serious violence. 

Who Is This For

  • Community members curious about restorative justice and alternatives to incarceration in response to violence 
  • Practitioners, service providers, and organizers engaged in advancing community safety and effective responses to violence 
  • Survivors and people directly impacted by violence seeking pathways that prioritize healing, dignity, and safety 
  • Students, researchers, and funders exploring survivor-centered, community-rooted solutions to violence 

FIRST WORKSHOP: WHY DIVERT SERIOUS VIOLENCE? 

Our first ever Community Workshop titled Why Focus on Diverting Serious Violence from Prison? explored what survivors want in the aftermath of harm, how prison fails to meet those needs, and how community-based solutions can more effectively reduce violence and create real safety. In this workshop, we explored how Common Justice supports survivors, how we engage with our responsible parties, and how these methods come together to support long term healing and stop the cycle of violence. 

SECOND WORKSHOP: BUILDING ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION AND SECURING A MULTIRACIAL DEMOCRACY

Our second Community Workshop titled Building Alternatives to Incarceration and Securing a Multiracial Democracy explored how building a strong base of engaged citizens committed to public safety is essential to securing a multiracial democracy capable of withstanding pressure from authoritarian movements. In this workshop, we examined how the work of building alternatives to incarceration connects to democratic resilience, how winning public safety narratives can strengthen grassroots organizing, and why community-based responses to harm remain essential even in the face of authoritarianism. 

THIRD WORKSHOP: CENTERING SURVIVORS NEEDS IN BUILDING ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION 

Our third Community Workshop titled Centering Survivors Needs in Building Alternatives to Incarceration explored how Common Justice works with survivors to ensure that they have the agency to create pathways toward justice and healing beyond the criminal legal system. In this workshop, our discussion was centered on what restorative justice offers that the legal system cannot, how we support survivors in defining what meaningful healing and repair requires, and how we build accountability processes that support long-term safety and transformation. 

FOURTH WORKSHOP: the intersection of restorative justice and community violence intervention

Our fourth Community Workshop on March 12 will be exploring what is most useful – and challenging – to bring from restorative justice into the work of community violence intervention and how the frameworks of being survivor-centered and accountability-based can bolster safety and support long-term healing in neighborhood-based responses. Additionally, we’ll be taking a look at how combining these approaches can more durably interrupt cycles of violence, meet the needs of survivors, and earn the respect, trust, and participation of impacted community members.

Fifth WORKSHOP: Expanding Diversion Programs for Serious Violence Across the Country

In the final Community Workshop in this series, we are going to dive deep into the development, evolution, and national expansion of survivor-centered alternatives to incarceration for violent felonies in the adult courts. The Common Justice Partnerships & Training team will be joined by our Vice President of Programs, Olapeju Oyeyemi, and one of our core partners, Travis Claybrooks, representing the Raphah Institute in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee. Together, we will share lessons learned and engage with workshop participants on critical questions facing this work—starting in 2008 with Common Justice in Brooklyn and now expanding across the country in the face of challenging and rapidly shifting conditions. 

Sessions 

We are beginning with a series of five bi-monthly workshops. They are not sequential—people can join at any time and attend whichever sessions interest them. 


facilitators

The workshops will be led by Common Justice’s Partnerships & Training team: 

Join Us

This is a chance to connect with our team, to learn, and to explore ways you can support and contribute to this movement. 

Register Now