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About
We are excited to announce ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS, our second season of Common Justice Community Workshops – a virtual series highlighting the practices and people essential to addressing serious violence across the country.
We welcome both experienced practitioners and people newly drawn to this work to join us in conversation about the essential elements of applying restorative justice to address 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
upcoming workshops
Monday, November 16, 2026 from 1-2p ET
Essential Elements with Dr. Troy Harden & Danielle Sered
Acclaimed researcher Dr. Troy Harden and his team are engaged in a multi-year study of Common Justice’s work on cases of serious violence in the adult courts in New York City. In our inaugural ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS community workshop, Dr. Harden is joined by our founder and Executive Director, Danielle Sered, to discuss the results of his team’s first year of research. What are the essential elements required to effectively address the needs of survivors of serious violence and to meaningfully support the accountability and transformation of those who have caused them harm? Please join us to hear the insights Dr. Harden and his team bring to this work.
Zoom link will be provided upon registration.
Thursday, January 21, 2027 from 1-2p ET
Belonging & Collective Support with Mike Milton & RJ Maccani
Belonging, peer connection, and collective support are central to healing, accountability, safety, and long-term transformation. Join Mike Milton, founder and Executive Director of Freedom Community Center, and RJ Maccani, Director of Training for Common Justice, in a discussion of what belonging and collective support look like – in practice – in St. Louis and NYC … and why it is an essential part of any work with survivors and responsible parties in the wake of serious violence.
Zoom link will be provided upon registration.
past workshops
inaugural season
September 25, 2025
WHY DIVERT SERIOUS VIOLENCE?
Our first Community Workshop 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.
November 18, 2025
BUILDING ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION AND SECURING A MULTIRACIAL DEMOCRACY
Our second Community Workshop 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.
January 14, 2026
CENTERING SURVIVORS NEEDS IN BUILDING ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION
Our third Community Workshop 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.
March 12, 2026
THE INTERSECTION OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AND COMMUNITY VIOLENCE INTERVENTION
Our fourth Community Workshop explored 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 looked 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.
May 14, 2026
EXPANDING DIVERSION PROGRAMS FOR SERIOUS VIOLENCE ACROSS THE COUNTRY
In the final Community Workshop in this inaugural series, we are dove 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 was 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 shared lessons learned and engaged 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.