Overview
The mission of Common Justice is to advance solutions to violence that transform the lives of those harmed and foster racial equity without relying on incarceration. Anchored in this foundational mission, the New York City Collaborative to Transform Violence is a new initiative at Common Justice to build bridges between restorative justice and Community Violence Intervention (CVI) work.
Over the past decade, there have been extraordinary gains in restorative justice and in community violence intervention work, but there is not enough connection between the two fields in practice.
This New York City Collaborative to Transform Violence aims to close that gap by bringing together people in CVI work in New York City (including neighborhood- and hospital-based violence interrupter programs and more) into an 8-month cohort-based learning collaborative to integrate an understanding and basic practice of restorative justice into their work.
This 8-month Collaborative aims to draw on the shared wisdom in the rooms we convene and give CVI practitioners the opportunity to develop and deepen restorative justice-based skills to anchor processes that center accountability or provide pathways to repair that can durably interrupt and heal cycles of violence, meet the needs of survivors, and earn the respect, trust, and participation of community members with a stake in the outcomes.
Our Approach
By joining the New York City Collaborative to Transform Violence, you will be part of a group of people working to further strengthen our movement’s shared work to address and end violence. While Common Justice will draw on our experience addressing violence through restorative justice, the Collaborative will be highly participatory and reciprocal and will draw on the wisdom, leadership, and experience of everyone involved to co-create new and powerful connections to end cycles of pain and foster new ways forward together.
Participants
The New York City Collaborative to Transform Violence is ideal for people currently working in CVI programs, whether in leadership or on the frontlines, who are interested in learning more about restorative justice, building the skills to apply restorative justice practices in the field, making connections to restorative justice organizations, and working through the tensions and challenges of connecting CVI and restorative justice work in practice.
Our primary focus is on building with practitioners who are deeply embedded in their communities and already curious about healing, transformation, and repair.
Core Objectives
Capacity and Relationship Building
We aim to enhance the capacities of New York City based practitioners and leaders to integrate restorative justice approaches into their CVI work by building a trustworthy network of support and mutual understanding rooted in common principles and values. Our strategy is rooted in trust, where we provide unwavering support to our participants, ensuring that our training modules and collaborative efforts amplify, rather than overshadow, the ongoing work toward addressing violence.
Concrete Skill Building
We will work to provide concrete, experiential, skill-based training in restorative justice so participants in the learning collaborative can implement strong practices in their work and organizations. We will draw on Common Justice’s experience addressing serious violence through restorative justice to offer practical tools to CVI practitioners.
