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Youth First
Restorative
Justice
Upcoming
Events
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Seward Longfellow Restorative Justice
Partnership
"Promoting reconciliation and
healing within our youth and our community"
A joint project with Seward Neighborhood Group and
Longfellow Community Council
Our Mission is to build community by
providing the opportunity to repair harm by involving the
victim, offender, and community in solutions that promote
healing, accountability, and reconciliation.
Located at:
Seward Neighborhood Group
2323 East Franklin Avenue,
Minneapolis, MN 55406
612-338-6205 x108
For up-to-date announcements and information Follow us on Facebook
About Restorative Justice
Crime damages people, communities, and relationships.
Restorative justice examines the harm caused by an
offense and emphasizes the needs of those impacted in
developing a plan for the harm to be repaired. In
contrast, the court system emphasizes laws broken and
assigns “punishment” accordingly.
Restorative Conferences
As an alternative to court, we conduct Restorative Group
Conferencing through agreements with the Hennepin County
Attorney’s Office and the Minneapolis Police Department.
Our target clients are youths who are 18 and under in the
Seward, Longfellow Cooper, Howe and Hiawatha
neighborhoods and the 55406 zip code area. Our program is
completely voluntary. Typical referrals are for
shoplifting, theft, property damage and 5th degree
assault.
Conferences are structured face-to-face
meetings between youth offenders, their parents, victims,
their support people, and community members. Conferences
are generally an alternative to juvenile court.
Trained volunteer facilitators guide
conferences to give everyone a voice and create an
opportunity to make things as right as possible.
Facilitators complete 20 hours of training, which is
offered two times per year.
Community representatives participate
in conferences to share how crime impacts our whole
community. After a short orientation, anyone with a stake
in 55406 can be added to the list of potential community
representatives for conferences.
A restorative agreement or plan is
developed through consensus among the participants.
Agreements specify tangible actions to be performed
within an acceptable timeframe. Typical agreements to
repair the harm include apology letters, essays about
lessons learned, volunteer work, commitments to sports or
afterschool activities, and chores at home.
What participants say: “this is a
powerful process”, “If the criminal justice system was as
effective as this program we would be a much safer
society.”, “Thank you for taking the time to care about
my child”, “This is a wonderful program and I am grateful
for the opportunity to participate”.
Peacemaking Circles
Circles are a storytelling process.
Every person has his or her story and every story has a
lesson to offer us. People heal and touch one another's
lives through their stories. In a circle, a talking piece
is passed and the person holding the piece has the
group’s attention. Circles often include multiple
sessions. We sponsor twice-monthly Teen
Circles at Longfellow Park and Matthews Park.
These circles are open to any teen who wants to talk with
other teens about what is on their minds. The circle is
co-facilitated by a trained circle keeper and a park
employee. We sponsor an Adult Circle
that meets monthly at Epworth Church in Longfellow.
Contact Michele Braley
here or at 612-338-6205 x108 for more information. In
addition, we conduct Peacemaking Circles with referrals
from community block clubs, parks, businesses, and
schools. These help resolve conflict, prevent and reduce
violence, and are used to intervene in harmful
events.
We invite you to join us…
We invite community members, community organizations,
businesses, schools, churches, faith communities, and any
interested persons in the Seward Longfellow area to join
us in promoting reconciliation and healing within our
youth and our community. We offer training to volunteers
interested in being a trained facilitator or as a
participant representing the community’s voice. We are
available for presentations about restorative justice and
restorative conferencing, and for demonstration
peacemaking circles.
Annual benefit concert co-sponsored by
Faith Mennonite Church and the Community of St. Martin
Ways to participate:
• Make use of our process through referrals.
• Participate in a restorative justice process as a
community representative.
• Attend facilitator training and volunteer to
facilitate restorative conferences.
• Arrange for a presentation about restorative justice
or peacemaking circles
• Give financial support: Make checks payable to
SNG/SLRJP and send to
2323 E. Franklin, Minneapolis, MN 55406. Or, give a
secure, on-line donation through Razoo.
If you are interested in having a
restorative justice process available, volunteering, or
have any questions please contact:
Michele Braley, Program Manager
Seward Longfellow Restorative Justice Partnership
612-338-6205 x108
Email michele@sng.org
Many thanks to our funders for
2012
--Basilian Order of the Catholic Church
--Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation
--Seward Co-op Community Fund
--Community of St. Martin
--Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (fee for service)
--City of Minneapolis - Office of the City Attorney
--Hennepin County Bar Foundation
-- Gandhi Mahal Restaurant (sponsor of teen circle at
Longfellow Park)
--Grace University Lutheran Church
--Seward Neighborhood Group
--Faith Mennonite Church
--Christ Church Lutheran
--Yackel Foundation
--Individual donors
We'd also like to recognize
local businesses who donate goods and services
-- At Last! Gourmet
-- Birchwood Restaurant
-- Cub Foods
-- Gandhi Mahal Restaurant
-- Himalayan Restaurant
-- Mother Earth Gardens
-- Peace Coffee
-- Pizza Luce
-- Russell Denistry
-- Seward Cafe
-- Seward Co-op
-- Soderberg’s Floral
-- True Thai
-- United Noodle
-- Urban Animal
-- Welna Hardware
-- Wood from the Hood (Siewert Cabinets)
-- Zipps Liquors (sponsor of February 2012 Sweethearts
and Spirits benefit)
Internet resources:
MN Department of Corrections
Restorative Justice Unit
MN Restorative Services
Coalition
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