Restorative justice deserves better questions.
Bring a youth-focused restorative lens to your work.
Restorative justice has enormous potential. But realizing that potential means being willing to question how we've always done things.
My work explores how we understand harm, accountability, relationships and repair. I bring years of practical experience, a commitment to youth voice, and a belief that restorative practice must continue to evolve
Four questions I'm asking of restorative justice
1. What if we started earlier?
Why does diversion so often begin with contact with police or the justice system? What would change if we responded to harm at the first point it occurred, before it escalated into something more serious?
2. What would restorative practice look like if we designed it with youth?
Not an adult model adapted for kids. Not a simplified version of adult practice. An approach shaped by how youth actually experience relationships, conflict, accountability and repair.
3. What are we actually working toward?
Are we measuring success by whether someone reoffends? Or are we building processes that help people reconnect, contribute and belong? I want us to think beyond preventing someone from returning to the justice system and toward creating reasons to return to community.
4. Whose experience of harm are we centring?
Restorative processes must hold the experiences of the person who caused harm and the person who was harmed. Neither should become secondary to the process. And we must make room for the wider history, relationships and circumstances that brought everyone to this moment.
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