Restorative Justice
Practices and Programs
Serving the communities of
Avalon Park | Auburn Gresham | Chatham
& Greater Grand Crossing
Greater Chatham Initiative is committed to Restorative Justice and Restorative Practices. Restorative Justice is not new. It is an ancient philosophy that is commonly defined as an approach to justice that focuses on the harm to relationships.
- Restorative Justice is a way of responding to conflict, misbehavior and wrongdoing that makes things as right as possible for all who are impacted.
- Restorative Justice holds offenders responsible for their actions and provides an opportunity for parties directly affected by crime – victims, offenders, and communities – to identify and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime or violation.
- The principles of Restorative Justice are based on respect, responsibility, repair, restoration, compassion, and inclusivity.
- Restorative Justice encourages meaningful engagement and accountability and provides an opportunity for healing, reparation, and reintegration.
- Restorative Justice provides the opportunity for parties to have a sense of belonging that strengthens the social bonds that serve as the foundation of our communities.
- Restorative Justice creates future accountability plans and/or agreements that prevent reoccurrences of an offense.
- Restorative Justice can only be achieved by the combined efforts of all community stakeholders!
Greater Chatham Initiative offers free ongoing training – days, afternoons, after school and evenings – for adults and youth to participate in and facilitate Restorative Circles. Youth ages 18 and under that reside in the 60619-zip code are also eligible to receive a stipend for completing the training.
Services We Offer
- Circles and Circle Keepers
- Family Group Conferencing (FGC)
- Landlord-Tenant Mediation
- Community Mediation
- Additional Services:
Circles give people an opportunity to speak and listen to one another in an atmosphere of safety, decorum, and equality, allowing people to tell their stories and offer their own perspectives. Circles have a wide variety of purposes: conflict resolution in response to wrongdoing, conflicts, problems and community concerns, healing, support, decision making, information exchange, community building, and relationship development in schools, churches, neighborhoods, and communities.
Greater Chatham Initiative offers Family Group Conferences to support the sense of community and stability that only the family, in its various forms, can provide when empowered to fix their own problems while facilitating healing.
Greater Chatham Initiative provides low-cost Landlord-Tenant Mediation to assist with negotiations between landlords and tenants. Mediation can address several issues including unpaid rent, property damage payments, tenant evictions, and arranging timely property repairs. Facilitating a mutually beneficial, legally-binding resolution to their dispute can help deescalate landlord-tenant disputes by removing them from the intensity of the courtroom. When mediation leads to a compromise, it can be cheaper than eviction for both landlords and tenants and leave both parties better off.
Greater Chatham Initiative promotes and facilitates Community Mediation for community residents and stakeholders as a constructive process for resolving differences and conflicts between individuals, groups, and organizations. Participants control the process, create their own alternatives to avoidance, destructive confrontation, prolonged litigation, or violence, and create mutually agreed upon agreements to help move from conflict to resolution and from harm to healing.
Victim-Offender Mediation
Shoplifting Diversion Mediation
Violence Interruption Mediation
Ongoing Events and Activities:
Community Building Circles
#Chatham Chats: Coffee with a Cop!
Teen Talk Thursdays
As a Restorative Justice Practitioner for more than fifteen (15) years, Brenda has cultivated relationships between school districts, community stakeholders, law enforcement, and youth focused organizations to create opportunities for community building.
Brenda is a forward-thinking Restorative Justice Practitioner and Facilitator with experience implementing restorative justice projects and programs in community and school environments with vested stakeholders. Working with adolescents, families, and youth at-risk, particularly in traditionally under-served schools and communities in Chicago, the south suburbs and Las Vegas.
She worked for and/or partnered with College of Southern Nevada, Clark County School District, South Suburban Community Development Corp., Chicago Bar Association’s Restorative Justice Project, Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice (IBARJ), Nevada Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission’s Eviction Mediation Program, Clark County Justice Court, and Sistahs S.T.R.O.N.G. Inc.
These partnerships have allowed her the opportunities to develop and implement proactive and responsive restorative practices including circles, peer mediation, restorative conferences, mediations, and World Café practices in order to foster safe, supportive, and positive school and community cultures.
Brenda F. Boyd
Phone: 773-644-1451, x104
Brenda@greaterchathaminitiabrendative.org