Here are some examples of what each of us can do to participate individually and collectively to restore individuals and communities harmed by crime.
AS AN INDIVIDUAL
- Write a letter to your local, state, and national leaders in support of mandatory jail and prison violence prevention and restorative justice programs.
- Donate clothes to battered women's shelters.
- Hire an ex-offender who has demonstrated a restorative justice commitment.
- Volunteer time to help teach people to read.
- Become a mentor in your community.
- Donate to anti-violence education programs.
- Support victims of crime with practical and emotional support.
- Create a sports league for all those harmed by crime to help build community strength, support and familiarity.
FOR COMMUNITIES
- Start a neighborhood mediation board.
- Support victims of crime with practical and emotional support.
- Support positive personal change by giving ex-offenders the training and the opportunity to work.
- Faith based communities - give support and opportunities to both victims and offenders and their families.
- Create a Sports league for all those harmed by crime to help build links to the community.
- When appropriate, provide opportunities for the offender to make amends to the community.
- Without putting yourself at physical risk, object to language that glories violence.
FOR OFFENDERS
- Get emotional and behavioral help - i.e. batterers groups, psychotherapy and other approaches that will support you accountability and change to pro-social behavior.
- Continue to "own" past behavior and express full responsibility to the crime victim and to the community.
- Make a verbal or written apology.
- Participate in neighborhood clean up.
- Work with other men and women to become mentors and facilitators for violence and relapse prevention groups.
FOR VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS
- Addressing the Trauma: Get the assistance you deserve and need, including: Psychotherapy, Family Therapy, Crisis Lines, Shelters and Safe Homes, Support Groups, Victim / Ooffender Mediation or Dialogue.
- Participate in victim impact panels.
RESOURCES
The below resources and books are either directly related to and/or provided guidance for the programs described in this book or are national resources to get help.
Al-Anon | www.al-anon.org
Alcoholics Anonymous | www.alcoholics-anonymous.org
Community Works West | www.community-works-ca.org
Family Violence Prevention Fund | www.endabuse.org
San Francisco Sheriff's Department Five Keys Charter
School | www.fivekeyscharter.org
Manalive | www.manaliveinternational.org
Narcotics Anonymous | www.na.org
University of Minnesota Restorative Justice at the School of Social Work | www.rjp.umn.edu
San Francisco Sheriff's Department Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP) | www.resolvetostoptheviolence.org
Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic
Gilligan James, MD, New York, Vintage Publishing, 1997
Preventing Violence, (Prospects for Tomorrow)
Gilligan James, MD, New York, Thames & Hudson July 2001
The Little Book of Restorative Justice
Zehr Howard, Intercourse, PA, Good Books, 2002
The Little Book of Circle Processes: A New/Old Approach to Peacemaking
Kay Pranis, Intercourse, PA, Good Books
Juvenile Justice Reform and Restorative Justice: Building Theory and Policy from Practice
Bazemore Gordon and Mara Schiff, Portland, Oregon, Willan Publishing, 2005
Please send us your suggestions of additional ways we can participate to restore individuals and communities harmed by crime.
