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Question 1: What is your name, title, and organization/how long have you been a member of the team?
Question 2: Can you describe what your organization does in a nutshell?
We build community safety by strengthening and expanding community-driven solutions to violence that will be the foundation for a justice system that heals instead of harms. We work at the intersection of criminal justice, public health, and racial justice, and build capacity for community organizations doing this work by advocating for policy that promotes alternatives to policing and punitive systems.
We organize and support statewide coalitions driving sustainable and sufficient public investment in community safety ecosystems, work with local organizations and government officials to ensure investments result in accessible resources for organizations reducing violence and creating meaningful pathways to relational healing and accountability, and advocate for federal dollars that fortify a future of public safety rooted in healing and racial equity.
At every step, we seed and nurture ways to address harm that provide opportunities for relational accountability and healing. We support the sustainability and well-being of survivors of violence who are healing their communities and shift narratives about safety and justice away from punishment and toward community and racial equity.
Question 3: Can you share one thing from the last year, from your work, that you are really proud of?
There’s a lot for us to be proud of! We’ve been part of state policy victories alongside partners in the Safer Communities Accelerator and others, launched new community safety and justice initiatives in rural communities in Virginia and Louisiana, and gathered with dozens of frontline community safety workers, organizers, and advocates in healing spaces.
What rises to the top as we reflect in this moment is the expansion of our Restorative Justice Project to four new cities across the Midwest and South: Jackson, MS; Little Rock, AR; Oakland, MI; and Richmond, VA.
This work has felt especially important because it’s happening in places where disinvestment has rolled back progress toward community-led liberatory practices. The root of building a community safety ecosystem is nurturing relationships and establishing a set of communal agreements to engage and collaborate. Our process has been relational from the beginning.
At our first convening in Minneapolis last summer, the focus was building relationships and introducing our new partners to restorative justice, distinguishing it from the punitive framework that undergirds the criminal legal system. Both community and system partners explored how restorative justice identifies root causes and needs generated by harm and builds accountability plans to address those needs, rather than focusing on punishment.
Community partners were trained to facilitate community-building circles and utilize practices fostering inclusive, affirming experiences for open and vulnerable engagement. System partners learned to effectively share power and confront how the current system neglects survivors’ needs while reinforcing trauma and harm, even for those working within it. Facilitators and system partners from our Nashville and Seattle programs co-trained during the convening, sharing lessons and strengthening collective commitment.
This expansion is also special because it’s our first time deeply exploring what it looks like to begin the journey toward transformative restorative justice with systems partners—such as those in District Attorneys’ offices—early on. Previously, we engaged systems partners more transactionally, focused on referrals. Now, we’re supporting them in embodying restorative justice values, including processing their roles within the system.
Question 4: What does public safety mean to you?
For us, safety means well-being. Now more than ever, we need to protect access to the elements of well-being while building networks of care, mutual support, and relational accountability. Safety requires addressing fundamental drivers of well-being, such as housing, jobs, health, and mental well-being, and ensuring those needs are met.
Safety also means belonging—knowing we are part of something greater. This sense of connection is the seed of hope. Hope, embodied in community, collective action, and access to well-being, is what makes safety possible.
Question 5: The You’ve Got Options Campaign is all about exposing communities to the “options” for community-led safety solutions. Why does it matter that YOUR community has options?
Our work has shown us that options have always existed—pilots and experiments launched across the country, many rooted in what Black and brown communities have long known works. Safety results from investment in community well-being, healing, and racial equity.
As we face increasing political and economic uncertainty, the option to choose community safety and justice requires transformative investment in ecosystems that support holistic community well-being. This includes addressing social determinants of health and nurturing relational healing and accountability.
Even when resources seem limited, communities have rolled up their sleeves, fortified connections, and gotten to work. This resilience reminds us that community is the wellspring of safety and justice. With real commitment and resources, we can invest in community and create pathways to a safer, more hopeful future.
