Uplift Restorative Justice program highlighted in news story

Feb 7, 2014

Jameale with Robert Koehler

Jameale with Robert Koehler

Alternatives work building a Restorative Justice program at Uplift Community High School was recently featured in this news article published in the Huffington Post.

Here is an excerpt:

But something is different where Jameale does go to school. He’s a sophomore at Uplift Community High School, on the North Side of Chicago, in the neighborhood known as Uptown. He read his poem as part of a ceremony last week that I was (to my great honor) invited to attend, in which some 25 students accepted their certificates as peace ambassadors.

All of them had received intensive training in what is known as peer conferencing, which is a central facet of the growing restorative justice movement. Peer conferencing is a healing-based approach to conflict resolution, in which students trained in the process sit in a circle — a “peace circle” — with those involved in a dispute of some sort and guide a discussion, often intense, that ends in an agreement about how to repair the harm that was done.

It’s the precise opposite of the escalating craziness of a zero-tolerance, police-dependent approach to trouble at school. It’s about restoring the whole, not punishing bad kids over and over and over, until they leave school and wind up in jail. Such an approach results in the broken glass and shattered dreams — the “decapitated education” — that so many young people in poor, struggling neighborhoods experience. It’s wrecking American society.

But the devastation begins so simply. At the awards ceremony, Ana Mercado of Alternatives, Inc., the local social service agency that trained the Uplift peace ambassadors, told of a typical peer conferencing circle that had recently been held. A teacher was having a problem with a student who kept talking in class — oh, the simplest sort of problem! But it’s the kind of thing that can escalate until the student is expelled. In this case, however, a calm discussion in a peace-circle setting revealed that the teacher had “said something that made the student feel disrespected. The teacher and student met and talked it through. They now have a great relationship.”

End of story. It’s so simple, so lacking in “newsworthiness.” Yet this is how peacebuilding works.

The reporter attended a ceremony where all of the youth who had volunteered and been trained as Peace Ambassadors received their certificates. Here are some pictures from the event.

Bushra, an Uplift student, presented statistics on her school's peer conferencing success.

Bushra, an Uplift student, presented statistics on her school’s peer conferencing success.

Alternatives' Restorative Justice Specialist, Ana Mercado, along with Dean Taylor of Uplift.

Alternatives’ Restorative Justice Specialist, Ana Mercado, along with Dean Taylor of Uplift.

IMG_2551

Students worked together to make a peace poster for their school.

Students performed a circle pledge after they received their certificates.

Students performed a circle pledge after they received their certificates.

IMG_2541

The Peace Ambassadors with their certificates, joined by Uplift and Alternatives staff members.

 

 

 

 

68 Comments

If you'd like to learn more about the fellowship and how to apply, sign up for one of our info sessions!

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 4:30 PM

Register Here

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 4:30 PM

Register Here

--

Translate »