collective justice (experiential learning aut 20)
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At Collective Justice, the work we do is based in relationship-how we show up and relate with one another is inextricable with the work. My experience with CJ has strengthened my belief that we have to practice the values we want to see expand and develop into a culture based in care. Especially in these isolating times, I have been extremely grateful for the opportunity to form connections with people who have shared values around justice and community accountability. At CJ I feel valued, not just for my intellectual contributions but for the curiosity and presence I show up with.
I have grown even more sure that Restorative and Transformative Justice are what I am passionate about, and I hope to engage with this work for a long time. I know that the values I have developed through working with Collective Justice staff and community members will remain with me throughout my life. I hope to join Collective Justice’s staff after graduation, and if not, I will continue to support their work in any capacity. It is hard to distill what I have learned about myself throughout the course of this engagement, I genuinely feel that I have been transformed through this work. I have grown more confident in my leadership skills through practicing with people who see me fully, people who I have begun to develop deep and lasting relationships with. I have learned the importance of value alignment within community-based work, practicing self-accountability and working in an environment where I am nourished both intellectually and emotionally. I will forever be grateful for my time at Collective Justice. In Autumn quarter of 2020, I interned while taking LSJ’s Juvenile Parole Seminar, learning about the ways the criminal legal system perpetuates violence rather than facilitating healing and accountability. In this course, we developed the knowledge and skills necessary to assist folks who were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole as young people. At Collective Justice, we often talk about the fact that a person’s first experience with harm is never in causing it. This holds true for the petitioners my peers and I support, though the criminal legal system has never been able to hold how trauma underlies the harm we cause. At Collective Justice, my vision of justice has been informed by the ways I have witnessed the power of community to heal and interrupt in harm, learning from people who are skilled in practicing Restorative and Transformative Justice. I have learned that I want to continue to support culturally relevant support systems in community for survivors of violence. I want to help build a world in which freedom and safety are not dichotomous, where we hold the value of every person rather than isolating them from community. This engagement gave me an opportunity to put my values into practice through supporting different programs Collective Justice has developed. The first way I supported Collective Justice’s survivor-centered nature was through the Rapid Response Program. This program was set up in April of 2020 to support survivors in our community meet their basic needs in the context of the pandemic. My role included intake appointments to listen to the needs of the survivor and hold space for anything they wanted to discuss. I then worked with the team to determine fund allocation, and mailed out gift cards and submitted bills to be paid. Rapid Response fits into Collective Justice’s attention to healing, in recognition of how one’s basic needs first need to be met in order for them to engage in their own healing work. The majority of my time at Collective Justice has been spent supporting the development of HEAL2Action program, a leadership training series aimed at building a network of healing, politicized survivors who want to shrink the criminal legal system and build alternatives to see their communities safe and thriving. This program is in line with the CJ's mission to center those most impacted by state violence and that the belief that those directly impacted by structural and interpersonal violence should be putting forward visions of safety. |