What do we mean by our restorative justice approach?

The community care team offers a way of weaving restorative justice and healing throughout our HDS community. Restorative justice is a world view rooted in indigeneity that calls us to prioritize our humanity and our relationships with each other. It is a philosophy that holds our collective humanity at the center through principles and practices, including circle practices. Restorative justice invites people to step into courage, truth-telling, love, accountability, and repair. A community that embraces this approach seeks to repair harm and also to change the culture and conditions that created the harm.  

Restorative justice and restorative circles are rooted in the belief that no one is disposable, and that the circle holds us all. It’s an approach that is not punitive in seeking justice, but promotes accountability, repair, and healing.  

While the community care team might be responding to harm, especially initially, our vision is to shift HDS culture through a restorative approach. In this, we see our restorative approach as part of building a container where our community’s foundation can be one of trust and connection. This is the foundation for cultural and systemic transformation.