Demand #1

Year summary: This team had a strong youth presence. For much of the year, they were focused on preparing for a visit from representatives from Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY), who were supposed to come to visit the school in May and hold listening circles. Inexplicably, RJOY did not follow through with this plan, and have not responded to communications. The group is considering what to do in place of their visit, and has reached out to Commissioner Mia Schultz, a member of the newly formed Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as Restore Forward, a NY-based restorative justice organization,  to see how they might work together.  

The visit from Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) has been postponed until another date, to be determined. The group is considering what to do in place of their visit, and is going to reach out to the newly formed Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission to see how they might work together. Kayla Loving and Auishma Pradhan, Action Team Leaders, shared information about the Summer Social Justice Camp, sponsored by the Education Justice Coalition, which will be held in Burlington and facilitated by Winooski High School youth! Middle and high school youth are invited to attend, and will be compensated for their participation. For more information about the camp, and to apply, head to tinyurl.com/SSJC2023. 

The team continues to make plans for Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY)’s visit in May. They also discussed the newly established Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and are considering ways to connect with the members of this group. 

Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) will be visiting Winooski the first or second week of May. The team has been thinking of ways to prepare the community for RJOY's visit. We are planning an event that'll happen in April. We also plan to share with students through advisory. We created a more accessible statement to explain the work of our group: "Instead of thinking that revenge is always the answer, we should encourage healing. Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) is going to be holding a space for those who may have experienced discrimination. This space will be confidential, so your information will not be shared unless given permission. Your stories are important to prevent harm from happening again."

The Action Team continues to prepare for RJOY's visit in the spring. The dates of the visit are going to be either May 5-6 or May 11-12! At the meeting on February 8th, the group worked to craft language to share so that people in the Winooski community understand the purpose of RJOY's visit and how they can engage with the group: "Instead of thinking that revenge is always the answer, we should encourage healing. RJOY is going to be holding a space for those who may have experienced past discrimination. This space will be confidential, so your information will not be shared unless given permission. Your stories are important to prevent harm from happening again." During the next meeting, the team will decide on other ways to prepare the community for RJOY's visit. 

The action group organized a documentary showing of Confronting the Truth for the public to give them an opportunity to learn with the group about truth and reconciliation commissions which looked at truth and reconciliation commissions in five different countries: South Africa, Togo, Morocco, East Timor, and Peru. The documentary showing took place right after school ended on May 26th. Food was served from Kismayo Kitchen and Tiny Thai. About 40 people attended and watched from the steps in the temporary library. It brought up an interesting discussion of how this could be set up in Winooski and the U.S. as a whole.

The group met with Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) again. They are willing to provide their services free of charge because they believe it will be mutually beneficial! RJOY was interested in hearing more about why truth telling and racial healing is needed, especially hearing from the youth who shared their experiences. They want to begin with listening circles with different stakeholders to understand what the needs and challenges are. This will help inform the truth-telling process. The group will work on putting together some information for RJOY to get the process started. 

The group met again to figure out what information they should share with RJOY. The youth came up with recommendations and questions they consider asking other youth, teachers, staff, administrators, caregivers, etc. They also decided that for our next meeting, they'll watch the documentary Confronting the Truth to learn about TRCs in other places. They will make it a community event and have food. After the documentary is over, they plan on telling everyone about what their action group is hoping to do.

We split into working groups. One group planned a meeting where we’ll watch a documentary to learn about the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission. One person helped with figuring out compensation for the youth. One group decided how we should move forward. We hadn’t heard back from  Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth yet, so we decided that we’ll reach out to the other content expert we met with, Carl Stauffer, to see if he can either help us or connect us with other content experts and how we should approach our proposal.

We met with Carl Stauffer from USIP (United States Institute for Peace) on 2/10. Carl went over different Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) processes. He shared successes and challenges and emphasized that we should follow the guiding values of TRCs, but not try to replicate them. The process should be specific to our context. There is a possibility that Carl can be involved in consulting/training. He can also connect us with other people that have been involved in TRCs. 

We met with Teiahsha Bankhead from RJOY (Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth) on 2/11. Teiahsha was interested in learning about Winooski and WSA and their demands. A team from RJOY might be able to come to Winooski to train and facilitate a truth telling and racial healing process through restorative justice circles. They have typical fees that they charge, but don’t want money to take away from the work. 

During our next meeting, we’ll discuss the meetings we had and consider our next steps.

This group came to a consensus that the best way to move forward is to find a content expert that can help point us in the right direction. They have three leads on people who have experience with Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. They decided to pursue these leads and try to set up meetings with them. 

They have a meeting set with someone from Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth who is setting up a network of people doing Truth Telling and Racial Healing, so they can connect us with other people. We also set up a meeting with another possible context expert during our next regular meeting on Feb. 10th. 

This group added a community member and two youth. They worked on adapting the language of their demand to make it more accessible. Once the whole group meets again, they’d like to do a protocol to help them define their vision.

This Action Demand Group attended an orientation by the Antiracism Steering Committee on Oct. 4, 2021. 

This group plans to meet on the first Thursday of each month. They are working on recruiting youth and community members of color before forming the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.