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Vermont Restorative Justice Programs’
Equity Initiative
“We seek to hold ourselves accountable and move toward a justice system that brings dignity, safety, and repair of harm for all.”
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- From Vermont Restorative Justice Programs Position on Racial Injustice
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There are numerous examples of areas where Vermont’s criminal justice, law enforcement and corrections systems are systematically failing people in the most marginalized identity groups. The 21 organizations offering restorative justice programs across Vermont recognize that people’s access to and support from our programs are deeply influenced by these systems. This inherently creates the opportunity within restorative justice programs for systemic and institutional racism and inequitable treatment of people whose identities differ from the dominant white, English speaking, cisgendered identity to manifest.
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Photo: Vermont’s Restorative and Community Justice Center Directors with EDJIE Initiative contractors.
In August, 2022, our organizations joined together to acknowledge our collective responsibility to both address inequity within our programs and to build a culture of inclusion and support for people of all identities within Vermont’s restorative justice community. Through a Edward Bryne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, No. 15PBJA-22-GG-01205-BRND awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance*, we launched a multi-year effort to pursue the following outcomes:
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Develop, deliver, and institutionalize professional development trainings to address personal and institutional racism, implicit bias, trauma, gender equity, and general inclusivity;
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Conduct a statewide data collection evaluation to improve racial justice and inclusion outcomes, including a needs assessment, the creation of standard metrics and collection tools, and the proposal for a new, shared data-management system;
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Support agencies and state partners to review and update policies and procedures with the guidance of anti-racism experts.
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Directors from the Burlington Community Justice Center, the Community Justice Center of Saint Johnsbury, Essex Community Justice Center, Orange County Restorative Justice Center (OCRJC), the Northeast Kingdom Community Action Center's Community and Social Justice programs, and the Rutland County Restorative Justice Center led this initiative. OCRJC served as the fiscal agent for the initiative.
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The resources included here are the outcomes of work with 3 contractors who specialize in system level assessments, planning and training in diversity, equity and inclusion.
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Education & Training Data & Evaluation Statewide Equity Audit
In doing this work we acknowledge that restorative justice practices are not new. Mohawk, Abenaki, Wabenaki, Mohican, and Haudenosaunee nations (among many others) practiced restorative justice for millennia before European settlers disrupted the natural order of the land and its people and created the boundaries of the settler state of Vermont.
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Please read our full acknowledgement, developed by the EDJIE Education & Training Cohort with support from Bitsy Joy of VIBE LLC.
*The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.