 Welcome to In the World of Winooski. I'm Mayor Christine Lott, and today I'm joined by Kayla Loving, the Restorative Justice Coordinator at Spectrum Youth and Family Services. Welcome, Kayla. Thanks for having me. So happy to have you here to tell us about Restorative Justice and some of the work you're doing right in Winooski. Yeah. If you wouldn't mind, you can give a brief introduction of yourself and then talk about what Restorative Justice is. Sure. So I started at Spectrum about two years ago, and I'm in a new position that was never filled by anyone else before. Spectrum applied for a Restorative Justice grant and got it and created my position, went around to different schools and cities to figure out where they could kind of focus the grant. And when Winooski came up, they had been interested in Restorative Justice and doing some things with it for a while. And then I just saw the position and applied for it. And it's been a really interesting experience. Awesome. Well, we'll dig in more into what you're doing here in Winooski. Let's just start with the overview of what is Restorative Justice for folks who aren't familiar. Yeah. So Restorative Justice is a philosophy and set of practices that are rooted in indigenous teachings. And it focuses on building relationships, being in community, and repairing harm when that happens in a way that really values relationships. And so with Punitive Justice, it values more like the system and thinking about like who broke a rule or a law. But with Restorative Justice, it's more about the community and like who has been harmed. And also with the person who has caused harm, how can they, like they also have needs in the situation that can be met through different things such as like saying an apology or maybe like having food to eat so that they don't do things that could cause harm to other people. You mentioned that Winooski had been interested for a while. I know we have Restorative Justice panels, which you had volunteered before. Can you tell us a little about that experience? Yeah, so I started volunteering on the Restorative Justice panel in Winooski. That's through the Community Justice Center. Shortly after I moved to Vermont, which was about four years ago. And I had a degree in conflict resolution and saw this as a volunteer opportunity and was just really interested. And it was a really interesting experience, met a lot of great people and got to learn about Winooski. And so we, on the panel, I served as someone who helps kind of go through the process. And so if someone had caused harm in the community, they might be sent to the panel to kind of, we'd talk it through with them and think about ways that they could repair the harm that they caused. And we had kind of really an array of different people that we worked with and from like an age, the type of harm that they caused. Yeah, it was interesting. Yeah, and for folks who aren't familiar, we still have, we still work with a, what is it called? Community Justice Center. Community Justice Center, thank you. And there are volunteer opportunities for residents who want to participate in these panels and in this process. Yeah, and now it's based out of Burlington. And I've worked closely with the Burlington Community Justice Center and yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of great volunteer opportunities available there. And tell us more about the, the rest of your role in the work you're doing. Yeah, so I work with the Winooski School District. Quite a bit. And so one of, they've been kind of working with Restorative Justice before I started working with them, a lot through their advisory programs. And so a lot of students would participate in circles about once a week in their advisory. And it was just a chance to build community with each other and talk about different things going on in their community. And so when I came in, I tried to support what was already happening. I did a lot of workshops for the staff. And now I work a lot with different youth in the community and providing them opportunities to learn about Restorative Justice and really become leaders in their own community. That's awesome. Yeah. What kind of, I'm curious like how outcomes differ versus like a traditional criminal justice approach? Well, I think with Restorative Justice, it keeps in mind that people are people who make mistakes, everyone causes harm. And we all have needs. And so it's just about like trying to meet those needs while maintaining the dignity of everyone who was involved in whatever the situation was. That's awesome. What else are you working on? Let's see, can you go to the next slide? So I also work a lot with the community. And so one of the things I do are community circles which are open to anyone in the community. They can come to the library on the third Wednesday of each month from six to seven p.m. And we just have food and sit in circle and talk about things that are happening in the community, in the world. We talked about mass shootings. We've talked about the potential eviction of the residents at 300 Main Street. Just anything that's kind of come up and would be a good thing to kind of process or really think through as a community. That's great. I didn't even know until recently about these. It's like an opportunity to your point, like process hard issues, but also get to know more neighbors and members of the community. Yeah, yeah. And that's what I think circles are really great for is just processing difficult things that have happened and kind of preparing for, like for example, when the schools switched to optional masking, I helped prepare a circle script that would help them kind of talk about like why might someone choose to wear a mask? Why might someone not choose to wear a mask anymore? And how can we support each other in whatever people decide to do? And also knowing like it's okay if you're not sure what to do. And I think that really helped create a smoother transition for the school at that time. That does seem like a really good approach to trying to understand differing perspectives. You may not be exposed to within your family. Maybe you have one way of doing things and actually getting an opportunity to talk to others in a format that's put at the table of like we're gonna have this conversation and learn from one another. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and one thing I should explain is how circles work. So everyone sits in a circle and we pass around a talking piece and whoever has the talking piece is the person that's invited to speak while everyone who doesn't have the talking piece is invited to listen to that one person and it goes around to every single person in the circle. So everyone has an equal opportunity to speak and share their opinion without the fear of being interrupted which I think is just a great way to really practice listening and communicating with patients and care. I feel like we could use this in our city council meetings potentially. Yeah, yeah, maybe. Or many types of get-togethers in meetings. I think you're hosting some other community workshops coming up. Yes, I am hosting a series of community workshops. I'm partnering with the Burlington Community Justice Center and that is happening, let's see. It is, well, we have a three-part series that is starting tomorrow and it'll be for the next three weeks, next three Wednesdays and it's just an opportunity to learn about conflict and how to build your skills in conflict. And so it's open to basically anyone. We can provide food and childcare and then we also have another workshop coming up. It's Power Dynamics and Conflict which is on a Saturday. I think the next slide might have the information. Yeah, it might be the very last slide. Oh, yeah, thank you. It is August 27th, so that's a Saturday in the morning and that will be happening at the community room at the pool and it's open to anyone. Are there other, oh, well, so where could folks go to learn more if they were interested in potentially signing up? Yeah, well, they can send me an email at klovingatspectrumvt.org and I can just send them the link to fill out the registration form. Klovingatspectrumvt.org, okay. What are you planning for the future? Well, one thing that I've been working on this summer is a summer workshop series that's for youth and the community ages 12 to 22 or 24. And so it's mostly middle and high school students and so I had, I did the first one last summer and had a group of seven or eight youth and we met once a week for two hours and learned about restorative justice. They were trained to be circle keepers, so people that facilitate circles and we just talked about things that they wanted to talk about and so that happened throughout last summer and then three of the students who are in the workshop last summer are now co-facilitating it with me this summer. Well, that's great. Yeah, with another group of youth that are attending and through the grant I'm able to pay the students to attend, we provide food and we incorporate arts and crafts so we'll be doing some painting while we're talking about things that are just important, like we processed the overturning of Roe v. Wade and what that means. Today we learned about LGBTQIA plus pride and representation and we've talked about school shootings and the students are the ones that come up with the topics and we just build activities and questions kind of around that, yeah. Sounds like a good way for, I don't know, kids often feel like they're unheard. It's like a space where they can talk about what's important to them without dealing with parent dynamics and that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, and I think we've done a pretty good job of creating kind of a comfortable space where everyone can ask a lot of questions that they might not be sure about what certain things mean and it's a space where you can't ask those questions and there's no judgment. It's just a space to learn and be open-minded and really just share how you're feeling, how even raw feelings are okay in this space. Have you seen a lot of interest in the youth community in the general area of restorative justice? Yeah, yeah, there have been quite a few students who have been interested and a lot of work I also do is around anti-racism work within the community which started with the Wynuski students for anti-racism and so there's a lot of overlap between restorative justice and the anti-racism work that's happening at the school district and in the community and so I think there are students that are involved in both things, which is great and one thing that we'll be doing I'm part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Action Group, which was one of the demands by the Wynuski students for anti-racism and we're kind of reaching out, looking for people who have experience with a truth and reconciliation process and could help guide us through it and so we reached out to an organization called Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth and they will hopefully be coming to Wynuski to help facilitate healing circles and a racial healing and truth-telling process with the community so we're very excited about that. Is this like broader than just like students within the school? Is it like a? Right now I think it'll be like the entire school district but it will be reaching out to caregivers and parents of students in the community. There will be circles for educators and so I think it will have an impact on the community as a whole. Yeah, it's really interesting. This is something I've heard of in South Africa after the end of apartheid and certain other countries doing truth and reconciliation and thinking of it at such a local level. It's not something that occurred to me before but these kids demanded it, right? They're smart. And I know the state legislature has been moving towards doing some sort of state level effort so it seems pretty exciting that the work you're doing with the kids here in Wynuski could actually be a framework or an example that could be followed as state level. Yeah, definitely. I reached out to Hal Colston when we first formed this group because I was doing some research and saw that this was something that would hopefully happen at the state level and he said that he hoped it would be what happens in Wynuski would be an example for the entire state and that would be great. Yeah, that's awesome. It would be great to lift up the work you're doing but also the kids who have been involved in this from the ground up. Yeah, for sure. What else would you like to share with us today? One thing that happened, I guess, a couple weeks ago. I was able to take three students, the same three students who are co-facilitating in the summer workshop with me went to Chicago for a restorative justice conference just a few weeks ago along with the city's youth interventionist Francine Bahati and we spent four days in Chicago and went to this amazing conference with so many different workshops and activities and have been thinking about ways to bring that back to Wynuski and so I'm hoping a lot of great things will come out of what we've learned and can help bring to the community. Is there any, do you have any peers? Like is anyone else doing this work beyond the role that you have with Spectrum? So I partner with a lot of different organizations like the Education Justice Coalition of Vermont, the Burlington Community Justice Center, the Burlington School District and like other community justice centers. There's a network of restorative justice involved to people in Vermont called the Vermont Restorative Approaches Collaborative and so they meet like a few times a year to check in, like see what's going on, advocate for change in the state. Yeah. Yeah, there are more than one community justice center, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot. Which is, I mean, awesome because that's partially state funded as well, so. Yes, yeah, it is. And I know our police department finds it very valuable, like it's been a real good tool working with our community, so to see that expanded, the work you're doing in the school and then directly with community members and residents, there's kind of opportunities for anyone to engage, it sounds like. Yeah, yeah, and I think one of the great parts of my job is that I work both with the city and the school so I can help kind of bridge things that are happening and be dynamic in the ways that I work so that I think it's more effective, involves more people and doesn't make it so that the school is doing things like separate from the city. Yeah, for folks who don't know, the school and the city are separate municipalities, technically, with separate leadership, separate funding and there's state rules around that as well and so sometimes it can be difficult to work as collaboratively as we would like. So a role like yours is a really good way to align what's happening and keep both sides more informed. Yeah, yeah, and with the city I work a lot with the community services department and so the library has been a really great resource and they're just so involved in the community and so I always feel like I can go to Nate and say, hey, are you interested in doing this community event and he's always up for it. He's great, I hear good things. People are pretty excited about some of the programming that's happening down there including some of the work that you're doing. Yeah, yeah. Is there anything else that you wanna share or how else could folks get involved if they're interested? Yeah, one thing that's in the works is kind of planning an allyship co-conspirator series which may be an opportunity for more privileged folks in Winooski to sit and think about how they can really work with people of marginalized identities in the city and so that's something that's keep on talking about it and don't have any concrete plans but hopefully it'll happen possibly in the fall so that could be an opportunity. That is really cool. We will definitely, I say this on behalf of the city, help push that information out. I think that's a community desire I've heard. Folks, we consider Winooski welcoming, folks consider themselves welcoming and in theory they are but a lot of people don't know how to be or how to make the connections across cultural, socioeconomic, age, whatever the differences are so that's exciting to hear about. Yeah, yeah and I think restorative justice is about building community, that's the main part of it and so really creating opportunities to get out of your comfort zone and talk to community members that someone may not normally talk to, I think is a great opportunity and one of an idea in restorative justice is doing things with and not to or for people and so really thinking through what does it mean to do things with people is really something that we wanna explore. That's very well said, something that we've been talking about in city services for a while and not always able to figure out how to do or meet that but it's definitely an important thing to consider. Yeah and I think it's really difficult and it takes a lot of time and it's really messy, there's gonna be conflict involved and it's really important and can help people feel valued in the community. Yeah, which we want everyone to feel. Yes. Everyone is a part of the community who is living here, working here, coming here, involved in any way. Did we miss any of your slides here? I'm not sure. Yeah. Well, I will say that just to reiterate, we have this slide up here about the series that you're working on now. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Yeah and we do hope to continue doing workshops like this and so even if these dates don't work for you now but you're really interested in joining these workshops, like anyone can join them and will probably be planning another series in the fall. So yeah, there will be other opportunities. We really wanna provide space for people to learn and think through ways of building a better community and just being in relationship with people. Yeah. You can also visit the city website. So when you skivt.gov, this is awful, this URL. There is a page for community justice services so if folks are interested in getting involved in the restorative justice panel or the, so I believe on the website it's called Circles of Support and Accountability, the circles that you're talking about. There's space on there to find more information, volunteer if you want. We partner with Essex on that side of the work at this point. Yeah and you'll also see updates from me in the Winooski newsletter each month which will be updates about the anti-racism work happening as well as restorative justice work that's happening in the community. That's great, yes. And if you didn't know, the Winooski newsletter that gets delivered to every mailbox in the city contains both school and city information and community. So there's, it's sort of like our local newspaper as close as we get. So it's not just a school newsletter anymore. There's information that could be relevant to anyone in the city. Yeah and if you are interested in getting involved in the anti-racism work, there are opportunities to join. There are six action demand groups and so there's a racial truth and reconciliation, hiring and retaining teachers of color. There is building an ethnic studies program, setting up civil rights workshops, looking at the equity audit and that'll be, that action group is focused I think mostly on the school and how to address the things that came up in the equity audit and then there's one more, which is slipping my mind right now. But you can find the information about it on there's an equity and anti-racism website that is on the school website. So you can find information about the Manuski students for anti-racism demands and the work that is happening with them. Yeah, there's like a tab near the top somewhere. I've seen it on the school website. Yeah, we had this equity audit, the school and city both completed several months ago now and we've been talking about a little bit the city now that we've finally onboarded a city manager, how are we gonna move that work forward, which is something we need to discuss with school as well and see where we have overlap and should be working together on that. So I'm excited to hear that you're potentially involved in that too. Yes, yes I am. All right, we're nearing the end of our time. Is there anything else that you would like to share? I think another big partner in the work has been up for learning who focuses on like youth adult partnership and bringing youth voice into communities and schools, schools especially. And so they are really helping facilitate the anti-racism steering committee. Oh, great. Yeah, so they're a great resource as well. I wasn't aware of that. There's so many organizations. I know, great that's what I heard about, yeah. Well thank you so much for coming in and sharing with us today about restorative justice, deeply about that and then all the other great work that you are doing. Again, if anyone is looking for more information, are you loving at? SpectrumVT.org. Yeah, so if you don't remember all the other websites we mentioned, you can email contact Kayla that way. Thank you so much for your time. And thank you folks for tuning in for another episode of In the World of Winooski. Thanks.