 Stories are important in restorative justice and what we do but the reason why they're so important is because they're so powerful. Coming into LCJP last year as a complete novice to restorative justice not really knowing to the full extent what that meant or how to embody it. The way that I found myself to be a productive member of the team was through the storytelling of my co-workers they would share the stories of people that had come in into the program and how they developed and how their journey changed because of them coming to the program and that's incredibly important that's how I learned and I think that's an incredible tool for everybody to learn is through storytelling. I think about this saying like hurt people hurt people right you hear that all the time and it's true in that when harm is done and there's a lack of repair there then that's a learning experience right you learn that this happens this doesn't get repaired and then that creates in some cases a cycle of repeating that because you learn that maybe that behavior is normal maybe it doesn't warrant repair or a response maybe you're holding feelings of resentment that you didn't receive healing so that other people don't deserve healing or that you know I'm hurting in this way and that's normal for my experience so it's not a big deal if I create that harm for other people whatever that looks like but yeah when we don't experience repair when we don't experience healing that is going to create attention it's going to create a scar an open wound that is going to stick with us and present itself in whatever way that looks like until it does we do find whatever that healing or repair looks like. Community restorative justice lets us redefine what justice means by shifting the focus from punishment to healing restoration and reconciliation.