Community Council for Incarcerated Youth
In partnership with California Conference for Equality and Justice, Center for Council is currently launching a Community Council program for youth and staff at local detention camps for youth offenders.
The program is intended to help build trust between youth and staff, manage stress and reactivity, improve communication and self-awareness, and build a healthy, positive, and resilient staff/dorm culture in support of positive youth rehabilitative outcomes.
CCEJ brings additional program resources grounded in restorative justice principles, as a conflict resolution model and community building tool. The methodology offers those impacted by crime a process for meeting together, sharing stories and taking responsibility for collateral harm caused, and provides support for an emergent vision and agreements around what meaningful justice looks. This initiates a process for healing damaged relationships and restoring healthy connections between participants.
This collaborative pilot program is intended to support a continued culture shift at the camps, engaging staff, as well as youth, improving wellness and promoting restorative practice methods for reducing conflict. Youth will also be encouraged to utilize the tools learned to support successful reintegration after their sentence has been completed, through community-based programs and services offered by CCEJ and its partners in the neighborhoods to which they return.
The intention is for this to be the first in a series of collaborations supporting wellbeing and restorative practices throughout the County's many youth detention facilities.
The intention is for this to be the first in a series of collaborations supporting wellbeing and restorative practices throughout the County's many youth detention facilities.
