How the Circle Keepers Promote Peace & Justice
“Restorative justice is changing how you move after you have the initial reactions to whatever situation was happening. It gives you the chance to really communicate effectively rather than the argumentative ways people normally resort to when they’re upset,” said Ryan Clayton, a former Harvest Collegiate High School student and a current Humanities & Social Sciences Scholar at Howard University.
Ryan is a Circle Keeper, a justice-focused youth leader who builds community, facilitates mediations and “fairnesses”, and educates about restorative practices at Harvest and city-wide. For example, Harvest saw a spike in hallway issues, and The Circle Keepers surveyed students and analyzed the qualitative data, working with their peers directly to resolve the hallway challenges.
Beyond the walls of Harvest, The Circle Keepers advocate for Restorative Justice city-wide, collaborating with other justice-focused youth.
In May of 2024, they joined with Boerum Hill School for International Studies Peer Mediator Circle Keepers and testified to City Council in favor of funding Restorative Justice, which they helped to win.
They present at conferences, speak on panels, and host their own podcast and YouTube channel exploring topics like addressing homophobia and facilitating fairness mediations. In 2023 they conducted a sold-out workshop at SXSW.
“We try to restore and repair the harm done. So instead of using punitive justice that leads to the school to prison pipeline, we try to decrease that and just have students change for the better” said junior Ness Obad.
I have pride in being able to communicate properly with my friends.
The Circle Keepers hosted the inaugural #2024peaceandjusticeconference in May at Boerum Hill School for International Studies.
Forty-six NYC schools represented with 195 youth and 45 adult allies. It was a joyful day of community building games, youth-led social justice workshop presentations, artistic performances and youth participatory action research based on themes of “peace, justice, safety and belonging”.
Martin Urbach is a Crew Advisor and founder of The Circle Keepers. He views Crew advisory as a space where students learn to “share about themselves in a safe/brave space, listen to the voices of others, and ultimately learn how to speak up for issues that they care about.”
Pairing The Circle Keepers model of youth-led restorative justice with Crew advisory’s framework for community building strengthens both entities.
“We have to transform the miseducation and the constant anti-youth oppression that our Black, brown, queer, disabled, immigrant, poor working-class youth have experienced since Pre-K until the time that we got them in the 9th or 10th grade,” said Martin. “And that takes time. And I view advisory as where that happens.”
Harvest Collegiate partners with NYC Outward Bound Schools through the Crew Initiative. Learn more about this work and how to get involved.
Get in touch with The Circle Keepers:
www.thecirclekeepers.com
[email protected]
@thecirclekeepers
Help the Circle Keepers Get to SXSW!
The Circle Keepers submitted a #SXSWEDU youth-led session for 2024 titled, “Whose Voice? Our Voice!” a workshop highlighting youth’s lived experiences of peace, justice, safety and belonging. The deadline to vote is Sunday, August 18.