Peacemaking Circles and Urban Youth

Peacemaking Circles and Urban Youth: Bringing Justice Home, by Dr. Carolyn Boyes-Watson (the director of the Center for Restorative Justice at Suffolk University) explores how the Circle process is being used by a remarkably innovative youth center outside Boston. Nearly twenty years in operation, Roca, Inc., works with immigrant, gang, and street youth. Using Circles extensively not only with youth but also with the families and community as well as throughout the organization is integral to Roca''s effectiveness. "Peacemaking Circles and Urban Youth" tells a compelling and inspiring story for any organization or person who works with young people, particularly troubled youth who desperately need community-based support to change the trajectory of their lives.


Peacemaking Circles and Urban Youth illustrates the power of Circles in a unique environment. It tells the story of a youth development program, known as ROCA, that serves high risk young people in one of the most dense, impoverished, ethnically diverse and troubled communities in the U.S. Roca uses Circles as an essential, democratic, decision-making process as well as a respectful and powerful way of communicating. At Roca, Circles are a way of being, grounded in a restorative justice and youth development philosophy and practice. They are aimed ultimately at building new communities [in the sense of MLK s Beloved Community ] both inside the Roca community and in Chelsea neighborhoods. Peacemaking Circles and Urban Youth suggests how Circles could transform communities broadly including schools, neighborhoods, residential facilities, and, as Boyes-Watson shows, even the social services systems charged with assisting them. --Gordon Bazemore, Author of Juvenile Justice Reform and Restorative Justice and Restorative Juvenile Justice and chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University


"This story of the application of Circle process and restorative principles to a youth serving organization provides an excellent example of what you do after you find a talking piece. By adding the Circle process to their best youth development practices, Roca started making community, not just connecting to it. Roca's story has insights for schools, adult serving agencies, businesses, block clubs, and the faith community. Carolyn tells this story with the eye of a participant: each observation and each anecdote is as fresh as last night's Circle."


Nancy Riestenberg, Prevention specialist, Minnesota School Safety Center/Minnesota Department of Education