Sandie is joined by Steve Kim, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Project Kinship, an organization that provides services, healing, and hope to individuals who have been affected by incarceration, gangs, or violence. Steve Kim discusses what is restorative justice and their work in the Orange County collaborative courts.

Steven Kim is the Co-Founder of Project Kinship where he serves individuals impacted by gangs and incarceration, with the aim to successfully re-integrate them back into the workforce, schools, and community. His dedication to breaking cycles of incarceration, gang membership, and community violence stems from over 15 years of working with traumatized and abandoned youth throughout Orange County.

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 284 Restorative Justice, with Steve Kim and Project Kinship.

Production Credits [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:29] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:35] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Today, we’re so glad to welcome the executive director and co-founder of Project Kinship, Steve Kim. Steve is the co-founder of Project Kinship, where he serves individuals impacted by gangs and incarceration with the aim to successfully reintegrate them back into the workforce, schools and community. His dedication to breaking cycles of incarceration, gang membership and community violence stems from over 15 years of working with traumatized and abandoned youth throughout Orange County. Steve, welcome to the podcast.

Steve [00:01:17] Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Sandie [00:01:19] I saw Steve really recently at our Priceless annual event where he accepted the Outstanding Nonprofit Diamond Award for Project Kinship. And our Diamond Awards are not just about we want to give somebody an award, but we want our community to see people doing this work well. And Project Kinship has done such an excellent job. We’ve been partners with our Live2Free student. They are part of our community. Steve often speaks at Ensure Justice and we’ll put some links in case you want to hear more from him in the show notes. But we especially value the achievements of Project Kinship in our schools and in our community. And I want to start our conversation with a quote from you, Steve. You said about Project Kinship, “the heartbeat of Project Kinship holds compassion and inclusion. It is a place where hope lives and people are reminded they are not a mistake. Something powerful happens as this truth is embraced and people feel their worth.” I’m curious, when you co-founded Project Kinship, did you have such a succinct idea of the vision for Project Kinship?

Steve [00:03:04] I did, Sandie. I think I wasn’t able to articulate it in such words at that time, but I think what I realized is for many years, carrying the heavy weight of shame, being multiple marginalized, and then being with folks in the community who carry similar burdens. And so I think carrying that for so much of my life and then seeing other folks in the community who’ve also carried encounters, the challenges I think I’ve lived with it. And then when Project Kinship started, give an opportunity to birth and to life an opportunity to heal together. And so we looked at Father Greg and Homeboy Industries, and they’re our mentors and our heroes that pioneered this work before us. And the way Father Greg and everybody at Homeboys is to carry the heartbeat of kinship, love and compassion gave us language and gave us a visual on how to do the work. And so I think over the years, we’ve found the language to wrap around our pain and our healing.

Sandie [00:04:11] So not all o...