In this episode, we hear from the founder of The Circle Keepers, Martin Urbach, and three youth keepers, centering their voices and ideas about restorative practices, how to build unity across divides, and more.

RJOTR believes strongly in this program and was deeply honored to host this very special episode that you won't want to miss. Listen in now to hear how youth -- directly from their voices and lived experiences -- are advocating and practicing on-the-ground!

The Circle Keepers started in 2017 as a volunteer-run after school program for high school students to learn restorative justice practices such as peer mediation protocols, conflict resolution circles and community building activities as well as to hone their leadership skills, engage in political education, civic participation and produce community service/social justice projects and thus, create change in their school and in their neighborhoods.?

100% of student participants surveyed report that The Circle Keepers program made their school experience more meaningful

Started youth-led restorative justice cohorts in 8 different public schools, across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx.

Helped reduce suspensions by 95% at one Manhattan borough school in District 2 in the span of 4 years (2019-2023)

Testified for City Council to successfully restore over $32M of funding cuts towards restorative justice justice programming in NYC Public Schools from 2022-2024.

Developed a comprehensive Restorative Justice Curriculum for grades 6-8 and grades 9-12, currently offered as semester long electives in a D2 and a D15 school.

Trained over 1000 students as restorative justice peer mediators,

Trained over 100 NYC Public School staff in school based restorative justice practices.

Traveled to Austin, TX to present a sold-out workshop at the SXSWedu 2023 conference of over 100 guests.

Traveled to Washington, DC to meet with Leader Charles Schumer to learn about federal policy and  explored the National Museum of African American History and Culture to develop a stronger sense of Black epistemologies and ontologies.

Produced a “Green New Deal for Public Schools” roundtable with Congressman Jamaal Bowman at Sarah Lawrence College.

Produced youth led conference for 250+ NYC youth, rooted on the theme of “peace and justice”, bringing together 50+ stakeholders, including youth development organizations, city agencies, elected officials and even private businesses donating food and supplies!?

HOSTED BY: Founder & Executive Producer Molly Rowan Leach (she/her), and Social Media and Marketing Manager Logan Ward (he/him), who is also an accomplished Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker (Remarkable, 2024)

ABOUT MOLLY: https://restorativejusticeontherise.org/about-us/host-executive-producer/

Molly’s writing: https://medium.com/@mollyleach

ABOUT LOGAN: https://www.loganward.net/about

Logan’s portfolio: https://www.loganward.net/

ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ON THE RISE

This webinar was recorded on May 9th, 2025.

In this episode, social anthropologist and experienced mediator Deborah Heifetz will explore her groundbreaking Map to Compassion — a non-hierarchical framework recently published in MIT’s Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change. She will guide us in understanding how we can sustain curiosity in environments dominated by fear and distrust. Drawing on over 30 years of global peacebuilding experience and somatic education, Heifetz illuminates how our developmental needs, culture, and tribal affiliations shape our emotional responses. Her emphasis on fairness over punitive justice aligns with Restorative Justice principles, inviting inquiry through the question: “What can be done to feel fairly treated?” This focus on fairness elicits deeper, more feelingful inquiries and reveals choices that support repair with the intent on rebuilding relationships and communities. Over many years, Heifetz has worked at the nexus of inner and outer peace. In this webinar, she will offer compassionate approaches to conflict resolution, providing practical tools for balancing emotionally charged needs during challenging times.

ABOUT DEBORAH:

Deborah Heifetz (she/her) is a social anthropologist, mediator, and professional facilitator with over 30 years of experience in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and somatic education. She developed the systems-based model – the Human Needs Map, a circular matrix representing the interconnections between human needs at different levels of scale and reflecting the synergies and tensions between needs. Her model has been considered a breakthrough framework by founders of Human Needs Theory for its non-hierarchical approach to human needs and for the way human needs and emotions are tied to human development. A co-founder of BraveHearts International, she has worked globally in mediation, sustainability, and leadership training, integrating movement-based and somatic practices like Laban Movement Analysis and Somatic Experiencing with her knowledge and sensitivity for culture and community building. A Chevening Scholar, she recently published The Map to Compassion in MIT’s Journal for Awareness-Based Systems Change.  Heifetz works at the nexus of inner and outer peace.

Website: https://heifetzmatrix.com/

HOSTED BY: Founder & Executive Producer Molly Rowan Leach (she/her), and Social Media and Marketing Manager Logan Ward (he/him).

ABOUT MOLLY: https://restorativejusticeontherise.org/about-us/host-executive-producer/

Molly’s writing: https://medium.com/@mollyleach

ABOUT LOGAN: https://www.loganward.net/about

Logan’s portfolio: https://www.loganward.net/

ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ON THE RISE

Author (Being Restorative, April 2024) and restorative practitioner Leaf Seligman invites us to the tenderness of humility, listening, and towards the values and principles that unite us as a humanity, as we face intense and urgent polarization and violence in our world. Our host Jabali Stewart of Huayruro, himself a martial artist of nonviolence and unification, weaves us in conversation to implore deepening inquiry into what this thing we call ‘restorative’ really is, how it makes its way into the world, and how it ameliorates connection and context. 

Tenderness is often considered weak or scary, and yet it is itself a revolutionary act. Leaf’s work within prisons and communities, as well as her personal experiences as a partially sight-impaired person, illuminate the “lens” and approach to this work that grounds individuals much beyond the field of restorative justice, in times of great upheaval and disconnection. Tenderness is a powerful bridge that acknowledges the other, that asks also of accountability of self first, and of others, yet from an understanding of our global interrelationship as a baseline for life, and life well lived. And alongside her perspective, we keep in mind the indigenous of our world who came long before this movement, knowing we are related to all life, humans and animals, trees, waters, skies, and cosmos. With this there is honor in having responsibility to all. This awareness is welcomed throughout our dialogue.

Oftentimes it is easy to misunderstand restorative as only relating to conflict and the modern justice systems in our world, yet it is a much larger scope of practices that center our common humanity and ask us to hear from one another in ways that build or rebuild, reshaping trust and meaning, offering powerful and sustaining agency for change on every level imagined.

ABOUT

Leaf Seligman

Leaf Seligman is the author of Being Restorative which was published in April 2024 and is available from the publisher, Bauhan Publishing, and online retailers. Leaf considers herself a daughter of the trees, grateful to live in Maple Nation and be close enough to spend time among beloved copper beeches. She has taught in colleges, prisons, and community settings since 1985. As a restorative practitioner, Leaf draws on her experience as a jail chaplain, prisoner educator, congregational minister, college instructor, and human being. She facilitates peacekeeping circles, immersive learning experiences, and restorative processes of accountability, healing, and transformation. Leaf delights in bringing tenderness everywhere. Her previous books include Opening the Window: Sabbath Meditations, A Pocket Book of Prompts, and From the Midway: Unfolding Stories of Redemption and Belonging. She lives in New Hampshire.

Jabali Stewart

Jabali is an organizational consultant, a leadership coach, a public speaker, a youth worker, and a circle keeper. He has kept Peacemaking Circles in schools (K through College), businesses, families, government, and community settings. He has trained in and practices the lineage of Circle Keeping connected to Mark Wedge, Kay Pranis, Barry Stuart and Tahnaga Myers for over a decade. Besides Circle, he also practices other Art of Hosting and Participatory Leadership modalities. Jabali is a former independent school administrator, a public speaker, and has also cultivated a practice of one-on-one counsel. He enjoys collaborative problem-solving, and his work is deeply informed by his belief and practice of sensible, love-based leadership.

Find Jabali on Linkedin

ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ON THE RISE

>>>We need your help! Support 15 Years of Global Independent Restorative Media Efforts Now

This episode features Dr. Tema Okun who gives us a brief rundown of the characteristics of White Supremacy Culture, which can be understood in-depth on her website: www.whitesupremacyculture.info

Dr. Tema Okun offers her knowledge of relationships that people may have with White Supremacy Culture as well as suggestions to dismantle this broken system. We welcome listeners to step outside of thinking that these systems are working for us in any shape or form. 

The live webinar was recorded on January 23rd, 2025 and it is hosted by Molly Rowan Leach, founder of RJotR, and Logan Ward, Restorative Justice on the Rise’s new Social Media Manager. 

Logan then relates a statement from the website to his recently released documentary, Remarkable, Voices from the Trans Community, which covers the similar topic of objectivity’s irrelevance when in dialogue with oppressed (marked) and non-oppressed (unmarked) groups. 

Logan’s film can be found on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PpjhMnVsFk

And the subsequent discussion space can both be found on his website: https://www.loganward.net/film

Key notes from this episode:

Dr. Tema Okun recommends that if we are going to engage in restorative justice work we need a:

The instructions from Tema’s mother are:

ABOUT

Tema Okun

Dr. Okun has spent over 40 years working with and for organizations, schools, and community-based institutions as an educator, facilitator, and coach focused on issues of racial justice and equity. She currently facilitates, consults, mentors, and offers talks for and with leaders and organizations locally and nationwide.

She is the author of the award-winning The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race and Racism to People Who Don’t Want to Know (2010, IAP) and the widely used article White Supremacy Culture. She has published a revised version of this article on an extended and expanded website at www.whitesupremacyculture.info.

Tema is a fierce Jewish advocate for Palestine solidarity as a member of the Triangle Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. She is on the board of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and belongs to the Bhumisphara Sangha under the leadership of Lama Rod Owens. She is a graduate of the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute. She is an artist, a poet, and a writer. She lives in Durham NC where she is fortunate to reside among beloved community. Her current project is deepening her ability to love her neighbor as herself. She is finding the instruction easy and the follow through challenging, given how we live in a culture that is afraid to help us do either or both.

Reach her on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tema-okun-0a14311a1 

Logan Ward

Logan Ward (he/him) is an illustrator, writer, and filmmaker who values dialogue, challenging societal norms, and mutual respect. He graduated with a master’s in Media Design in August 2024, where he studied community-centered and participatory approaches to research and design.

Reach him on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/logan-ward-860620218/ 

Check out his illustrations on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/l.ward.draws/

And also on his website: https://www.loganward.net/

ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ON THE RISE

>>>We need your help! Support 15 Years of Global Independent Restorative Media Efforts Now

**Disclaimer** Audio was recorded with limited resources, please listen with good headphones to properly hear the valuable information in this episode.

recorded at Expanding Restorative Justice in Oregon in 2021. 

In 2021, the Criminal Justice Commission created rules regarding the administration of the Restorative Justice Grant Program. Those rules require applicants to propose community based restorative justice programs that serve as alternatives to prosecution. This requirement is in alignment with best practices from across the country that speak to the importance of community held restorative justice programs.

This panel discussion will explore the importance of keeping restorative justice programs based in community and separate from the criminal legal process. Panelists will provide background on their experiences with community based restorative justice programs and will speak to the critical differences between the restorative and punitive approaches to harm.

ABOUT PANELISTS:

Shaylie Pickrell (She/they)

Restorative Justice Facilitator, Office Manager, Equity-Informed Mediator and Co-Founder of Restorative Roots Project

[email protected]

Danielle DeCant

Deputy District Attorney in Hood River County

Member of Circles of Peace Advisory Team in the Columbia River Gorge

[email protected]

Debra Pennington-Davis

Circles of Peace Program/Six Rivers Dispute Resolution Center

Restorative Justice Coordinator

[email protected]

Laura Diamond (She/her)

Conflict Artistry LLC

Co-owner, Coordinator, Facilitator

[email protected]

Emily B. Naylor

Emerging Adult Program / Community Solutions of Central Oregon

Restorative Justice Specialist & Lead Facilitator

[email protected]

In Partnership with:

Restorative Justice Coalition of Oregon

RJCO is a coalition of Oregon restorative justice practitioners and programs.

We promote and support the implementation and practice of restorative justice principles and models in Oregon’s justice, law enforcement, educational and other community institutions.

http://rjoregon.org 

ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ON THE RISE

with Shaylie Pickrell

Director of Operations & Infrastructure, RJ Facilitator - Restorative Roots Project (PDX, OR, USA)

In this 1:15h episode, we drop deeply into the concept that our greatest losses might just be our greatest powers to serve our communities, and our world.

We explore key topics such as:

ABOUT SHAYLIE:

Shaylie Pickrell (She/They) has a Bachelor's degree in Forensic Psychology from Western Oregon University (WOU). While at school, Shaylie worked for the Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention grant with the Research Institute at WOU. Additionally, she was a Victim's Advocate at the Marion County District Attorney's office. After graduation, Shaylie went on to work for Hope Partnership/Janus Youth Programs at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility. She is a Certified Equity-Informed Mediator in the state of Oregon. She is now a Restorative Justice Facilitator for Restorative Roots Project which she helped turn into its own non-profit. She has a passion for art and hopes to incorporate that talent into the Restorative Justice process. Shaylie also cares deeply about helping to give voice to youth and others impacted by the carceral system.

[email protected]

ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ON THE RISE

For anyone questioning the viability of restorative justice as an alternative to violent crime prosecution, here's your evidence. Join us for a conversation that is inspiring and informative.

ABOUT TRISTEN:

Tristen Edwards is an attorney at Metropolitan Public Defender, where she represents

ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ON THE RISE

Joe and Marg hit the ground running in their typical fun, informative style that has won the hearts and minds of thousands worldwide, sharing potent insights as they discuss the birth of their new book, and the reasons for its existence.

Tune in to hear all about the following key points and more:

Behavior development not behavior management

...and much more

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Maybe you have heard the terms 'trauma-informed' and 'restorative' - but how do you go about becoming a trauma-informed, restorative educator?

This practical book outlines the values, ideas and neuroscience behind trauma-informed restorative practice and its proven effectiveness. It clearly explains key theories relating to shame, trauma and your autonomic nervous system, and explains how to apply this knowledge in practice. Examples and stories of restorative practice feature throughout to inspire and emulate, as do practical protocols, tools and systems to develop your skills as a trauma-informed educator. Critically, it also explains the personal and professional qualities you need to nurture to truly engage in trauma-informed, restorative practice, with reflection points to aid learning and self-development.

Read this book and take your first steps to creating a trauma-informed, restorative classroom - even if your school isn't doing it!

ABOUT RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ON THE RISE

The world's first restorative justice podcast and public lives platform, since 2011

The Redemption Project Discussion Series in alliance with Van Jones & REFORM/CNN

This feature panel discussion is in collaboration with the Restorative Rainbow Alliance, Restorative Justice on The Rise, and Director and Producer Logan Ward to uplift the incredible film: Remarkable: Voices From The Trans Community. {Watch Now}

In this conversation we get to hear from trans man and creator of the film, Logan Ward, as well as a major voice in the film, Hami Samba, who both share about the comfort they found in being able to tell their own narratives. Logan's film illustrates distrust towards the trans community and proposes that community-centered and participatory practices could assist in rebuilding that trust.

All of these ideas are discussed, and the RRA's restorative justice and queer lens helps us consider these ideas within context.

In addition, we want to highlight the RRA's code of conduct, and their overall efforts, within the restorative justice field.

Please let us know if you'd like to contact any/all of our panelists for possible engagement in your community! To contact Logan Ward directly, click here

Length: 1:12

REMARKABLE on Insta: www.instagram.com/remarkablefilm

Restorative Rainbow Alliance: https://www.restorativerainbowalliance.org

***

Restorative Justice on The Rise is the very first live and standard podcast since 2011 focusing on Restorative Justice and Peacebuilding, from the personal to collective, demonstrating powerful stories, cases, and insights from a robust range of diverse voices, and reaching every continent in our world. We can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and our collaboration for this podcast episode is a result of our Fellowship status with the Salzburg Global Media Academy, a program forging critical pathways forward in the age of AI.

Paul Mihailidis is a professor of civic media and journalism and assistant dean in the school of communication at Emerson College in Boston, MA, where he teaches media literacy, civic media, and community activism. He is founding program director of the MA in Media Design, Senior Fellow of the Emerson Engagement Lab, and faculty chair and director of the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Scientific American, Slate Magazine, the Nieman Foundation, USA Today, Newsweek, CNN, and others. Mihailidis holds a visiting professorship at Bournemouth University in England and the Catholic University of Argentina, Buenos Aires.

Length: 44m

Salzburg Global Seminar Website: www.salzburgglobal.org

Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change: https://www.salzburgglobal.org/multi-year-series/media-academy

***

Restorative Justice on The Rise is the very first live and standard podcast since 2011 focusing on Restorative Justice and Peacebuilding, from the personal to collective, demonstrating powerful stories, cases, and insights from a robust range of diverse voices, and reaching every continent in our world. We can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and our collaboration for this podcast episode is a result of our Fellowship status with the Salzburg Global Media Academy, a program forging critical pathways forward in the age of AI.