We are kicking off our podcast series by considering the fabric of restorative justice through the framework of responsibility, accountability, and supporting a shift in the adult mindset in D.C. schools. Yazid and Mama Ivy discuss their restorative justice roots and their philosophy for implementing this work in schools.
Featuring: Yazid Jackson, RestorativeDC Director, SchoolTalk; Dr. Ivy Hylton, President & CEO, Youth & Families in Crisis
Thanks and Attributions: “Circle Poem” by William Tweed Kennedy. Reflection quote from Peacemaking Circles by Kay Pranis, Mark Wedge, and Barry Stuart. Special thanks to Inaam Avant for getting us started.
Resources: Transcript (pdf) | Introduction to Restorative Practices (video) | Core Processes of Restorative Justice Circles (video)
Series Credits
We are kicking off our podcast series by considering the fabric of restorative justice through the framework of responsibility, accountability, and supporting a shift in the adult mindset in D.C. schools. Yazid and Mama Ivy discuss their restorative justice roots and their philosophy for implementing this work in schools.
Featuring: Yazid Jackson, RestorativeDC Director, SchoolTalk; Dr. Ivy Hylton, President & CEO, Youth & Families in Crisis
Thanks and Attributions: “Circle Poem” by William Tweed Kennedy. Reflection quote from Peacemaking Circles by Kay Pranis, Mark Wedge, and Barry Stuart. Special thanks to Inaam Avant for getting us started.
Resources: Transcript (pdf) | Introduction to Restorative Practices (video) | Core Processes of Restorative Justice Circles (video)
Series Credits
Circle Up DC We are excited to really speak about accountability and the responsibility of RJ practitioners in the city of DC today I will be facilitating today's podcast along with Dr Ivy Hylton who is the president and CEO of Youth and families in crisis and also lead facilitator and trainer for the training institute for restorative justice so we'll start off with some introductions so Avi um and or Dr Ivy would you like to introduce yourself yes and I am affectionately known as Mama Ivy so call me Mama Ivy I got that name while working in the public school system and Baba Baba Saleem and I we accepted it and now we've become the mama and The Barbers and so I really am very pleased and extremely honored very happy to be here this morning I want to thank you so much for this powerful podcast and I cannot wait until we get started and so my name is Yazi Jackson I am the program manager for Sword of Justice and school talk um this is my second year into my second year of managing this project formerly DCPS employee prior to that did a lot of work in um turn around schools in Philadelphia it had an opportunity to kind of work in different places in the country so we are excited to get today started off we have a a heavy a heavy agenda and some questions and some things we want to take a deeper dive in especially with the current climate of DC and the forge of this work moving through the city so I just want to like start and talk about tell a highlight of this year for you like what has been a highlight for you with everything that you have going on wow well you know the Highlight for me is the Awakening of the spirit within the city to acknowledge and see the value and the significance of what restorative justice is I have been doing it now almost 20 years in the city and much of that time my husband and I have been doing it pretty much solo working our ways through various communities in the city in the public housing in the schools system and the juvenile justice system and in the adult system doing this work before anyone really understood what it was that we were doing they just knew we we need what it is that you're bringing so to me the Highlight now is the emergence of the the value of what restorative justice can bring and my work primarily has been around making sure that we're teaching the Fidelity of the model and supporting community members on ways of how to do this this work and to do it as effectively as possible and I've started focusing on what I'm calling Soul keepers of the circle because if we can reach one another at the Heart level that's when we're going to find the most success when we're ready to open to truth so that is pretty much what I've been doing that sounds amazing and you know some things that kind of jumped out to me was and some of the things that we're going to take a deeper dive in a little bit later um I just want to highlight kind of two things that you said which were the Fidelity of the practice why is that important to you and why is that important to our restorative justice community the Fidelity of this work is important to me because there are so many narratives that are out there that are saying um in opposition of what restorative justice really is all about and if you're not really practicing it in its fullest nature then it it won't work so teaching the Fidelity of this practice is critical to the longevity of the practice and so that that kind of brings up a lot in the in that last statement what's been what's been your focus for this year in terms of the work that you've been doing things have changed in the city things have shifted from a systemic level things have shifted from demographics and who we serve how we serve how we support so what has been the focus for you this year and has it shifted from previous years well it is beginning to shift the level of enthusiasm has certainly shifted um for me the work is now around taking the practice to a more advanced level for those that are ready um that seems to be what I'm being called to where there are lots of incidents that are going on in the community and in various schools and not only that within the criminal and the Juvenile Justice System where these complex issues come up where it's sort of challenging for people who are not looking through a restorative lens but want to and they want to find out how to address certain situations from a in a restorative way so I'm being called to come and assess consult support evaluate and and integrate some of the traditional practices with the restorative mind so trying to help individuals shift the Consciousness from punitive to a restorative practice is what seems to be my calling right now and so I like I like how you're saying being called and for me that can mean a lot of different things for the audience it can be literally a phone call if you uh Are Spiritual it could be a different calling so I just want you to like kind of bookmark the being called part and kind of elevate that okay well I think it's a combination of both I am being called in a way that you can say cell phone call me up on the cell phone but the calling that I'm speaking to more of is the spiritual calling of my soul Destiny of My Soul Purpose why I believe that I'm here is to address trauma to empower emotional healing and to restore relationships and I'm looking at my own relationships in that way so the first calling that I'm talking about is the calling the yearning within my own heart within my own soul to restore relationships that are around me and allowing that to spread into the work that I do to encourage individuals to restore love and healing amongst one another and so you mentioned self what is needed from you and self-discovery self-awareness any level of exploration of self what type of Journey and I kind of know a little bit about this backstory a little bit so I'm I'm biased and kind of looking ahead but what type of Journey have you taken personally um to really get you to a place where you can actually listen to the call so this goes back to a little story that I'm going to share on Friday is that okay for me to talk about sure because we're going to air this after Friday okay so I am a graduate of DC public schools my mother is a retired D.C public school teacher and I I witnessed her go through a lot of trauma as a child growing up just trying to teach in the classroom and so I don't know whether how that may have um inspired me to want to support and and guide and heal in my professional career but it sort of started there and then as a child I was in the fourth grade I was a bully child before bullying was a big thing I just knew I was being chased every day that I was trying to avoid fights I would set myself up so that I could run home and it was really um I was just a bully child for different reasons and one day I just came up with this brilliant idea that they needed love they were harming me because they didn't have anyone that loved them the way my parents loved me the way that they've sent me to school fully prepared clothed well you know I had Transportation um back and forth I was a well guarded and protected child and a lot of the children didn't like that or they not necessarily didn't like it they didn't understand it that why didn't they have that and so I came up with this idea that I could give them some love but how could I do that I was going to create a love potient so I went to my grandma's house and I took all of her extracts that she used for making cakes and things and I was going to brew up this love potion and then I realized wow how am I going to inject this love in to the heart and soul and mind of my friends I said oh I went to my grandmother's sewing kit and I got the biggest sewing needle that I could find and then I thought okay when I got to school I would just pour the the potions onto my friends and stick them with the pen and it therefore would go into their body so as a result of that I got in trouble and I got in big trouble to the point where I had to leave the school with my mommy and my daddy later on I realized that what if restorative justice had been there not once did any of them ask me why if they had asked me why then we would have found out then we could have worked it out then that would have changed my entire emotional makeup I would have never been afraid in Social environments you know it just goes on and on and on what our childhood experiences are as as an adult fast forwarding I have personally experienced the criminal justice system with my son who right now we've been waiting 15 years in the Georgia prisons prison system to just be called back to court to reverse an illegal plea and I realized okay I was about to be set up for the school to the prison pipeline but somehow I was able to avert it but then I realized that I'm a Survivor of that with my own child and that if I could do something to try to prevent and avoid that for someone else then I'm going to be fully committed to that so this is really what I think my motivation comes from and so you you say something um and you talk about you know your childhood experience about um the magical potion and this is something I'm going to elevate Friday at the conference as well in terms of my session a lot of times RJ's looked as being this magical potion or this pill that schools or organizations or government agencies kind of Taken then there's healing for all and it becomes like a fairy tale Assumption of what the work is can you speak a little bit and and when I'm pushing you towards is a little bit of the assumptions of RJ as being this magical potion that you try to concoct as a child so what it really is in terms of the work the time the intentionality um the proactive processes sometimes the responsive processes like what about the practice in the process makes it magical if there is any magic to it at all well that's a really good question because there are some assumptions that restorative justice is supposed to make a major shift the the thing that's missing I think is that people don't realize that restorative justice is not something to do it is something to be you need to be a restorative heart you need to be a restorative mind you have to have restorative intentions in order for this practice in this process to work I believe just like making a cake you can have all of the ingredients I could have the exact same ingredients that you have and we can put it all together but it may not come out the same so there's no real magic in this it has to do with your own level of emotionality how do you put your energy into the intention of creating healing creating connectedness creating inclusivity I believe that restorative justice works because at the core of the values of it or is love and so we're making an assumption that everyone that is trying to practice restorative justice also has the capacity for love and perhaps we need to learn that first and that really explains a lot like even in my journey you know currently you know working with predominantly the the DC schools DC uh DCPS and the public charter schools which seems to be missing a lot is um they're looking for something to do without changing their Outlook they're waiting yeah the way like they're they're not that's the part that they don't actually want to do and that becomes where most of the work is needed and you know for myself and our team we're really seeing that as being one of the biggest issues but one of the biggest the bigger shifts um in terms of challenges and you know moving schools from a punitive to a to a restorative school or have restorative processes because they're just constantly looking for something to do yeah um historically DC has had a lot of things to do and so there's programs that come in you know every two to three years they don't stick around yeah so you know we're looking at initiative fatigue we're looking at Innovation fatigue we're looking at a lot a lack of implementation and like moving from that to do to be it takes and going back to what you said it takes a lot of self-work it takes a lot of self-work and this is the place where to me it all needs to begin I think another challenge is that we start doing it before we understand the philosophy behind it before we understand the theory and even the history behind it what is it connected to and why do we need to master this see for me we've in schools we've got to master it for many many many reasons you know primarily so that our children can learn and and be able to grow into successful productive citizens but we also have to have to do this in order to shift and change our own well-being there's a lot of trauma that's going on and children are bringing that into the classroom and as adults we don't get to be a teacher or an administrator because we're free of trump so if we don't take time to really address that it is very it's going to be very difficult to empower another child or Empower one another until we deal with that trauma that we personally have experienced it shows up looking like that same child that you want to keep putting out of your classroom because they're triggering you and pulling your buttons that you cannot tolerate so the work really starts with us and when we go into schools that's what we do we start with teachers but they want to go and do the circle and that's another one of those myths I said I want to do a myths about restorative justice is that restorative justice is a circle yeah and it is not you do not have to do a circle in order to practice restorative justice you need to practice restorative justice by seeing things through a lens that does not require punishment and harm and and what because I know my experience with like whole school implementation supplemental technical assistance that we provide um at restorative DC and that school talk we meet with school leaders a lot we meet with leadership teams and the first thing they say is you know I want I want Circle facilitation I want to I want my teachers being able to do circles and oftentimes I have to pull them back and say well you know what is your reason why like do you feel like this is something that needs to happen because you're saying you want to dive or take a deeper dive into RJ is circle is that the marriage of and that's what you think of when you think about restorative justice restorative practice do you think of circle do you think of circles first and then restorative justice and or restorative practices and there's a big myth around that and a lot of our our work this year in terms of creating implementation plans with our schools the first thing they want to do are circles the thing that we're leading them to is once we start taking a deeper dive and um you know post walkthrough is understanding the adult culture and the adult culture is lacking an understanding of what are my triggers when I walk into a classroom um we want to be quick to identify students triggers and quit the name what their barriers are and quit the name um with their deficiencies are but we are very slow to name what triggers us like what pushes us um to that place what pushes us to the point where we can't even connect with our peers um well we're not even saying good morning to our peers where there's a disconnect between leadership and staff where there's a disconnect between teachers and support staff um so so so kind of covering two things Circle the assumptions around circles and then also going back to creating the connectivity in order to be able to do this work with fidelity how do circles or Ken circles get us to that place well I believe that circles can get us there simply because of the conversation the community building the truth finding in the spiritual healing that can happen in a circle is certainly an Avenue for us to get there a real conversation with the structure of the circle and that see that says a lot too because there are those that are teaching Circle without the elements of circle it's not just a conversation we have the talking piece because the talking piece has a significant meaning to it it has significant purpose it offers an opportunity for respect it offers an opportunity for deep listening it it offers an opportunity for connectedness and for order and for balance because sometimes we have a tendency to speak over one another we have the centerpiece because it helps us to re-center and redirect our thoughts and pour our anger and our anxiety into the center rather than pouring it onto the hearts and souls of those that we work with sometimes we get upset and angry we will affect one or another with it but so I believe that circles help us to get to the truth help us to unpack all the Dynamics and various levels of issues that come up particularly in schools and once we all do that and we find agreement and consensus then we're on this we're on the same page and so I've run into some situations and I'm sure you have to with I would say practitioners who are new to the process new to restorative justice and I hear you know sometimes I hear things like I did a circle and it didn't work like I tried that thing you were talking about I tried that you know that talking piece and I grabbed you know the stapler or the pen or the first thing I had available because I knew that was supposed to be an element um I really didn't think about the centerpiece because I was rushed a little bit and I just had to throw some chairs together but I did you know the circle and it was still conflict is that something that you experience in terms of I would say new or oh practitioners it's not new the thing is if you don't follow the process and the steps you yeah you may end up with some disappointments but again that goes back to that the circle is not the the end all but it does have to do with your level of skill and we always tell people that if you are not ready if you haven't been properly trained do not do it if you just read a book and you want to do like a community building or or talking Circle fine but if there's conflict don't step into that Circle until you are ready if you're new bring someone who is seasoned and understands what they're doing so that they can guide the process and if there's still conflict then the circle is not over so and you you hit on something where you know a lot of times we think that we do one it's the Healer of all and so what are some situations where there may need to be perhaps a series of circles or a series of of processes that will support the circle what does that kind of look like if that one Circle didn't get the outcome that maybe we felt that it should well I want to go back if I can because the circle is not the only restorative process that or practice that one can use a lot of times we miss the first step which is suitability is a circle the most appropriate practice for this circumstance you may have needed another type of restorative practice or restorative process or restorative conversation to address that conflict it doesn't mean that the circle was unsuccessful it was maybe perhaps we did not take all of the steps that we needed to do before we got to the circle did you talk to everybody that was in that Circle did you pre-conference with everyone that had a challenge did you discover what the harm was for each and every person before they got there did you already have a plan of action of where they were going to sit how you were going to set the structure of the circle did you decide that the centerpiece needed to be you know um food because this child is upset every time they get into the into the circle was it a something that was relative to the conflict that you use the talking piece that was had a story behind it to help you reflect before you even start the conversation did you use mindfulness to calm the heart to soothe the soul to prepare the brain for the work that needed to be done and my answer my answer usually that I received from most people that tell me that is no I mean you highlighted a lot and I'm glad we were able to kind of spell out some of those steps because oftentimes we go straight to conflict to the circle I've seen conflict happen in schools and five minutes later they're using a circle to figure out exactly who the players were and then they're like okay well it was your fault and then we go from we go to shaming and blaming and and attempting to use the circle process as uncovering who actually did the harm and then we report back and say we did a restorative Circle and this is how I'm going to punish that person because the circle um highlighted who is the harmer in that situation and now I'm hurting over here the listeners are hearing me moan and groan because this is moaning grown time yeah and and and it's going back and kind of reteaching the process and the circle process isn't the opportunity to shame a youth or Shameless student or Shameless scholar it is to highlight some of those things you know you mentioned like looking at the harm looking at the impact looking at who was um affected by the actions that took place in in the positioning of where people sit it's not where you sit at is you know you like sitting with your back to the door like strategy behind putting you know the harm and the harmer or the victim and or offender maybe across from each other so they can look at each other face to face Maybe to put the supporters next to each other so they can hear perspectives from both sides uh maybe putting a parent of the victim next to the offender and what type of energy is being created because of that I've had a real really really really powerful experience where there was a conflict between a teacher and a student and the the mother was defending the child to the point where she couldn't hear any other perspective and so in that particular conference I actually placed her right next to the teacher and the energy that was felt by that parent if that parent was sitting somewhere else that level of energy wouldn't have been there and the impact of the circle what it had been as powerful as a result of that particular process this um this teacher had no idea what RJ was it was his first year teaching he was from West Virginia so he didn't understand BC it was it was a really really tough situation for him to handle because he was actually being bullied by the student and now he's transitioned he was actually a partner he wasn't even a a school a school staff room he was actually a partnership but he valued the commitment to the process because he felt important and now he's actually a full-time English teacher at the school doing RJ every day multiple ways I mean like he's going to be in telling our stories for um uh that we're doing for sort of DC but it was it was amazing and when you mentioned you know we're we're participants sit is that's really something that I think our practice is missing that's the structural creativity or the structural creative art of circle practice really you know I mean it's so much to talk about around this because I now am in trainings where I say by show of hands how many people have been in a restorative circle before because I raised their hand so then we start the training process the structural elements and by the end of the day we're told well you know what I need to take something back I actually thought I had been in a restorative circle before but now that I've received my training the answer is I've never been in a restorative circle before and we find that we're constantly working between what people believe group is and what Circle it is and I saw myself in a video not too long ago explaining that somebody had taken the video and I was going circle is not a group and I used it with Force because it was so in in um grained in their minds and in their brain group is group and circle is circle the circle process unpacks it not you all you do is guide the conversation you need to be able to have X be expert in prompting questions you have to know the structure so you can set it up just like a surgeon you got to have all the right tools to get in and get out and be successful at it and so I want to shift us a little bit from kind of what we've uncovered been able to unpack which has been a lot in a short amount of time and if we had six more hours I'm pretty sure we can you know continue to talk about you know Circle processes what I want to kind of shift our conversation to a little bit is kind of is what's urgent for our city and when I want to talk a little bit about is crime like DC crime rate has drastically increased um in over the past year really highlighting over the past you know five or six months students like our students now and I say R because we have a we have a responsibility how has restorative justice supported solved influenced unpacked the crime that you're seeing and I asked this question because you have the opportunity to see it on two different levels you have the opportunity to look at it on the school based level and you also well three levels I should say School based level Juvenile justice system and also the adult justice system and so how has RJ been a support a Healer an impacted the higher rates of crime in DC this year Well my first response to that question is that RJ in DC is in its infancy stages although court services has had the barge centers around the city for many years now but they're just in the last four to five years starting to integrate what we call the balanced and restorative justice model and that's what barge stands for and so a lot of times when we ask young people well what does barge mean and they don't know they thought it was a building but it really so that's just how in the infancy stages that we are we're still trying to educate on what is this but what I love about it uh the director Terry Odom uh understood the power of how this was going to impact crime in our cities and was bracing and preparing for exactly what we're experiencing now so I would think that the the primary influencer here is that we've been able to offer this information to probation offices and some police officers some Educators those that are running the the probation systems the criminal justice systems you have the Office of the Attorney General that now has an entire department that is dedicated to restorative justice now you have a whole new Department that's dedicated to interrupting crime and primarily utilizing the services the insight and the wisdom of returning citizens so there are some emerging Trends in a new culture that's being developed in the city in preparation for this so I say we're we're at our emphasis stages but with the idea of educating not only and for you you can know in some of the schools when we try to implement a restorative process parents even were resistant and because they just didn't understand what it was that we were attempting to do so I I do believe that one of the other advantages that restorative justice is offering US during this very critical time of violence is that we're able to hear the stories from the boots on the ground level by putting these young people and adults in circles and listening to their stories by having an opportunity to provide training so it's almost where at the Intel level so it's restorative justice is offering a deeper insight into the Heart and souls of the citizens of the district and if we can continue to do this training and bring the community along with us through what we call Community Justice then we will all be working from a balanced perspective the balanced approach to restorative justice involves three stakeholders the community the harmed and the harmer and there are three pillars accountability Community Development and Public Safety and we feel that if we're all involved in one of the major values of restorative justice is inclusivity because in the past if someone committed a crime or committed some wrongdoing in the classroom or in the street the only person that received that attention was the wrong Doer from a balanced approach in order to really Implement a deeper change or a shift in Consciousness everyone involved needs to have a say and you know what that brings me to um maybe not so much my generation as much but I I hear like you know my parents speak about it uh older relatives you know they're saying it takes a village and so when you when you're when you were speaking and I think that's something that we can Elevate with this like it takes a village like what does that actually mean now what does it takes a village mean and it kind of leads us to the question of or the exploration of accountability right and and and we talk about accountability but we speak about it as I'm going to hold you to this as the harmer the offender and or the wrong doer but what does accountability really mean um when you're thinking about Community justice so Community Justice Means we're all a part of the solution and the sustainability because we talk about Public Safety it's not a one-time thing Public Safety is ongoing it's intentional so with the kind of all of that being said what do you think the responsibilities of RJ practitioners in DC what do you think their responsibilities are with systemic changes gentrification violence displacement poverty what do you think our responsibilities are whether it be community-based organizations from cure the streets from the barge from juvenile probation credible Messengers yes what is what is our responsibility um and one thing that I leave my training sessions with now and I highlight and I continue to say why in the circle bring more people into the circle so we can do this work wow yes it is when you said that I realized that I have been involved in training each and every one of those groups that you've spoken to and I think that for me I get so involved in doing the work that I very seldom have this opportunity to talk about what it looks like and I'm like wow I've touched every last one of those groups of people and the first thought that comes to my mind first of all agencies that really want to do this including the work that I have done for restorative DC um we've got to push for the funding and the resources to continue the training that they receive in a five-day period because it takes more than that accountability is not a solitary Journey it is something that we all have to be engaged in and unchecked participation power is a challenge for accountability so we have practitioners walking around doing circles but leaving without securing the agreements we have to have agreements you can't just have a talk or a conversation then you make those say that restorative justice circles don't work because all you did after he punched me in my eye was gave him a good talking to no that is not restorative justice that's just a good talking to conversation so we have to be accountable the ideals um the personalities that are engaged in this the participation the reparation the reintegration um of a true restorative accountability delivers fairness and a more effective Justice process than punishment alone I feel like we need to do like an Alcoholic Anonymous we need punishment Anonymous and maybe we all need to get in that and successfully go through the steps and before you can even begin to practice restorative practices because we are so addicted and attached to hurting and harming I tell somebody right now if you don't pay your house note in two months your life is ruined immediately you can't get another house you're gonna have to struggle I mean we live in a punitive Society and and I I want to say this but I don't know his name who is now the new Deputy um attorney general for the United States and I was listening to I've read an op-ed that he wrote I think last week saying that anything relative to restoring Justice is Injustice so we have a big deal to deal with here so if we do not get this accountability piece correct and and get away from seeing accountability as something punitive and the only way we can do that is we reframe what accountability looks like and from a balanced and restorative justice approach that looks like building competency skills with very specific objectives that's designed to be commensurate with whatever the harm is so if I did an awful act against you my development and my competency accountabilities need to be relative to that in my Consciousness so that I can learn a new way of communicating and there's so many things that come out of you know Circle processes for me and when I facility or I'm in the process I actually leave with more um even if I wasn't directly involved in it it's like a every time I'm in the process like a new Awakening and it never gets old like it's one of those yeah it's like being on a roller like it never you can go you know you can go to Six Flags they go on the same screen machine 10 times and it's always like a new experience and so like I'm always filled either with more questions more curiosity self-awakening and um you know the process changed and it's constantly changing me and how I work and how I approach things and how I deal with people how i dub my family and so kind of before we close out what's highlight one of your goals for this year and something that you're really looking forward to I know Friday is coming we've talked a few times about Friday um so you can kind of highlight that if that's one of your one of your highlights to close out I'm very excited to hear you uh to speak as a as a presenter as well but then as well as as a participant like the school climate conference attending last year was really um eye-opening experience for me in terms of what the city needs and what you know Aussie has provided for the city of bringing facilitators practitioners not in just RJ but what can support School climate and so this year you are one of two keynote speakers so what what are you looking forward to on Friday what I am looking forward to on Friday is offering some Innovative Concepts about how to think outside of the box to charge the atmosphere with love how to read create a culture of crime of calm and to activate the shift as a personal responsibility we've got to create that shift for ourselves first and then it will emanate and pour into the hearts and the souls and the minds of the children that we serve and their families so my goal is really to figure out how to teach emotional entrainment and transformative listening in a way that can change our lives for the better so I know I'm doing session two in the morning so I'm looking forward to actually if we are not in the same slot uh to to going in and learning um because this is a journey that we're all on learning and growing in this practice um so I'm definitely looking forward to that well mine is in the afternoon right after the lunch okay so I'll make yours because mine is 11 o'clock so I'm the second morning breakout so I'll definitely be able to make yours I'm looking forward to it I'm learning and growing in my practice as a facilitator as well I definitely appreciate your time and I know you're busy I know you had a heavy training yesterday and today and today then sitting around waiting for me so I don't want to hold you you know too much more but I definitely appreciate having this conversation it felt like you know sitting at the kitchen table you know talking to a neighborhood Community member that has been around for you know a long time for a few years um and and really triggering my thinking um and and how I can do things differently um how I can you know continue to do things the same um that are going well so I definitely appreciate the time and I I want to do this again whether formally or I don't know I'm looking forward it felt great so definitely thank you um we appreciate all the work that you do for school talk restorative DC but more importantly our city you know because you you impact uh on a lot of different levels you and your husband Saleem can't leave him out so definitely and and I I appreciate you guys kind of laying the foundation for me I'm not from DC but I've been able to come into a space that was already carved out and so I I'm taking the Hyrule and I appreciate the groundwork that you've been doing and I'm definitely reaping the benefits of that so I appreciate what you're doing for us thank you and I will be remiss this if I didn't say that my husband Celine Hylton almost 20 years ago now was a representative from Washington in DC for the beginning of the national movement at the federal level for ReStore restorative justice um and so I want to give thanks to him for being willing and it changed his life and who knew that 20 years later it would just be the primary basis and the strength in the foundation of of who we are in our own Community we are both washingtonians and we are very grateful to have had this opportunity thank you we appreciate it may I close the circle you may close the circle the circle is now officially completed[Music] circle of DC is made possible by restorative DC a program of school talk with funding by the DC Office of the State superintendent of Education our host is easy Jackson of restorative justice program manager at school talk was co-produced by anamavant reserved Justice program assistant and school talk this episode's guest is Dr Ivy Hylton from Youth and families in crisis special thanks to Mama Ivy thank you to Ahmed aldawa our producer our music is by education unlimited LLC with musician Mark Brown Shane Outlaw and Giovanni Ramos all students who created the track during a work-based learning experience supported by the DC youth leadership Network a program of school talk with funding by the DC department on disability services rehabilitation service Administration thank you for listening and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at restorative DC thank you[Music]