Welcome to the RJC at UNCW!
This partnership between the Department of Sociology and Criminology and the Office of Community Engagement seeks to aid in resolving the pain caused by crime and other harmful experiences. In addition to personal conflicts, we can address the generational traumas of racial injustices, and other forms of injustices. The RJC at UNCW offers training and case facilitation to help people move towards repair, reconciliation, and transformation whenever possible. Healing begins by acknowledging the harm, taking active responsibility for the harm, and meeting the (often complex) needs for people to feel whole again. It can occur in community, through deep dialogue in a safe setting, and the RJC aims to provide a platform for positive change and equity through restorative initiatives and training opportunities.
The Restorative Justice Collaborative at UNCW embraces truth-telling on the journey towards healing from historical and contemporary harms of oppressive social conditions. We seek justice that acknowledges the traumas and the persistent need to hold individuals, policies, and systems to account for these traumas. On April 20, 2021, former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on three criminal charges related to his actions that killed George Perry Floyd last year. The convictions are hailed as a step in the direction towards justice, but are not full and complete justice in themselves. We are witnessing a long overdue reckoning in the United States on racial justice. This is one major stepping stone in that process of reckoning.
Tragically, Mr. Floyd’s family will never have the chance to spend time with him again, or hear his laughter, or feel his arms embrace them; including his very young daughter. Mr. Floyd will never have the chance to heal from the traumas he endured in his life, though his family may have an opportunity to ensure that his life remains an important lesson for our country. The intersection of institutionalized racism and our legal system is a collision course that has inflicted immeasurable harms to African American families (and others) for centuries. Telling the truth about that is vitally important to creating policy and structural reform and meaningful justice. George Floyd is one among too many victims. And he is not the last, as evidenced by the tragic killing of Ms. Ma’Khia Bryant in Ohio yesterday. As advocates for trauma informed restorative practices, we hope you will work towards structural reform and individual compassion. Know justice, know peace.
News and Events
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Third Annual Social Justice Symposium |
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