We are invested in learning, growing, and transforming in community.
Where you’ll find us
CO-CREATING COMMUNITY SAFETY
Moran Center Project
The Moran Center convened a Working Group of Evanston community members including Ish, former Moran Center clients, restorative practitioners, 27 incarcerated students in Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program (NPEP) along with their instructor, a law professor who teaches Restorative Justice in the Center on Negotiation and Mediation at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and her students, to explore with our community regarding the possibility of establishing Evanston’s RJCC and/or other local systems of accountability. The Moran Center firmly believes that by creating an off-ramp for emerging adults (18-26-year-olds) for higher-level offenses from the criminal (in)justice system, we will take a critical step towards building a more just and racially equitable community.
CREATING RESTORATIVE ART
Storytelling for Collective Healing
Restorative Justice Initiative and Conspiring for Good collaborated on a creative endeavor, “Storytelling for Collective Healing.” Ish was a member of the inaugural cohort which paired storytellers with artists to tell a personal story that addresses themes related to personal transformation, taking accountability for harm, and healing and rebuilding relationships in the wake of conflict or harm.
WRITING
Colorizing Circle Practices: Naming the Silences (forthcoming)
Whenever we enter Circles and share our stories with others, our racialized and colonized experiences come with us; they cannot be checked at a Circle's entrance. The "color" of our experiences outside of a Circle profoundly shape the dynamics we experience inside a Circle and inform what we take away.
We, as Black, Brown, other People of Color, and Indigenous Peoples, face these social-racial-settler complexities every time we step inside a Circle. With this book, we name these silences to engage the question: How can naming the silences open spaces for honest, authentic transformation? Edward C Valandra and Wanbli Waphaha Hoksila, eds.
Ish Orkar is a contributing writer and co-author of the chapter We Hold Ourselves Accountable.
SITTING IN CIRCLE
Restoring Community Weekly Virtual Circle
Created by RJ practitioners Sarah-Bess Dworin and Kristine Hill, this weekly circle convenes seasoned restorative justice practitioners, the RJ curious, friends, and enthusiasts from across the country and beyond for community, support, generative practice, and care. Ish is a regular participant and frequent facilitator. Please get in touch with us to learn more or inquire about joining.
IN CONVERSATION
Restorative Lens Podcast
The National Center On Restorative Justice produces a podcast titled “The Restorative Lens.” The podcast creates a space for restorative practitioners, academics, and advocates to come together to share their insights and perspectives in hopes of further advancing and improving the restorative justice social movement. Ish was a facilitator at the recent NCORJ co-sponsored institute focusing on Equitable Systems Design for Restorative Justice and was invited by the hosts to share about her experience at the institute.
Ish is featured in S2: episode 6.
Applying Restorative Justice to Campus Sexual Misconduct
While sexual misconduct on our college and university campuses, both public and private, is dismayingly widespread, it continues to be significantly underreported because most victims perceive that judicial recourse, with its legalistic adversarial approach, fails to address--in a healing way--the harms done to them. This book offers a wide range of alternative options that empower those who are most directly affected to make the call for themselves. In doing so, it may increase reporting and, furthermore, in offering a healing justice that addresses individual and community needs, may work to reduce sexual misconduct on campus.
Ish Orkar is a contributing writer and author of the chapter Reflections on Starting a Restorative Justice Program.