Rethinking Safety
Through the Rethinking Safety campaign, VOYCE will continue to build on it’s success in affecting statewide policy change through SB100, which created groundbreaking reform in schools’ approaches to student discipline, and the 2019 passage of a state grants pilot that advances the Rethinking Safety campaign by creating a framework for school districts to expand resources for mental and behavioral health, restorative justice, and other trauma-informed supports for youth. To advance systems change within CPS and Illinois to promote safe, supportive, and equitable learning environments through our Rethinking Safety campaign, we will
(1) work with CPS to develop a plan for holistic school safety that does not include SROs, and
(2) organize for its adoption within CPS schools and system wide students, parents, LSC members, teachers and principals will be engaged in the process of creating the plan and organizing; and
(3) engage state-level officials including legislators and ISBE to identify opportunities to advance the Rethinking Safety campaign at the state level.
Working on Knowledge and Equity (WOKE) Project
Over ten years ago, young people from Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) and Communities United (CU) came together to organize a strategy to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline while pushing for restorative and other healing-centered approaches and investments in our schools. Out of this work, a new approach to partnership with schools emerged called Healing through Justice. This is a new learning movement that centers young people who identify as survivors, and their communities, as assets.
Nationally, healing-centered strategies have begun to take hold, attempting to radically center the community and its people with power and self-determination. Communities United’s Healing through Justice approach is based on the belief that centering the lived experiences of young people and their communities creates the opportunity to transform a path of liberatory resilience and change. Healing through Justice supports the natural process of human healing as young people lead work to build communities and advance change.
In efforts to disrupt the continuing cycle of harm experienced by low-income Black and Brown youth, Healing through Justice lays the foundation for CU/VOYCE’s Working on Knowledge and Equity (WOKE) Project. Originally developed in response to students’ needs to fulfill service learning requirements, the WOKE Project seeks to build restorative and positive school climates through healing-centered approaches to teaching and learning, with a strong focus on students’ lived experience and leadership.
For more information, please contact Maria Degillo, VOYCE Coordinator, at maria@voyceproject.org or at 773-240-9612.