Building and Supporting Local Communities
Community justice centers are rooted in communities, making restorative justice a local concern. CJCs maintain close relationships with local law enforcement and city and town administrators and draw on community volunteers to staff their programs. Community members can ask their CJCs to help them mediate disputes between neighbors or between landlords and tenants.
Municipalities can call on CJCs to organize forums to address municipal concerns or convene meetings of affected citizens in response to criminal acts in the community (such as graffiti, vandalism, etc.).
Restorative justice embraces self-determination, encouraging people to resolve disputes locally, promoting the belief that the more closely restorative justice practices are linked to the local community, the better the resolutions will be. CJCs are staffed by mediators and others trained in conflict resolution who offer these skills to members of the community.