¿Cómo se dirige JR Durham?

JR Durham está comprometida con un liderazgo colaborativo que refleja y protege los valores que guía a JR. Basamos todo nuestro trabajo en círculos de liderazgo no jerárquicos que guían el proceso de facilitación y fomentan la conexión y la asociación entre JR Durham y la comunidad de Durham en general.

                       

       

           

               

               

               

               

           

           

               

               

               

               

               

                       

           

               

           

       

       

           

               

Community Engagement Circle

               

Conferencing Circle

           

           

               

A thick border indicates the leadership team member is also a part of the Coordinating Circle            

       

   

       

       

                       

Marcia Owen

           

Marcia is a member of the Conferencing and Coordinating Circles.

           

Marcia is a life-long resident of Durham, a product of Durham Public Schools, and a graduate of Hillside High School and Duke University. In 1993, she joined the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham in response to the increasing danger, injuries, and deaths from gun violence in our city. Marcia retired as Executive Director of RCND in 2017 to support the development of Restorative Justice Durham and grow our community’s capacity to address the needs violence creates. She is currently a volunteer facilitator and conferencing circle member with Restorative Justice Durham, as well as co-chair of Durham’s Safety and Wellness Task Force—a two year pursuit between Durham County, City, and School Board to pursue alternatives to policing and the criminal legal system.

       

       

                       

Amber Crispell

           

Amber is a member of the Conferencing Circle.

           

Amber has lived in Durham for 13 years and worked in Durham Public Schools for the past 12 years in varying capacities. While working in DPS and co-founding Jubilee Home, Amber saw the harm systems cause in both individuals and communities, as well as numerous opportunities for taking proactive steps in better directions. Her passion for RJ grew in that same space, and ten years of reading and exploration emerged into work as a volunteer facilitator with RJD and her current position as a Restorative Practice Coordinator with DPS. Amber is grateful to be part of a  Durham community that wants to fully see and hear each other as we strive together for a more just world.

       

       

                       

Joy Clark

           

Joy is a member of the Conferencing Circle.

           

Joy was a math teacher for almost 20 years, and named 2020–21 Teacher of the Year at Durham’s JD Clement Early College High School for her leadership in restorative practices. Joy was introduced to RJD by one of her favorite professors at NCCU School of Law, from which she graduated with honors in 2021. Joy uses her background in education and the law to apply restorative principles and practices in closing the school-to-prison pipeline. She is honored to be the Restorative Practices Coordinator for Person County Schools, and a volunteer facilitator and Leadership Circle member with Restorative Justice Durham.

       

       

                       

Azmen Johnson

           

Azmen is a member of the Conferencing Circle.

           

Azmen Johnson grew up in Durham and graduated from UNC-Charlotte with an emphasis in sociology and criminal justice. A focus on juvenile justice steered her toward work on the front end of the school-to-prison-pipeline, where she now spends her days trying to alter that trajectory as an elementary instructional assistant with Durham Public Schools. Involvement with the local youth-focused nonprofit Urban Hope led Azmen to Restorative Justice Durham, where she’s served as a volunteer facilitator and now sits on RJD’s conferencing circle.

       

       

                       

Tamario Howze

           

Tamario is a member of the Conferencing Circle.

           

Tamario “Mario” Howze is a Durham native, a licensed Baptist minister, and an ordained Elder within the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He holds both a master’s of divinity from Duke University and a master’s in industrial engineering from NC A&T University, and has worked extensively in each of these very different fields. Tamario is a member of Omega Psi Phi, a pastor at Jonesboro Chapel AME Zion church, and an active community servant and advocate who enjoys the work of uplifting and walking alongside neighbors who are vulnerable and marginalized. He lives in Durham with his soul mate Elizabeth, and is a volunteer facilitator and conferencing circle member with RJD.

       

       

                       

Bobi Gallagher

           

Bobi is a member of the Community Engagement Circle.

           

Bobi Gallagher is a mother and grandmother with a background in group work and clinical social work. Since the 1960s, she has immersed herself in social justice efforts and experiencing the different cultures of places she's lived. As a facilitator and community engagement circle member with RJD, Bobi brings a love of people and a belief in love’s transformative power.

       

       

                       

Elizabeth Hambourger

           

Elizabeth is a member of the Community Engagement Circle.

           

Elizabeth Hambourger came to restorative justice through her work as a lawyer defending people who have been sentenced to death. After a client described how his life was changed by participation in restorative justice circles, Elizabeth began attending RJD meetings in 2017 and joined its coordinating circle in 2019. She continues to find hope in restorative justice as a tool for addressing harm, beyond anything offered by a criminal punishment system that causes more harm than it heals.

       

       

                       

Sandra Lassiter

           

Sandra is a member of the Community Engagement Circle.

           

Sandra first engaged RJD as a participant in monthly Community Circles, and quickly found deep connection with her work among justice-involved folks in Durham. Sandra works as a Certified Peer Support Specialist with the Welcome Home program, a City initiative that supports, advocates, and provides resources for neighbors transitioning back to Durham after incarceration. As a volunteer facilitator with RJD, Sandra has witnessed exciting second chances for hope, accountability, change, and healing among those on every side of harm. Alongside her role on RJD’s community engagement circle, Sandra connects to her community as an engaged PAC-1 participant and a provider of transitional housing.

       

       

                       

Aviance Brown

           

Aviance is a member of the Community Engagement and Coordinating Circle.

           

Aviance Brown is a criminal defense and civil rights attorney in Durham. Her passion for restorative justice emerged in law school, while facing the inequities of the justice system as an intern in the public defender’s office. Fighting avidly for her clients in the courtroom, she experienced court as a factory production line where no one received true justice. RJD introduced her to an alternative means of resolving cases, with community accountability standing in for a punitive system that locks neighbors away and throws away the key. As a legal practitioner, RJ facilitator, and member of RJD’s community engagement circle, Aviance seeks to advocate and expand the community healing restorative justice makes possible.

       

       

                       

Derrick Horton

           

Derrick is a member of the Community Engagement and Coordinating Circles.

           

Raised outside of the metropolitan DC area, Derrick has sought to weave reconciliation through the entire fabric of his life. He traces that commitment along a personal journey of reflection and leadership that began with service in the United States Army after high school graduation and continues in his current work as a pastor and community leader in Durham. His role on RJD’s community engagement circle has roots in time as a volunteer leader in the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham’s vigil ministry among victims of violence. All of this work affords Derrick a natural opportunity to expand on his lifelong personal mission: to end estrangement in human relationships, and offer opportunities for communal healing to all those seeking repair.

       

       

                       

Leah Wilson-Hartgrove

           

Leah is a member of the Conferencing, Community Engagement, and Coordinating Circles.

           

Leah's journey in restorative justice began in 2005 with the Capital Restorative Justice Project, an effort to support and connect families who have a loved one sentenced to death and families who have had a loved one taken violently. That work and her relationships in Durham's Walltown community revealed both the harm caused by the criminal legal system and the need for better, more just ways into accountability and healing. As a volunteer facilitator, coordinating circle member, and RJD’s first staff Restorative Justice Coordinator, she’s been honored to help realize a collaborative local effort towards that alternative vision. Leah's RJD work takes root in her family life in the Rutba House community and house of hospitality in Walltown, where she is also a member of St. John's Missionary Baptist Church.

       

           

Louis D. Threatt

       

Louis is a member of the Community Engagement Circle.

       

A facilitator with RJ Durham, Louis Threatt teaches, studies, and ministers at the intersections of prisons, restorative justice, and practical theology. He has an M.Div (Duke Divinity School) and a DMin (Drew University), focusing on Prison Studies, Pastoral Care and Incarceration. Dr. Threatt is the founder and senior pastor with Cities of Refuge Christian Church, and Executive Director of the non-profit UR Restored Ministries, Inc. which are dedicated to serving those impacted by incarceration and at the margins of life.

   

   

Circulo de Compromiso Comunitario (izquierda) y Circulo de Conferencias (derecho).
El miembro del equipo de liderazgo también forma parte del Círculo de Coordinación.

Nuestra comunidad de JR Durham cuenta con más de 75 facilitadores formados. 
Estos voluntarios trabajan en grupos de tres miembros juntos en Equipos de Facilitación, y se reúnen en Círculos mensuales que apoya nuestra práctica de JR dentro de una comunidad restaurativa.​

¿Qué valores guían a JR Durham?

Todo lo que hacemos se basa en los valores esenciales que los participantes aportan a nuestros Círculos, nos aseguramos que cada Círculo esté formado por los intereses colectivos de todos los participantes. Junto a estos recursos comunitarios, Durham también adopta cuatro valores fundamentales que sirven fundamento y decisión para nuestro trabajo restaurativo:
​respeto, integridad, responsabilidad y honestidad.

Mantener nuestros valores junto a la realidad de la vida común, JR Durham también reconoce que todas nuestras instituciones y sistemas se incluyen dentro de ideologías persistentes de opresión y deshumanización.

Como tal, JR Durham opta por emplear nuestros valores comunitarios en la búsqueda de sistemas equitativos de justicia que focalizan las voces de los vecinos más dañados por la desigualdad racial y social que impregna nuestro sistema penal jurídico. Y ubicamos el trabajo continuo de liberación individual y colectiva como parte integral del Compromiso de Entendimiento que da forma a nuestra vida y práctica comunes.