LET’S is always excited to get an email from North Shore Restorative Justice Society. We enjoy engaging with the youth in their program. Their Youth Action Collective was formed in 2020 and came out of the gap they noticed in the North Shore, the fact that there was a lack of spaces/groups dedicated to youth organizing, by youth. They were planning a new event series designed to bring other like-minded, youth-oriented people/organizations together to share skills, learn about movement building together, and create a sense of community amongst their various youth networks. They reached out to LET’S to see if we were interested in joining them for a session in this series. We said yes.
The intention behind the series of events is to hold space for community conversations to take place between youth on a variety of social justice issues facing their communities. As representatives of an organization working in the areas of social justice or community building, our role in attending an event was to offer a little bit of background/context for your involvement in the area and then participate as a member in an unstructured conversation circle. They wanted the focus to be allowing youth an opportunity to share thoughts, ask questions and grow in a safe learning space with knowledgeable people available and participating as equals to answer questions or share experiences.
Our theme was Building Accessible Communities. Just as with our previous experiences with the North Shore Restorative Justice Society, we had a great time speaking with the youth and learning about their perspectives and experiences as we shared our own and our members’.