RCP has released a logo!
Seattle, Washington, February 14th, 2023 – RCP has put in a lot of work over these last 14 months of its beginnings, to bring people who have been impacted by the incarceration system to create and now express our identity through our logo. We are proud of the accomplishments and restorative justice ideals represented in our logo as we continue to embody restorative practices as an organization and consortium.
Restorative Community Pathways is an organization birthed from the No New Youth Jail movement. It is grounded in the belief that community is the source and location of justice, and the associated agency, healing, and repair with one another that is true restoration. Restorative Community Pathways is a result of community members choosing to heal through accountability to self and others, and finding a holistic way forward together as members of our shared community. 70 community members began collaborating in January of 2021 to determine the vision of Restorative Community Pathways. Thank you so much to each and every member of our community who has spoken into this program.
Operating since November of 2021, the organization connects referred youth to a community network of care that is designed to be an appropriate and accountable response to harm. Youth referrals come from both King County, as an approved pre-court diversion program, and from community members. Once referred, youth have the opportunity to connect to pathways of healing that already exist within their community and cultural contexts.
This response services every angle of harm, including those who have allegedly caused harm and those who have experienced it. Once participants elect to take this route, they design their path through community resources and programs that will bring holistic support and accountability to each circumstance.
Restorative Community Pathways is excited to release our logo, which solidifies our identity following the first 14 months of our operations. Our design team has experienced both the harmful effects of the carceral system and the opportunity to have experiences that restore connection with self, others, and the community. This speaks and is displayed in the final design. For our team, this 3-month-long process was thoughtful and considerate; it was an opportunity to create a visual representation of the power our community has to choose a way of accountability that is healing and restores us to each other.
Below are the ways our logo reflects this process:
The circle shape of the logo represents the restorative- justice practices that our network of care is rooted and grounded in creating for young people. Youth are invited to practice restorative justice in community, by community.
The shoe at the center represents participation in the program. Every youth in our program has elected to participate. Their involvement is based on their choice, and the agency that we each have as people to choose our path forward.
The barbed wire represents the harmful carceral system and the harm that confinement, isolation and punishment results in for our communities. This is seen clearly in that youth who experience the traditional carceral system one time become 50% more likely to experience it again. By contrast, 92.7% of participants in Restorative Community Pathways have thus far not reengaged with the criminal legal system. While this program is still very young, this is a hopeful statistic that we will continue to closely monitor, speaking to the effectiveness of our community as an alternative to punishment.
The flowers represent growth that can come, in spite of and often as a result of, shirking the very things that intend to contain us in current circumstances.
The shoe is stepping forward, because participating in this program is choosing to move forward in healing while simultaneously breaking and dismantling systems of oppression.
We look forward to celebrating as a community by releasing merchandise in the Spring. Please keep an eye out for that. Thank you again so much to each member of our community who has been involved. We are so grateful for your input and support, and look forward to continuing to grow in healing and accountability together.
Image Designed and Created by Tito
