What is Restorative Community Pathways?

Restorative Community Pathways (RCP) is a comprehensive community-led response to harm, offered instead of prosecution. RCP aims to meet the individualized needs of both the youth accused of causing harm as well as the person who experienced harm. It provides reparative accountability, connects participants with culturally meaningful supports and resources, and promotes community healing. The RCP model is rooted in Restorative Justice and moves beyond the rigid binary view that people are victims or perpetrators by acknowledging and recognizing the harm experienced by every person engaged in RCP. RCP seeks to provide healing and restoration for all parties and support those harmed, giving voice to their needs. The RCP model additionally offers financial compensation through the Restitution Fund.  

RCP operates as a consortium of community organizations across King County who support youth and community members across the diverse communities and languages present in our county. There are 6 organizations in the Consortium; Choose 180, Collective Justice, Congolese Integration Network, Creative Justice, East African Community Services, and the Pacific Islander Community Association of Washington. Together these organizations create a network of care by providing programming and resources, which RCP participants can choose from with the support of their community navigator. 

Who is eligible for the program?

RCP serves youth being accused of a first-time felony or misdemeanor offense that is eligible for pre-filing diversion in accordance with Washington state law, as well as the person/s who experienced harm in each situation. Situations that involve extreme bodily harm or sexual violence are not eligible. RCP connects with participants' parents and support networks who can also access the resources and services offered through the program. In addition to referrals received from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (PAO), RCP supports people through community referrals. Members of the community are those associated with the individuals referred by PAO or youth who may benefit from the RCP model who are connected to our consortium organizations. Including community referrals in the service model reflects input from community partners and promotes successful program outcomes for youth by strengthening community ties and support networks.

What services does RCP provide ?

RCP begins by connecting referred community members with a navigator who supports each individual by connecting them to opportunities, supports, and resources to create a network of care. RCP operates as a consortium of organizations, who offer 4 areas of support. 

1. Basic needs: Through our Youth and Families Fund, all RCP participants and their families can access housing and rental support, bill payment support, groceries, clothing, mental and physical health services, and other needs. Additionally, community navigators and consortium organizations support participants in accessing community resources.

2. Healing and accountability through restorative justice: Through caring relationships each community navigator offers consistent support throughout the process for sustained healing and accountability.  RCP offers facilitated direct-accountability processes, as well as access to counseling, treatment, medical services, and other mental health resources. Individuals who experienced harm also have access to the restitution fund to support expenses that resulted from the harm they experienced.

3. Connection: Participants are offered peer-support and mentorship, educational and vocational opportunities, and culturally meaningful community services.

4. Community: RCP through participants’ relationship with navigators and the diverse programming, offers participants an opportunity to build intentional community, based in safety, choice, healing, and accountability. This includes spaces of community support and programming centered on shared identity (racial, refugee, cultural, religious, sexual, gender, etc.) and spaces of diversity and solidarity.

How are those who experienced harm supported through RCP?

The RCP model honors those who have experienced harm and gives voice to their needs. A community navigator reaches out to each person who has experienced harm to offer a supportive presence and  resources, such as community programming, access to therapeutic services, and restitution fund. While formal prosecution rarely results in the reimbursement of material losses, the RCP model offers compensation and acknowledgment of the harm. RCP’s restitution support includes car repairs, deductible costs, support with missed appointments, counseling etc. Each restitution support is determined by the person/s who experienced harm, with the support of a community navigator and/or RCP operations member. This creates an opportunity to mitigate the inequity of crime, as the harmed party is often young, low-income, and/or a person of color [1]. If the person who experienced harm is interested in participating in a restorative mediation, the community navigator will partner with restorative justice practitioners and discuss options.

[1] Alliance for Safety and Justice, Crime Survivors Speak 2017 https://allianceforsafetyandjustice.org/crimesurvivorsspeak/

What is the role of Community Navigators in RCP?

Community Navigators are our direct-service support providers who work one-on-one with all our referrals, whether they are community or county referred. Navigators are housed at different organizations and are intentionally paired with participants based on the individual's needs, backgrounds, identity, and the Navigators’ specializations. Community Navigators work with participants to create short/long term goals and support plans based on their wants/needs. These goals and plans are often built out with the participation and input of the participants for added accountability and cover many areas of support that they may need, such as education, financial support, mental/emotional health and vocational opportunities. The Community Navigator then assists by gathering resources and being another layer of support/accountability for the youth until they've made substantial progress on or completed self-identified goals in their action plan, and have a sustainable and authentic support system within their community.

What is the goal of RCP’s restorative justice approach?

By addressing the roots to harm, restorative justice creates lasting healing and accountability when harm occurs in our community. Our current public safety is based on using forms of violence (incarceration, criminal records, financial obligations) to punish individuals for breaking a law. It removes the ability to directly address the harm that took place, which can hinder the healing process for both the person who experienced harm and the person who caused harm. Restorative justice is meant to address the roots of harm by 1) identifying the conditions through which harm occurred, 2) taking accountability for the harm, and 3) offering space for repair and healing from the harm, thus improving long-term public safety. RCP does this through thoughtful facilitation 

RCP offers program participants a restorative-justice experience that is facilitated by a restorative justice practitioner. The experience emphasizes direct accountability and allows survivors and family members to give voice to all they endured. This is also a space to have lingering questions addressed by the young person, an opportunity for them to offer remorse or accountability and truth telling. This type of restorative justice can be healing and requires substantial commitment of time to prepare. While this process isn’t for everyone, when all parties involved choose to engage in this restorative practice, it can have a lasting emotional impact. 

What principles guide RCP?

This work is about centering Healing not punishment. We are divesting away from our current punitive justice system, which disproportionately impacts Black and Indigenous youth. We create space for healing to occur and power to be used toward their own liberation. Through individual and collective healing we are able to care for our communities and truly keep each other safe.

This work is about removing power from the County and returning it to communities–it is a move towards getting rid of the criminal system. We do this through our Consortium– creating networks of care and safety across King County that are rooted in community.

This work is about undoing the culture of white supremacy, colonialism, cis-hetero-patriarchy, and all other forms of oppression. This is done through centering predominantly Black- and Indigenous-led organizations, and programming that offers participants the ability to develop skills in advocacy and leadership.

This work centers the agency and liberation of youth.

This work is about building and holding accountable and caring relationships.

How do we break the rigid, binary view that people are either victims or perpetrators?

RCP actively challenges how the legal system understands safety in our community— rather than a focus on punishment, RCP recognizes that all individuals deserve healing and restoration. By supporting the basic needs and wellbeing of all individuals involved in the situation, RCP creates conditions for healing, accountability, growth and restoration. The traditional legal system sets individuals into a binary of perpetrator or victim, and addresses the law that has been broken, without addressing the root causes of harm. Instead RCP supports each individual holistically, providing them with resources, community support, and restorative practices so that all those involved are supported and can move forward.

How does a youth graduate from the program?

Participants complete the RCP program when they've made substantial progress on or completed self-identified goals in their action plan, and have a sustainable and authentic support system within their community. This individualized approach reflects RCP’s efforts to create a flexible process to support healing and accountability for participants and ensures that youth get the services they need. Program implementation to date has shown that some needs, such as behavioral health care and housing, take longer to address than others. 

What is the relationship between RCP and the Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS)?

RCP partners with King County’s Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS)’s Children, Youth, and Young Adults Division (CYYAD) to administer King County funds for the seven RCP community partners. As the result of a request for proposal in June 2021, DCHS contracts with community organizations to provide Consortium navigation services. RCP workgroups developed the RCP process and implementation plan, and DCHS and RCP provide updates to the King County Council.

DCHS and RCP partner on implementation, performance measurement, and evaluation practices for continuous quality improvement. RCP Consortium organizations submit quarterly performance data to DCHS. DCHS aligned the community’s selected performance measures with the Results-Based Accountability (RBA) framework, a framework used across DCHS programs that groups performance measures into three categories: how much was done, how well was it done, and is anyone better off? DCHS program staff work with contracted program organizations on a continual basis to ensure staffing and resources are available to provide services to all eligible youth.