Center for Peacemaking

"From brokenness to wholeness; trauma to healing; and harm to restoration."

Purpose and Misson

The Center for Peacemaking seeks to advance community safety, shared responsibility, and healing through evidence-based programming, multidisciplinary scholarship, and community-wide training.

CJC Courts

The CJC Courts bring victims, offenders and their support groups together in a safe setting to recognize injustice, search for ways to restore equity and clarify a constructive future. This program serves both offenders and victims of crimes and is a collaborative effort between court, probation, the district attorney and defense counsel.

 

For more information, contact Seya Lumeya at seya.lumeya@fresno.edu or 559-453-3490.

CJC Schools

Restorative justice discipline is an alternative to traditional punitive discipline systems. Using a restorative discipline process with the support of a pre-arrest, community-based restorative justice mediation process helps to improve classroom and school climate by guiding administrators and teachers in ways to respond to each conflict that are life-giving, keeping students in class and out of the criminal justice system and holding all parties accountable in their roles as a community that cares for each other.

 

For more information, contact John Swenning at john.swenning@fresno.edu or 559-453-3419.

CJC Reentry

COSA Fresno is a collaborative partner with the Center for Peacemaking. It is an evidence-based program that provides restorative reentry services through community support.
How it Works: A reentering adult is surrounded by an inner circle of trained community volunteers who meet weekly through the first year of the member’s release from incarceration and six months prior to release. These circles are supported by professionals including supervision agents, psychologists, law enforcement officers, social service workers, etc. Circles are a proven restorative response used around the world and across cultures with healing and restorative outcomes.

 

For more information, contact Antonio Delfino at antonio@cosafresno.org or 559-825-1221.

CJC Neighborhoods

Our peacebuilding initiatives are community-based, community-resourced and volunteer-driven. We provide support and training for peacebuilding initiatives, working closely with law enforcement, school, church and city support leaders across the Central Valley from various ethnic and cultural communities. These initiatives help create more peaceful and healthy communities, making attempts to:

• Restore relationships between victims and juvenile offenders
• Prevent offenders from committing further crimes
• Promote community involvement through a restorative justice process

For more information, contact Kimberly Gragston at kimberly.gragston@fresno.edu or 559-453-2361.

Check out our events page to see a full list of trainings and workshops.

See what VORP CJC is all about and the restorative justice practices we're implementing in the Central Valley.

Dalton Reimer shares from his new book "Story-Formed Pathways to Peace". The book blends material from his Genesis teachings on reconciliation with new material from the New Testament.