“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” — Margaret J. Wheatley
Dear friends,
Crisis often has a way of connecting us with our deepest held values. This is one of the remarkable things we have seen in 2020: so many of the crises we have endured have also resulted in bringing people together in new ways, discovering shared values, and working together to make a difference in the world.
As we near the end of one of the most tumultuous years in recent history, I’d like to take the opportunity to celebrate the resilience, leadership, courage, and integrity of our team members here at PiRI. It is a true blessing to know each and every one of them.
Like the rest of the world, our team has been hit hard by the ongoing and rising crisis of this pandemic, with the disease personally claiming the lives of family members of several of our team members. We have witnessed, and many of us have participated in, the mass uprisings against racial injustice, including in our own Rochester community, and we have experienced solidarity in our pursuit of justice with the Black Lives Matter movement and its local leaders. We have felt the pain of a divisive political climate, which has brought up heightened tensions even in our friendships and families.
In addition to these external crises, this year will also be memorable for us at PiRI as a time when internal crises thrust us into a series of courageous conversations as an organization. After a number of painful racial harms took place within our team early in 2020, we began a process of internal restorative work with facilitators from the Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition to repair harm and re-establish trust within our organization. We also established a Social Justice & Equity work group, made up of staff, trainers, facilitators, and board members, as well as a Human Resources committee, with the priority of incorporating an equity focus into everything that we do. While often painful and challenging, we know that this work is fundamentally who we are, and it is essential that as an organization, we are prepared to “walk the walk” when faced with an opportunity to repair harm and make things right. It is critical to acknowledge that this work takes a toll especially on our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community members. Our BIPOC team members have contributed significant emotional labor to our anti-racism work, for which I am deeply grateful.
Miraculously, in the midst of all of this, our team has also persisted in fulfilling our mission at PiRI: to bring restorative practices to our community. Our trainers, facilitators, and staff worked dilligently to translate our trainings and services to an online format. Led by our Education Coordinator, Mahreen Mustafa George, this team dedicated themselves to rewriting our restorative practices trainings through an equity lens, as well as supporting anti-racism efforts in schools and community organizations. Our team has sustained collaborations with school districts and established new partnerships with higher education, health care, and other community organizations. We coordinated virtual versions of our yearly Annual Meeting and Open House events, with guest presenters from Greece Central School District, the Police Accountability Board Alliance, and Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition.
As we continue to walk our walk here at PiRI, I’m also celebrating the magical moments we get to experience together as a community: inventing new virtual circle openings and closings like “face yoga”, dressing up in Halloween costumes for our staff meeting, checking in at every meeting together, and holding space for all our grief and all our joy.
In 2021, may we all continue to grow together, to build relationships, strengthen our communities, and repair our world.
In peace,
Shira May
Executive Director