Here comes the sun.
Happiest 2026!
One great thing about January is that our Illinois days slowly begin to get longer. By mid month, we will have 2 additional minutes of sun each day. The reemergence of the sun renews our hope for the year to come and our resolve to continue making connections and building community.
looking back
Here, on the other side of 2025, we are grateful to have connected with people doing incredible work across Illinois, such as…
We trained staff from the Youth Services Bureau of Illinois Valley (Ottawa), a Juvenile Redeploy site which serves Bureau, Grundy, and LaSalle Counties. Using the RJ circle process, we discussed the importance of social-emotional competency development for adults and the ways that their own skills can enhance their work with their colleagues and clients.
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Juvenile Redeploy Illinois is a program that supports court-involved youth and their families at home in their communities
in lieu of them being sent to prison.
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After completing our 4-day training in 2024, Youth Services Network, the Juvenile Redeploy site for Winnebago and Boone counties, continues to run with their RJ skills. They have held circles in the Rockford community, bringing together systems and community folks to discuss topics like human trafficking. They circled up with current and former Redeploy youth to learn from them what works and what could be improved in the program. Most recently, we trained a YSN cohort to become RJ trainers themselves.
We trained the Lake County Juvenile State’s Attorney and her colleagues from the SAO and the community to become Circle Keepers. We can’t wait to see what they do with their skills!
We spoke with an engaged group of people at the League of Women Voters of Oak Park-River Forest about restorative justice and the ways RJ is a growing movement - not merely a moment. We traced the growth of restorative justice across Illinois, highlighting key legislative milestones and RJ’s growing presence in schools, communities, and systems.
looking forward
Our soundtrack
As if made for us, a new play called Revolution(s) by Zayd Dohrn and Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine fame), arrived in Chicago. Revolution(s) tells the story of a soldier and musician, Hampton Weems. When Weems returned to Chicago from Afghanistan, he find’s the South Side just as occupied. Revolution(s) celebrates the music that inspires all of us to demand a better world.
Nancy was so excited about the play that she called WBEZ and spoke with Zayd and Tom on air, sharing about RJI and our playlist, Inspiration for Reimagining. You can hear Nancy about 80% through the interview.
And, in honor of Revolution(s) and Nancy’s moment of radio fame, we feature RATM’s Renegades of Funk.
shifting systems
The Illinois Clean Slate Act, which makes criminal records eligible for automatic sealing, passed the General Assembly in October 2025. Once signed into law, 2.2 million people in Illinois will be eligible to have their records automatically sealed, including, with certain exceptions, records of all misdemeanor convictions, ordinance violations, and Class 1, 2, 3, and 4 felony convictions.
Public Act 104-0449 reforms Illinois’s practice of juvenile detention by gradually increasing the minimum age for detention from 10 to 13. The law also creates a Child First Reform Task Force to propose community-based alternatives (including restorative justice) to juvenile detention as well as consider the conditions and administration of juvenile detention centers, and evaluate complaints arising out of juvenile detention centers. The passage of this critical law is the culmination of 14 years of advocacy by our partner the Juvenile Justice Initiative, and is a critical step toward a more just and restorative system.