By Fern Gillespie
When Jania Witherspoon, 24, co-founder and co-executive director of Circle Keepers, was in high school, she discovered her mission in life: to be a restorative justice advocate and help young people navigate conflict situations through mediation.

At Harvest Collegiate High School in Manhattan’s Union Square, Brooklyn-born Witherspoon met her teacher Martin Urbach, Dean of Students. He was establishing an innovative form of conflict mediation for students. She was fascinated.

Witherspoon, a social worker, told Our Time Press, “I grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn and I saw how a lot of young people of color were impacted by suspensions and expulsions in school. Kids were being kicked out of school. Kids were being punished and not talked to and not listened to.

“The rate in which Black and Brown kids would come back to school was like close to none. They felt that their school didn’t believe in them, the system didn’t believe in them, so why should they invest in a system that no longer protected them?”

In 2017, while in high school, Witherspoon and Urbach co-founded the first restorative justice program at Harvest Collegiate High School. Working with teacher Urbach, they evolved Harvest’s fledgling after-school program into the successful, on-going Circle Keepers, designed to help young people to solve conflicts and deal with issues. Witherspoon recalled, “We realized how revolutionary this work would be.”

“When I was in high school,” Witherspoon recalled, “youth were having a very hard time with respect for their peers, teachers, and school administrators. I saw many instances of this growing up in Brooklyn public schools, and then in Manhattan schools,” she said. “It’s very hard when there are phones in the classroom; students are doing drugs, when teens are disrespecting teachers or teachers are disrespecting children and saying things to youth that’s out of pocket and not restorative at all. The harm went both ways.

“Restorative justice is a framework of abolition and accountability. There is a process that happens to hold the person accountable for their actions,” Witherspoon added. “In Circle Keepers, the person that did the harm sits down with the person that was harmed. They have a conversation. Sometimes, multi-day or multi-week conversations about how the person who did the harm can be held accountable for what they did.”

After graduating from Harvest, Witherspoon worked with Urbach on restorative justice outreach. In 2024, both her and Urbach became co-founders of the Circle Keepers. Urbach, who is a Latino educator, youth activist and musician, headed the organization as executive director. Witherspoon, the co-founder, became a board member and Director of Youth Voice & Vision.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Marist College and Master of Social Work at Hunter College.
In June, Urbach left Circle Keepers and the board of directors appointed Witherspoon and Amber Colon, Director of Youth Experiences, as co-executive directors.

Colon, 20, was mentored by Witherspoon and Urbach at Harvest Collegiate and became a leading cohort in the school’s restorative justice program. “When a conflict arose at the high school, we would have upperclassman, 11th and 12th graders, sit down with the younger youth to hash out any problems that they had among each other or with staff and administrators,” she told Our Time Press. “Through restorative justice mediation practices, Manhattan School District 2’s student suspensions were reduced by 95 percent over a four-year period from 2019 to 2023.”

Through Circle Keepers, youth ages 13 to 18 are trained as cohorts in restorative justice. They take their skills back to their school and lead in their peer mediation. Restorative justice training is also available to staff members of nonprofits and schools.

At Circle Keepers, youth are motivated with empowerment leadership skills. They engage in political education, healing arts, music, civic participation, community service and social justice projects. They learn and practice peer mediation protocols, conflict resolution circles and community building activities.

Led by Colon, youth testimony before the City Council helped lead to the successful restoration of more $32 million of funding cuts towards restorative justice programming in NYC Public Schools during 2022-2024. The Circle Keepers has trained over 1,000 New York City students as restorative justice peer mediators and over 100 public school staffers in school based mediation.

Colon, at present, is attending culinary school. “I cook meals for the kids while we teach restorative justice, some political education and remediation,” she said. “They come and work together. We also give them paid stipends. So, they don’t have to worry about trying to get a job and also be passionate about making change in the community.”

Circle Keepers programs are held at eight different public schools, across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx.The nonprofit has received grants from CitizensNYC and the William T. Grant Foundation. Brooklyn Arts Council funded Circle Keepers’ second annual Peace & Justice Conference in June.

It was a day of learning and community building by youth, for youth, supported by adult allies. It included youth-led artistic and social justice performances that combined music, poetry, visual arts, and performance with social activism.

Both Witherspoon and Colon also are part of a Gen Z movement of social justice entrepreneurship. “I think of myself as part of a generation that is often talked about, but not listened to,” said Witherspoon. “I think that young people are no longer waiting for permission to lead. We’re building organizations. And creating solutions. We are re-imagining what restorative justice leadership can look like.”

For more information on the Brooklyn-based Circle Keepers, visit: www.thecirclekeepers.com