Rittenhouse is an organization in Toronto that envisions and works toward a just, accountable society that promotes care for all members of society, community accountability, and government responsibility.  A crucial part of this work is facilitating the resolution of conflicts and social harms in our communities without involving the state or resorting to exclusion and punishment.  

For the last five years, we have been partnering with community agencies on a Transformative Justice & Harm Reduction Project. We have worked closely with people in your community who use drugs and have been affected by the prevalence of conflict and at times, by criminalization. Each of these individuals have important insights and experiences that are helpful to share with others struggling in similar ways.   Members of our group have gathered each month to talk about conflict and its impact on our lives, to develop our skills to intervene in conflict, and to discuss work we are doing in community, in housing, in drop ins,  community health centres and more.

Given funding constraints, we are in the process of developing a sustainability plan for the upcoming year. We ask for your support to continue this project. Our goals for this year are to:

1) Run monthly circles with those who have graduated from the program in the Kensington Market community, South Riverdale Community, and those who are entering the program in the Parkdale community.

These monthly circles will include reflections on the impact of conflict on the lives of members and communities, skills development to address conflict within drug using and marginalized communities, and strategies to move our project forward and continue to grow. These circles are an invaluable part of transforming individuals who are often excluded from mainstream community, and transforming our communities into inclusive, respectful spaces.


2) Strive to live up to the mission/vision statement we developed as a group:

We work closely with people in our community who use drugs and have been impacted by conflict and criminalization to strengthen, unify, and empower marginalized people to work toward decriminalizing drug users and to resolve conflict in nurturing not punitive ways.

 We work to identify and resolve conflict in our communities in ways that:

* address the root causes of conflict, including marginalization, poverty, racism, sexism, transphobia, stigma, and isolation

* include people with lived experience in resolving conflict rather than impose top-down decisions

* support and hold people accountable, rather than punish and do further harm

 
We do transformative justice conflict resolution by:

* facilitating open forum, community conflict circles

* working with community agencies to resolve conflicts with service users using circle processes

* presenting information about our work at workshops across the city on harm reduction, mental health, and transformative justice

* continuing to build our conflict resolution skills during monthly meetings

We have been well received by service providing agencies across Toronto. We employ past clients, create worthwhile jobs, and ensure equal opportunity to conflict resolution opportunities.

Our long-term vision is to create a movement that will engage individuals and communities in conflict in meaningful dialogue, transforming our society’s response beyond punishment, social fragmentation, and incarceration.


3) Raise money to support our ongoing work. 


We are asking you to consider making a financial contribution to assist in our goal to run monthly circles.

A contribution of $30 will will provide an honorarium to support one group member to attend a monthly circle and do transformative justice work in the community.

A contribution of $40 will cover the cost of food for pariticipants for one monthly circle.

A contribution of $60 will cover the cost of TTC tokens for 10 group members for one month.

A contribution of $300 will cover the cost of honoraria for 10 group members for one month to attend a monthly circle and do transformative justice work in the community.
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Any amount helps!  Donations can also be made by cash or cheque and receipts can be issued for donations of $20 or more.   Cheques can be made payable to:

Rittenhouse; 526 Richmond St. E.; Toronto, ON; M5A 1R3

Thank you so much for supporting this important project!

For more information about Rittenhouse :
www.rittenhouseanv.com