We’re excited to announce that WAVAW is now offering Transformative Justice as part of our wrap-around-service delivery model!

Working with survivors of sexualized violence for nearly 40 years has given us first-hand experience to know that engagement with the police and the criminal legal system to bring charges against perpetrators doesn’t necessarily provide the feeling of justice, regardless of the outcome. Interaction with these systems often cause significant traumatization, harm, and disempowerment after violence. For many survivors, going to the police is a non-starter because of valid concerns of not being perceived as a “perfect victim” as their identity or community is stigmatized or criminalized and their lived experience has proven that approaching the police has made their communities less safe. 

In an effort to ensure that our support services are responsive to the needs of the survivors we serve, WAVAW launched a two-year Transformative Justice Pilot Project in 2021. This innovative project utilizes a transformative justice framework and draws on the wisdom of restorative justice approaches. This pilot is an attempt to expand options for survivors, victims, and all harmed by sexual violence. It aims to centre the needs of survivors and create safety and freedom for survivors to imagine and actualize their personal healing needs beyond the criminal legal system.

TJ at WAVAW requires us to consider and challenge the conditions, culture and/or community in which the harm became possible, so that accountability becomes achieved on a personal and collective level. Like all work we do at WAVAW, TJ is survivor-centred, meaning those who have been harmed by violence have their safety, healing and accountability needs addressed and centred.

The TJ Pilot Project team is part of our larger wrap-around service delivery model designed to take direction from the survivor and to support them to identify their justice needs.  Working collaboratively, we’ll build out a support system, often referred to as a pod, for the survivor to map out what an accountability process with the individual that caused harm and/or with community may look like. This mapping process may result in the desire to have the person that caused harm being led through an accountability process, it may also look like community dialogues, or letter exchanges. 

We’re committed to the practice of responding and attending to violence and harm in ways that don’t create more harm for the survivor or the person that has harmed them. Our process includes drawing on relationality and our responsibility to each other in community; and working towards a point where those who’ve done harm or those in community who have upheld conditions that allowed harm to happen become accountable for the harms they’ve caused or have been a silent witness to.

Transformative justice (TJ) at WAVAW is not a perfect, one-size-fits-all approach. It doesn’t fulfill many of our desires to see people who cause harm punished or ostracized and this is intentional. Instead, TJ holds onto our humanity and the inherent dignity we deserve as humans, knowing that eruptions of violence in the form of sexual assault and rape aren’t isolated incidents, but require many conditions to become possible because of patriarchy, colonialism, and rape culture just to name a few.

WAVAW acknowledges that Transformative Justice and Restorative Justice processes have existed in communities for centuries. We’re grateful to the teachings of many brilliant BIPOC, LGBTQ, disabled and chronically ill activists, practitioners, and community members that have been responding to violence within their communities for decades. These brilliant folks include Mariame Kaba, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Sarmarasinha, adrienne maree brown, Mia Mingus, Shannon Perez-Darby, generationFive, the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA), Daria (@accountabilitymapping), Creative Interventions, and Rania el Mugammar. We attribute their wisdom and experience to help us root our program and practice in our value and commitment to a survivor centered approach.

To learn more about the Transformative Justice Pilot Project, check our website highlighting our values and program logistics.