Western Justice Center Concludes Seven-Year Restorative-Justice Partnership With Azusa Unified on High Note

The Western Justice Center, a Pasadena nonprofit that also runs restorative-justice programs in Pasadena Unified schools, has concluded a seven-year partnership with the Azusa Unified School District built around peer mediation and conflict resolution, the organization said in a statement in which it announced it is handing over the program to the district.

The Center credits its work with the reduction of Azusa school’s suspension rate from 12% to 2%.

Those figures, along with a reported 6.2% drop in chronic absenteeism and a rise in the number of high school students earning A-through-C grades, from 71.5% to 79.5%, were provided by the two organizations in the statement issued by the Western Justice Center.

The partnership, built around restorative justice and peer mediation, began at a single middle school in 2019 and later expanded district-wide, the organization said.

The Western Justice Center said it is now handing the work to the district’s staff, students and families to continue, and that community-building circles and mediations would carry on after its formal role ends.

Jennifer Wiebe, Azusa Unified’s director of community schools, was quoted as saying the district had set out to change its culture rather than add a program.

“We didn’t want a surface-level program. We wanted a cultural shift,” she told the WJC.

Over its seven years, the release said, the partnership trained hundreds of Azusa students and staff members in conflict resolution and nurtured student leadership, including through the center’s “ABCs of Conflict” summer trainings. The organization said the effort centered on relationships, racial justice and restorative practices.

“[WJC and AUSD] have together transformed the culture and the climate of an entire school district. That’s a tremendous achievement,” said Elissa Barrett, the center’s executive director. She described the conclusion as a handoff: “This is the moment where [WJC] passes the baton to you, and you run the rest of the race.”

Superintendent Arturo Ortega emphasized the partnership’s customized approach.

“Every school is its own culture, its own community, its own family, and responding to those needs has been really, really awesome,” he said, according to WJC.

Azusa Councilwoman Sabrina Bow, who reportedly holds a doctorate in education, said that as a parent she had seen the effect of the district’s community schools.

“We are equipping even our youngest kids with the agency and tools needed to succeed,” she is quoted as saying.

According to the release, the Western Justice Center has provided conflict-resolution education across the Greater Los Angeles area for nearly four decades, and Azusa Unified serves nearly 7,000 students across eight elementary schools, one middle school and two high schools, along with an adult school, covering 9.7 square miles in Azusa and neighboring communities.

The center said its school work continues through partnerships with Pasadena Unified, Hacienda La Puente Unified and El Monte City school districts.

For more visit  https://westernjustice.org/