5th Annual Colter Coffee Latte Art Competition

Judges tally scores during the 5th Annual Colter Coffee Latte Art Competition.

Center for Restorative Youth Justice - Images and Voices Youth Art Exhibit Recognizes Victims

Center for Restorative Youth Justice - Images and Voices Youth Art Exhibit Recognizes Victims. On Display Now at Colter Coffee in Downtown Kalispell. 

Harper Lee  once wrote "You never really know a man until you understand things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." As an opening quote in "To Kill a Mockingbird" it is a powerful reminder of the path to empathy and understanding.

In recognition of National Crime Victims Rights Week (April 22nd– 28th) the Center For Restorative Youth Justice (CRYJ) has offered this Youth Exhibit to the Flathead Community - focused on unfolding and uncovering the ripples caused by crime, and honoring the voices of those most impacted. CRYJ’s programs work one-on-one with youth and victims of juvenile crime to ‘reweave the fabric’ of relationships (community, family, peers) in ways that promote true accountability, inspire connection, and increase community safety. Conversations with victims and community members allow youth to focus on what steps are needed to repair the real harm caused by their actions, and to create opportunities for victims and youth to move forward in positive ways that reconnect them to our community. Description of Exhibit: For this exhibit CRYJ youth participants worked to gather voices and perspectives in an attempt to discover not only how victimization and harm can separate us as a community - but how we can use empathy and understanding to come together. When choosing to walk in another’s shoes the choice is made to listen to those who wish to be heard, and to see the truth in others who wish to be seen. This exhibit is titled "Images and Voices: Road to Repair" and is built to be an interactive artistic piece where the observer also becomes a participant. The project encompasses real voices and images of local youth, as well as voices of victims - providing an opportunity for you as the community to view both the outside and inside experience of these two populations and to offer words, wishes, or hopes for healing and growth. What do we do as victims of crime to move forward, to find safety and our voice when both feel so far away? What does the world say about teenagers? How do we exist in a world of stereotypes and external pressures while trying to hold on to some sense of who we are? One of the goals of this project was to interview teenagers about what other people (especially adults) think about them, and to describe the ‘inside person’. Youth participants were also asked to look through statements and quotes from real victims of youth crime in our community - broadening an understanding of the far reaching impacts a single decision can make on the world around us. The goal of this exhibit is to honor voices - to create ways to repair and rebuild relationships. To step aside from judgment - to offer our hopes, to find the goodness in each other. To restore. The Images and Voices: Road to Repair will be on display at FVCC from April 23rd through April 26th, in Colter Coffee from April 27th-May 27th, and in the Park Side Credit Union Whitefish Branch from  June 1   - June 8th. We hope you will participate in this exhibit and encourage others to as well.
For more information about CRYJ’s Restorative Programming please visit our website at www.restorativeyouthjustice.org or give us a call (406) 257-7400.

Shareen Springer

Executive Director

Center for Restorative Youth Justice

T. 406.257.7400 E: shareen@restorativeyouthjustice.org

www.restorativeyouthjustice.org