Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice Months Activities Offered

Estes Valley Voice Podcast

Story by Patti Brown
Melissa Westover is passionate about the work of the Estes Valley Restorative Justice Partnership, a local program that blends restorative justice services and proactive and responsive programs for youth and adults aimed at bringing the community together to resolve issues and build solutions.

Originally designed to help the police and courts deal with juvenile crime, the program works with both victims of crime to offer support in identifying the harm they have experienced and figuring out a system of repair, and offenders by providing a system of accountability.

Westover began as a caseworker for the program 14 years ago. She has an undergraduate degree in education and a graduate degree in counseling from Denver Seminary. She applies those in her work both with individuals referred to the program and in training volunteers who work with victims and offenders around the 6 Rs The six Rs of restoration: relationship, respect, responsibility, repair, reconciliation and reintegration.

For Westover, seeking win-win solutions to community problems such as vandalism and other misdemeanors is a mission, especially when an offender can repair the damage they have caused and, in the process, press a restart button. The EVRJP has not only reduced recidivism for offenders, but it has helped individuals to find healing from the experience of being a crime victim.

Grant’s book explores the critical art of rethinking one’s positions and biases on the issues of the day. Named one of The Washington Post’s best nonfiction book of 2021, “Think Again” invites readers to be more curious than certain about what they think they know. The library provided free copies of the book and hosted two discussion forums in October.

To kick off national Restorative Justice Month, the EVRJP is hosting a screening of the film “Undivide Us,” which challenges the idea that citizens who disagree are not capable of civil conversation.

The film will be shown on Oct. 30 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Fireside Theater at the Estes Valley Library. [Note: The location of this event has been changed from the museum to the library, and there is a waitlist for the program. To have your name added to the waitlist, click here.]
After the film, there will be a discussion led by Martín Carcasson, director of the Colorado State University’s Center for Public Deliberation. Carcasson has come to Estes before to lead his Tackling Wicked Problems workshop which focuses on building local capacity to engage with difficult issues collaboratively and productively through the use of deliberative processes.

Westover hopes to bring Carcasson back to Estes early next year for the more extended Tackling Wicked Problems workshop before the community begins to address updates to the Estes Park Development Code in 2025, a process that is expected to generate a lot of passion by community members who may have very different views about future development in the Estes Valley.

Wednesday evening’s event is presented in partnership with Estes Valley Restorative Justice Partnership, KUNC Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and Above the Noise a statewide initiative of the Colorado Press Association, Colorado Media Project, and Colorado State University’s Center for Public Deliberation, and Rocky Mountain Public Media.