What a Night! Recapping Our 2023 Spring Community Concert & Fundraiser

May 9, 2023

We had an absolute BLAST on Thursday, April 27th at our Spring Community Concert & Fundraiser spotlighting Joy Village School. Despite the chilly, rainy weather we had dozens of folks come out to Terrapin to support GCC and enjoy great beer and delicious food from Homy's Kitchen. The kids of Joy Village Choir captivated the entire venue, the Athens Mountain Singers harmonized beautifully, and Ishues ended the night with a high-energy and engaging performance. We also had Sofía Delgado from the Western Circuit DA's Office speak as well as two members of the Clarke County Middle School's Peace Leaders, who encourage fellow students to participate in restorative circles to resolve conflict.

We are incredibly grateful to these performers for donating their time and talent for this event and are looking forward to seeing them all perform in the future. Here are some of our favorite photos from the event and you can find the full album by clicking here. If you didn't get a chance to join us, we hope that we see you at the next Community Concert & Fundraiser in 2024!

other blogs and recommended reading

What GCC Means to Communities in Schools Neighborhood Leader

One of Athens' awesome Communities-In-Schools Neighborhood Leaders gives talks about the utility of conflict work in his professional and personal life.

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Restorative Justice

Elderly and Imprisoned: 'I Don't Count It as Living, Only Existing.'

A recent opinion piece from The New York Times discusses the peril of elderly incarcerated individuals. As the article states, the ACLU estimates that "by 2030, people over 55 will constitute a third of the country's prison population", even though elderly people are significantly less likely to reoffend.

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Pine Bluff School Introduces 'Restorative Room' to Help Calm Students, De-Escalate Fights

A school in Pine Bluff introduced the 'restorative room' as a way to help encourage kids to process their emotions and get through tough experiences.

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An Eighth Grade Class Just Exonerated The Last Witch Of The Salem Witch Trials

Massachusetts teacher Carrie LaPierre led her students through a restorative justice project over 300 years after the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

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“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.”― Thich Nhat Hanh

Each time we choose to draw near, rather than to send away, we are actively building a new way to be in community together. As we model this way of being in schools, we are shining a light and showing a way for what can be possible in the community as a whole.

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