Opinion

How I Used Restorative Justice to Heal Myself and My Family

For Lisbet Pérez, the restorative justice framework helped her family heal after leaving an abusive relationship. She was skeptical at first, but soon found a way to reconnected with her children’s father.

Through the process, she learned that her family could grow and heal through their own resilience, and that leaning on the support of her community would create the safe environment her children needed.

The Catharsis of Accountability: My Healing Journey 

With the help of a faith-based restorative justice program in Los Angeles I was able to choose forgiveness and find healing for myself and my son.

I made a decision that I was not going to raise my son with hatred. I was going to show him grace in an empowering way. It became my goal to bring about restoration.

Analysis: How Healing Circles Can Help Create Stronger Communities 

Trixie is a young woman in her mid-20s who recently left an abusive relationship with a boyfriend. She came to my workplace, Walnut Avenue Family & Women’s Center, in Santa Cruz, seeking help from our restorative justice program.

What she was looking for wasn’t an accountability process for her abusive ex-boyfriend, but a means of addressing the trust broken by her friends who didn’t believe that the abuse was real.

Analysis: You Can’t Surf With a Ventilator. The Problems with AI in Health Care, and Some Solutions

I spent a recent afternoon querying three major chatbots on some medical questions that I already knew the answers to. I wanted to test the kind of information that AI can provide.

“How do you go surfing while using a ventilator?” I typed. It was an obviously silly question. But Meta’s AI suggested using “a waterproof ventilator designed for surfing” and “set the ventilator to the appropriate settings for surfing.”

Opinion: Older Californians Need Support to Age at Home. Funding it Is Critical

California, through the Master Plan on Aging, has led the nation in recognizing the unique and increasingly urgent needs of older adults.

But Gov. Newsom’s recently released budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year could cut aging and disability-focused programs. We’ve heard firsthand from older adults, people with disabilities and family caregivers about the challenges in accessing support and affordable housing. Many people feel left behind by the system.

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