ORCA: Oakland Restorative Community Action

06/04/2026

Si puedes mirar, ve. Si puedes ver, repara.
- José Saramago.
[If you can look, go. If you can see, repair it.]

arnoldo garcía art: philosophy series (9” x 12” | acrylic on paper)

05/30/2026

A teenager sits in the principal’s office for the third time in two weeks. The vice principal is writing up a suspension. The student is looking at the floor. There is no conversation about what happened, what he needs, or how to repair what broke. There is only the machinery of removal. A form gets signed. A parent gets called. The student goes home. Nothing changes except the distance between the school and the young person it was meant to serve.

This scene repeats across Houston every single day. It repeats across America. It has repeated for so long that it feels inevitable, like physics rather than policy. But it is neither. It is a choice. And choices can be unmade.

Meet Dr. Anita Wadhwa

Executive Director and co-founder of Restorative Houston, a woman who spent years inside that machinery before she decided to dismantle it from the outside.

She is a Harvard-educated scholar, published author, former English teacher, dean of students, and assistant principal. But none of those credentials explain who she really is. What matters is simpler and harder: she is someone who looked at how punishment flows through institutions and saw that there was another way to build safety. Then she spent more than a decade proving it works. . . .

A teenager sits in the principal's office for the third time in two weeks. The vice principal is writing up a suspension. The student is looking at the floor.

04/23/2026

What is a circle without people? A space filled with memories and life that is and life to be.

Getting ready to gather in circle in Oakland: RJ Community Hour.

Join ORCA and DM if you’re interested in participating in our monthly gathering.

04/13/2026

Three restorative justice organizations plan to rally on the steps of City Hall on Monday evening to demand that the Pasadena City Council adopt a package of reparations for families displaced decades ago by the construction of the 710 Freeway, including a public apology from the mayor, $150,000 in restitution, and set-asides for affordable housing on 50 acres of former freeway land.
The 5 p.m. rally precedes the city council workshop at 6 p.m. at which officials are scheduled to publicly unveil and review the draft Reconnecting Pasadena SR-710 Vision Plan.

The proposal lays out a framework for redeveloping roughly 50 acres of land relinquished to the city in 2022 after the state abandoned plans to complete an ill-fated 710 freeway extension. . . .

Daily Newsmagazine and City Guide to Pasadena, California featuring local news, breaking news, events, weather, sports news, schools news, shopping, restaurants and more from Pasadena Now

03/22/2026

All My Relations

A podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) , and Temryss Lane (Lummi Nation), to explore our relationships—relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another.

Each episode invites guests to delve into a different topic facing Native peoples today as we keep it real, play games, laugh a lot, and even cry sometimes. This space is for everyone—for Native folks to be joyous, think critically about issues facing our communities, hear new perspectives, look into a mirror of self, and for non-Native folks to listen and learn.

WELCOME TO ALL MY RELATIONS A podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) , and Temryss Lane (Lummi Nation), to explore our relationships—relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another. Each episode invites guests to delve into a different topic facing Native peo...

03/20/2026

Breaking News!! Read-a-thon in Oakland

Melrose Leadership Academy students are obsessed with reading !

https://mla-lee-a-ton-2026.raiselysite.com/en/¡Bienvenido a nuestro sexto Lee-a-tón de Melrose Leadership Academy!¡El Lee-a-tón es un desafío de lectura para...

03/20/2026

RJ series on diverse topics.

Free webinar series with Professor Theo Gavrielides covering restorative justice themes such as domestic violence, gender based violence, mental health, powe...

03/20/2026

New publication

Everyday Restorative Justice:
Moving from crisis response to positive school culture.

Listen to interview with author, Tatiana Chaterji (link in the comments)

This much-needed book provides a practical framework for implementing school-wide restorative justice practices to enhance students’ social emotional readiness.Amidst today’s uncertainty and social unrest, this book offers teachers and students hope in the underlying principles of restorative ju...

03/10/2026

What role, if any, does restorative justice and RJ practitioners have to prevent the structural and institutional harm the cutbacks will generate?

*

“On Feb. 25, the Oakland Unified School District Board voted to eliminate more than 400 positions — including literacy tutors, coaches, counselors, attendance specialists and community school managers. The timeline left no room for community input, advocacy or adjustment.

“The Oakland Unified board majority approved the cuts reluctantly — the $102 million deficit is real, and the threat of returning to state receivership is real.

“But it leaves us asking, how are you going to ensure every child has the right to read and access to quality learning opportunities? . . . “

OUSD's recent decision to eliminate hundreds of jobs because of real budget problems jeopardizes early, hard-won progress on improving literacy across the district.

02/18/2026

Decolonizing RJ starts by practicing circle and repost/tesprorstion outside the institutions that police us, criminalize us, and continue to colonize our colors, our skins, our cultures, our freedom struggles and liberation legacies. You cannot decolonize EJ without decolonizing schools, disarming police and decriminalizing our existence.

84 likes, 2 comments. “ ”