The city of College Park is now collecting applications for its Restorative Justice Steering Committee, which will work to craft preliminary steps toward addressing the city’s history of oppression of the Lakeland community, according to a Monday news release.
The steering committee will plan for and establish the city’s official Restorative Justice Commission. This committee is the first step in that process, the release added. The College Park City Council unanimously approved the steering committee earlier this month.
[College Park Council OKs steering committee to approach restorative justice in Lakeland]
Applications to join the steering committee are due March 1 and must be submitted to city clerk Janeen Miller.
The steering committee will draft the purpose, scope of work, framework, timeline and goals of the commission, and will recommend what the commission’s membership should look like. Members will also identify resources and other facilitators to the council that will help it carry out the restorative justice process in Lakeland, a historically Black neighborhood in the city that was largely displaced in the 1970s.
[College Park City Council discusses committee to approach restorative justice in Lakeland]
The committee will have a limited period of time to complete its work, according to the release. The committee will be made up of current and former members of the Lakeland and College Park communities at large, particularly those who have experience with restorative justice processes.
