Our work seeks to prevent, repair, and move beyond harm for all those impacted by crime. Our newsletter Quaker Concern comes out three times a year sharing stories from our transformative justice work and how we’re making a difference.

Canadian Quakers believe that justice must be compassionate and focus on how to heal rather than how to punish. This is what’s called “penal abolition”—working to put an end to punishment and harm throughout the justice system. This is the ground from which our methods, processes, and partnerships emerge.

A particular focus for our transformative justice work is on children and youth. Policing and imprisonment regularly harm children and youth directly or indirectly. They’re particularly vulnerable when they enter the justice system, but are also collateral victims when their parents are arrested or imprisoned.

Children are often ignored in the process of a parent’s arrest, remand, sentencing, and imprisonment, yet they experience a range of psychological, social, and economic hardships. Many challenges are faced by children who are born into or living in prison with a parent, as well as children who are left on the outside.