Congratulations! By this point, you should be coming off meetings with the DAO and other system partners where you have received informal or formal (in that legal documents have been signed) buy-in for RJD in your community. This is a huge milestone! This section will review steps from previous sections to make sure you have all the resources, materials, logistical information, and staff necessary to receive training and have restorative justice diversion become a reality.

Get Organized

Even if your system partners did not wish to sign the memorandum of understanding (MOU) or standing order that was talked about in Step 2F: Referring Cases, you still want to make sure that everything else is in order so that once you receive training, the documents can get signed and the program can get up and running. That looks like:

• Make sure the MOU and standing order reflect the changes and modifications you and your system partners needed so there is nothing left to do on them except sign
• Have identified or confirmed funding for the program
• Have positions and infrastructure in place to start the program so that once you are trained the program can begin
• Stay connected and learn about future training and technical assistance opportunities with the Restorative Justice Project at Equal Justice USA

Establish or Confirm Funding

As you learned in Step 2D: Funding, you must consider how you will fund your RJD program. Ensuring funding for your program will support its sustainability and overall success. Funding allows you to build the necessary infrastructure and systems, and fill all the necessary staff roles for your program. Make sure to create a fundraising plan that includes:

• Budget
• Fundraising goal
• Fundraising methods
• Fundraising pitch
• List of potential funding sources
  • Our Potential RJD Funding Streams resource and the Foundation Center from Step 2D: Funding can help you start this part of the process
• Research from your community

Once you have a solid fundraising plan in place, you can track down funding for your RJD program. When you have funding in place, you will be able to hire program staff and obtain the resources to build out your program. Something worth noting is that having system partner buy-in (whether or not they have signed the MOU) makes your funding applications stronger!

Staff Up!

Before receiving further trainings, make sure you’ve hired staff or established who will be holding what roles and positions in your RJD program. Again, every staff member plays an important role in the survival, maintenance, and success of your program. Feel free to revisit both the RJD Org Chart and the RJD Staff Roles & Responsibilities resources to make sure you have what you need to get the program off the ground.

As you can see, the organization chart and roles and responsibilities resources cover the necessary staff roles for a program during the first “pilot” year and for subsequent years as the program expands. To reiterate, in the first year “pilot” program, the minimum necessary positions for an RJD program to be successful are: two facilitators, one program manager, and one administrative assistant. During the first year, these positions will be tasked with all of the responsibilities detailed in the Roles & Responsibilities resource as well as varying levels of the “Expanding Responsibilities.” However, as your program grows and expands in both responsibility and capacity, the “Expanding Responsibilities” listed will quickly become much more complicated. We encourage you to start thinking about how and by whom these responsibilities will get done without overburdening any one position. This may mean hiring new people tasked with the more specialized responsibilities.

Once you have everything sorted out, head over to Step 3: Stay Connected to find out how to work with us!

What If…?

What if we’ve found people in our community who are interested and would be perfect for working with our RJD program but we haven’t found funding yet?

First, congratulations on establishing what you have! Building this program from the ground up requires a lot of juggling of what is currently happening and foresight about what needs to be happening down the line. It can feel frustrating when the timing of certain pieces don’t seem to line up the way we expected or planned for them to—our team can definitely attest to this! Continue to build and nurture relationships with folks in your community and be transparent around where you are in the process. We have found that all of the pieces do tend to come together at the right moment.

What if we’ve received funding for our program but can’t find the right people to hire to work with us?

Very similar to the scenario above. Funding is never easy to receive so hats off to you! If you’re having trouble finding the right folks for your program, think about how you’re communicating these positions out into the community and try to diversify! Are your open positions only visible on your website? Think about promoting them via social media and your organization’s listserv; ask partner orgs in your community to post them; send them out to local coalitions you’re a part of; post fliers in local community centers or other frequented areas.

What if we realize that there are actually other organizations in the area that we could have partnered with earlier in the process but we just learned about them now?

It’s never too late to collaborate! In fact, we strongly encourage you to be looking for ways to build and expand your network of support before, during, and after your RJD program has launched. As you’ve learned in earlier sections, restorative justice asks us to embrace our interconnectedness with one another, so your RJD program should never operate in isolation or feel exclusionary. There are so many incredible people doing truly incredible work, and oftentimes, the best folks—the ones most steeped in community and most deeply connected to the work—don’t have the best website or the flashiest brochures. Leaving room for potential allies or partners at every step of the way will allow your program to flourish as it continues to evolve.

Tools & Resources

Resource: Potential RJD Funding Streams

Resource: RJD Org Chart

Resource: RJD Staff Roles & Responsibilities