by Mary Shafer
In this final installment of our Best of BANR to date series, we revisit Kerra L. Bolton’s piece on the Enterprise facet of societal need in Detroit.
Originally published in October, 2018, Kerra’s post, Can Better Workplaces Make Detroit a Better City?, was part of a larger series based on her personal experiences during a visit to the struggling city.
Left floundering economically after the massive downsizing of the automotive industry in fallout from the Great Recession of 2008, Detroit was already on shaky economic ground. The city has, as Kerra says, for decades been “an American emblem of urban violence, crime, and poverty.”
Such conditions add to everyday life stressors to create conditions in which it is easy for people already on edge to become uncivil, and for normally low-key disagreements to escalate to outright strife and even violence.
It’s increasingly problematic for every facet of life in Detroit, and the workplace is no exception. But the people of this embattled city are taking matters into their own hands to keep their home from continuing to deteriorate. They are empowering themselves to arrest the downslide and return to a more civil atmosphere.
In this original post, Kerra explores the ways in which the city’s administrative offices, judicial system and related organizations are consciously implementing restorative practices (RP) to effectively deal with workplace conflict in a positive, productive manner.
Restorative practices are also the basis of our own Building A New Reality movement. We highlight examples of where RP is being used to build a new reality in every facet of daily life, and hope you’ve enjoyed this review of the best of our first three years working to build a new reality that’s peaceful, positive, productive and prosperous for all.
