Philosophy & Core Values

Guiding Philosophy: Ubuntu

The philosophy of Ubuntu originates from the Zulu people of South Africa. The Nguni Bantu term means “humanity.” It is often translated as “I am because we are” or “humanity towards others,” In its philosophical sense, Ubuntu reminds use that we are all connected and that every action has indirect and direct effects on ourselves and our community. Using this as a guiding philosophy, we support youth in building skills to identify challenges in their community and support them in addressing those challenges in a healthy and holistic way. We believe that people from all walks of life are needed to build strong communities

Core Values:

ACCOUNTABILITY & HUMILITY – Accountability is a self practice that looks to get to the root cause of an issue. As a practice it provides skills that shift behaviors, cultures, and can build an infrastructure of consistent mechanisms that address harm, conflict, and violence. Humility is a condition of being humble, this feeling will and is essential to engage in accountability. It is an acknowledgement of one’s actions and behaviors in order to have the intention of striving towards accountability.

RECIPROCITY & INTERDEPENDENCE – We uphold a worldview that understands all life as an interconnected web. Though we are taught to believe in our dominant capitalist culture that we should and can exist independently, the truth is that we are in an intimate connection relationship with the land, humans, and other living beings. Disability Justice scholar and activist Mia Mingus asks the essential question: "Whose oppression and exploitation must exist for your “independence?” Drawing on indigenous teachings from some of our elders such as Harold and Phil Gatensby and Kathy Absolon as well as Disability Justice frameworks, we believe that everyone has something valuable to offer and that healing and transformative relationships are grounded in care and support. To that end, we resist extractive and transactional ways of engaging in our work and seek to build meaningful and holistic relationships with our partners and collaborators. If you are interested in building reciprocal relationship with us, please email us at info@unitycircles.com.

TRANSFORMATION & JUSTICE – We believe transformation is possible when communities affected most by carceral systems are able to decide for themselves what healing and self-determination look like. We see transformation as a process that requires attention and reflection at the individual, family and community level. We welcome everyone who wants to work towards justice while recognizing that based on history and positionality that work may look different. We support reparations and redistribution of wealth as a way to support the conditions for healing. Justice is all beings’ physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs being met in a way that doesn’t take away anyone else’s needs. Justice looks like centering the leadership of those who have historically not been valued as “leaders” including BIPOC youth, disabled and low income folks and those who have been formerly incarcerated.

HEALING & DIGNITY – We see healing as grounded in a reclamation of our dignity–our gifts, self-determination, personal power and presence; an ability to see ourselves and others as whole. The historic and current traumas of chattel slavery, colonization, racial capitalism, and patriarchy have made it necessary for us all to practice healing as a discipline if we are going to exist outside of these violent systems. We recognize that healing is not solely an individual experience; when we heal ourselves we heal our ancestors and future generations and we make it more possible for others in our immediate life and community to heal. Because of this, we believe healing happens on multiple levels, including in community.

Leadership

Our Vision & Mission

Our Program Partners

Work with Unity Circles

Vision Statement

We envision thriving communities free of carceral systems where cycles of violence are replaced by cycles of intergenerational leadership grounded in accountability, reciprocity, dignity, and transformation.

Mission Statement

Unity Circles centers communities most impacted by carceral systems by building networks of intergenerational leadership rooted in the values and practices of Restorative Justice and Transformative Justice

We do this by:

Conducting trainings, cohorts, and processes, youth leaders are supported in holding the vision in developing strong interconnected communities that address the root causes of harm.

Our Circle: Board of Directors

Valleria Miranda-Ferrick: Executive Director, Founder

Valleria Miranda-Ferrick is a Transformative and Restorative Justice practitioner, educator and trainer. She started her journey into this work in 2012 when she first learned about Peacemaking Circles and its healing power. Since 2012, Valleria has worked with over 10 Boston Public Schools as a partner in bringing Circles as a transformative and healing practice to youth and staff in the school system. Valleria has also conducted trainings with dozens of institutions and school districts across the United States to introduce Restorative Justice as a framework and practice to end the school to prison pipeline and address racial disparities in school discipline. In her personal and professional work, Valleria is committed to supporting community members and institutions in creating equitable and supportive spaces for youth to grow and thrive.

Dara Bayer: Programming - Board Member

Tranformative Justice Program Coordinator, Brown University

Dara Bayer is a social justice organizer, educator, and visual artist, who works to build interconnected and equitable communities through Restorative Justice (RJ) philosophy and practices. She graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Africana Studies and Visual Art in 2008 and first experienced the healing power of the Circle process that same year when she attended a four day RJ training facilitated by Janet "Mama J" Connors and Sayra Pinto. Since that transformational experience, she has worked to bring Circles into collective spaces in and out of institutions. From 2010 to 2017 she taught humanities at Boston Arts Academy where she used Circles in her teaching pedagogy and as a practice to develop and supported student leadership and voice. She has also incorporated Circle into her international travels with young people to South Africa and Rwanda, as well as locally in Boston through building intergenerational anti-racist organizing. Dara is the co-creator of Strength in Sisterhood, a Unity Circles Program that supports the development and leadership of middle school girls. She is interested in integrating social transformation and spiritual consciousness, particularly in supporting the empowerment of young women.

Sofia Meadows- Muriel: Programming- Board Member

Sofia Meadows-Muriel is a senior Commonwealth Honors student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst double majoring in Afro-American Studies and Social thought and political economy with a minor in women, gender, & sexualities studies. Born and raised in Boston, Sofia got involved with Unity Circles as a participant in the 2020 Transformative Justice Practitioner program and is currently co-facilitating the 2021 TJPP cohort. She has enjoyed expanding her understanding of abolition, Afrofuturism, and TJ within the several grassroots organizations they are participating in her hometown.

Mariam Levy: Fundriasing- Board Member

Mariam Levy is a mother and anti-racist activist and facilitator living in southern New Hampshire. Her paid work involves helping schools implement Restorative Justice- which she uses as a framework to move schools towards building just communities where liberation is possible. Mariam loves spending time in the woods, which is where she finds much of her strength and inspiration.

Caitlin Dimino: Fundraising - Board Member

Caitlin Dimino is an artist and activist from East Boston and Brookline, MA. She is inspired by abolitionist and reparationist movements and deeply committed to redistribution of wealth, land, and power. Caitlin's reverence for moving waters and the feeling of expansive wonder and possibility they elicit in her prompted a recent move from Boston to the Outer Cape where she lives between bay and ocean and joyfully works in the arts.