Andrea Conte’s Interspecies Mutual Aid is part of Just Seeds’ graphics collection, and just feels perfect to start off this month’s update!

Last month we talked about the idea of fully resourced communities as the first big theme from our research project asking how urban and regional planning practice can support restorative justice, transformative justice and abolition.

The second big theme is that these communities need to be produced through ecosystems of care. This theme really puts a spotlight on process, and the importance of planners playing a support role, following the folks who have been most impacted by community violence, policing, prisons and carceral violence, and building ongoing relationships in the process.

This fall we’ll start our Pathways to Community Safety series sharing our research findings, and ideas for action and practice, so watch this space for more!

One of our main findings has been that planning can support abolition by making sure that communities are fully resourced with all the supports we need.

As a contributor to the podcast Invisible Institutions put it:

Alice Ross’ ‘Always Carry a Book’ is part of the Justseeds graphics collection. Justseeds is a cooperative of artists committed to social, environmental, and political engagement, and whose work I go back to for inspiration all the time.

One of my current favourites is a poster by William Estrada, an image of a forest with a bright pink night sky and a group of walkers winding through a trail with the reminder that “we learn with each other” printed along the bottom.