For Us, By Us: Practicing Restorative Justice in our Community June 2025

Eastside Mutual Aid (EMA) is a Black-led mutual aid group focused on building solidarity among poor Black Detroiters. We are aware of the allegations against one of our members. These concerns are interpersonal, yet outsiders to our community have sought accountability of EMA as a whole. Our organization believes in restorative justice, thus we are actively learning and applying these practices; however, our scope of work is direct aid, not restorative justice.

We believe in liberation for all Black people, inclusive of LGBTQ+ folks, while also stating that Black liberation is collective liberation. We define collective liberation as standing in solidarity through shared conflict. We must call out how these calls for accountability have once again centered white folks, while also gatekeeping the resources to repair harm. The real impacts to our community are numerous: 

• Volunteer burnout

• Reduction in fundraising and resource gathering

• Distrubution of basic needs cut in half

• Building of community partnership stopped

• Dissolution of relationships

We are accountable to our community and will be moving forward in these ways

• The member of concern is not a “leader” of EMA, but has been widely perceived as such; this member’s responsibilities will be clarified, and their name will be removed from EMA’s legal nonprofit paperwork

• Broadening our safety systems with a focus on de-escalation

• Implementing a system within EMA that enables individuals to simultaneously report harmful behavior and initiative restorative justice

• Documenting accessible, practical steps for restorative justice

• Sponsoring regular, third-party-led restorative justice trainings

• Restructuring member roles and responsibilities to address power imbalances

We have informed EMA’s community about the allegations and are maintaining dialogue with our community as we proceed through this process.