Restorative justice proponents point to alternative way to end cycle of violence

The volunteers stand around the old storefront at 605 Main St. holding cardboard boxes filled with supplies — fresh fruit, bottles of water and jugs of juice, plastic containers into which used needles can be safely disposed — when there’s a knock at the door.

Someone unlocks it and lets in a woman off the street. She wanders over to a nearby table stacked high with folded clothing and looks through what’s on offer. Like everything else here, the clothing is free for anyone who needs it.

Off in the corner, talking energetically, is educator and activist Mitch Bourbonniere, who organizes a community walk out of this storefront every Tuesday and Thursday. Rain or shine, sleet or snow, they don’t miss a day — week in week out, month after month, year after year.

“There’s no funding for this,” Bourbonniere says, “we just do it.”

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