Anne Gavin

Anne Gavin—2013 Fellow

Year: Class of 2015
Major: Anthropology and Political Science
Organization: Restorative Justice Community Action, City of Minneapolis Health Department, and The Juvenile Supervision Center

This summer I worked primarily with Restorative Justice Community Action in downtown Minneapolis.  I worked as a case-coordinator and directly assisted with nearly 50 cases of youth charged with misdemeanors and low-level felonies.  With help from community members, families, and the victims, I assisted youth in creating personal development plans that we used in lieu of court processes and when completed, erased the charges from the youth’s record.  My favorite part of working with RJCA was working to bridge conflicts that stemmed from cultural differences and seeing the greater understanding that resulted.  I also worked for the Health Commission of Minneapolis helping to re-imagine the city’s Hospital-Based Violence Intervention program for victims of gang violence and worked night shifts once a week in the city’s Juvenile Supervision Center, assisting with chemical and mental health referrals for youth after they are brought to the center by police officers and are waiting for their guardians to pick them up.  

The ability to do thematic projects rather than traditional internships is, I believe, by far the best part of the Chuck Green Civic Engagement Fellowship.  I centered my project around the Blueprint for Action, the city’s three-year plan to dramatically reduce youth violence in Minneapolis.  By doing so, I was able to partner directly with one organization, Restorative Justice Community Action, and have a “home-base,” working with experts in the field of restorative justice and doing direct case management.  However, because I chose to do a thematic project, I was also able to explore other other opportunities as they presented themselves.  In addition to my work with RJCA, I was able to work directly with neighborhood organizations in North Minneapolis, attend community dialogues on youth violence prevention, sit on government roundtables and speak my opinions at state-wide meetings, discuss tactics with gang-interrupters, and work with police officers and social workers in the juvenile justice system.   I was even able to partner directly with Minneapolis’ Health Commission to start to help remodel the city’s hospital-based violence intervention program.  Every day presented exciting opportunities in the field of youth violence prevention and the flexibility to take advantage of these opportunities was for me, by far the best part about the Chuck Green Fellowship.  These amazing experiences would not have been possible in just another internship!