CHELSEA SCHMITZ-GILLAM

Program Director - Youth: Education, Advocacy & Restorative Services

Chelsea has served as The Restorative Practices Lead and a Youth Defense Attorney at the Legal Rights Center since 2015. Chelsea has been the Program Director for the YEARS team since 2020 and is responsible for advancing restorative-based practices within a variety of systems that interact with youth, including in legal proceedings, and in school-based systems as a means to develop and / or repair relationships among youth, family and educational staff. 

Chelsea was first drawn to restorative practices-based work because she believes in the power of creating space where all people have the opportunity to feel genuinely seen, heard, valued and connected as part of a larger community. Unpacking our feelings, experiences and stories allows us the opportunity to learn from and, perhaps, resonate with the experiences of others, thereby enhancing greater connection to ourselves and our communities. Ultimately, Chelsea is committed to pushing back on reactionary, deficit-based systems that target and harm BIPOC youth by offering alternatives to these practices so that all young people can be offered a space that is truly centered around race equity, strengths-based interactions, and proactive relationship and resource building. 

With over a decade of experience in curriculum development, including as a former High School educator in New Orleans and a guest teacher in Boston educating High Schoolers and Law Students on using Restorative Justice practices in response to racially-motivated cold case murders, Chelsea also leads the free community legal education offered through the LRC. If you or your community is interested in accessing these interactive Know Your Rights workshops, please reach out!

Chelsea has received recognition for her work with youth, families and restorative practices, including a feature in the New York Times Magazine for her work as an educator in New Orleans (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/magazine/17NewOrleans-t.html) and national media attention for a documentary that featured a cold case murder Chelsea worked on through the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University School of Law (https://news.northeastern.edu/2019/01/28/watch-murder-in-mobile-a-documentary-short-film/)


Chelsea also leads holistic youth and adult yoga workshops in and around the Twin Cities that are rooted in restorative-based Circle practices, as well as mindfulness based principles for supporting holistic connection to ourselves, our peers and our community.

Chelsea can be reached at cschmitz@legalrightscenter.org or 612.677.2126