Who We Are
About Us
About Us
Peacebuilders is a nonprofit organization based in Toronto, Canada that seeks to enhance access to justice for youth in conflict and advocate for change in our justice and education systems. We use restorative practices to keep young people out of the criminal justice system, make schools safer for learning and development, and build strong and healthy communities.
Founded in 2002, by Toronto lawyer and mediator Eva E. Marszewski, Peacebuilders is committed to transforming the youth justice system from one that punishes and harms young people to one that supports and empowers them. Despite significant policy and legislative changes over the last decade, our youth criminal justice system still lacks meaningful alternatives to young people in conflict with the law. That’s where we come in. For more than a decade, Peacebuilders has offered programs and increased knowledge about restorative justice as a meaningful and effective way to work with youth in conflict with the law and support their rehabilitation.
Our programs provide alternatives to young people facing criminal charges, in conflict at school, or confronting issues in their community. Peacebuilders’ restorative court-diversion program provides access to justice to young people across the City of Toronto. We work in schools throughout the city to help students and teachers manage conflict to create safer, more supportive learning environments. We facilitate crisis response circles to support communities working through violence and trauma. All of our programs are supported by a dedicated team of trained volunteers and community members.
Peacebuilders also provides research and recommendations to assist advocates and policymakers in the important work of criminal justice and education reform. We create training guides and other educational materials, and our staff conduct presentations and workshops for students, teachers, legal professionals and community groups every year.
Vision & Mission
VISION
Youth realizing their full potential and building safe and peaceful communities.
What does it mean?
Peacebuilders envisions justice and education systems that are committed to helping youth, especially those who are vulnerable and marginalized. We foresee systems that adapt to young peoples’ needs—that meaningfully engage youth and communities and make them stronger. That’s why we use restorative practices to work with youth and empower them to overcome conflict and realize their full potential.
MISSION
To increase the capacity of youth, schools, communities, and the justice system to manage conflict through Peacebuilding dialogues.
What does it mean?
Peacebuilders promotes the use of restorative practices and principles in our justice and education systems, and in our communities through advocacy and restorative justice programs that use Peacebuilding Circles.
Achieving our Vision & Mission
to support young people in conflict with the law or in trouble at school.
to facilitate Peacebuilding Circles to support youth conflict more effectively and responsibly.
by promoting the rights, needs and perspectives of young people.
by offering a different way to understand and work through conflict with young people.
Founder & History
By the time Eva visited the Carcross/ Tagish First Nation, she had spent more than two decades litigating, arbitrating and mediating disputes in Toronto and across Ontario. She was troubled by the widening gap between societal expectations of fairness and the realities of the justice system.
The introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2003 presented an opportunity to develop and implement more appropriate responses to address adolescent conflict using a restorative approaches based on those Eva had witnessed in the Carcross/ Tagish First Nation.
Shortly after the Act was passed, Peacebuilders launched a restorative justice court-diversion pilot project in Regent Park and St. Jamestown in Toronto. In the first year, Peacebuilders’ received 20 referrals. Since then, Peacebuilders had diverted hundreds of young people from across the City of Toronto out of the criminal justice system before trial. Peacebuilders has also brought restorative practices to dozens of schools to change the way the education system addresses student misbehavior and conflict. The organization has facilitated crisis response Circles to support communities working through trauma, and trained hundreds of community members to facilitate Peacebuilding Circles.

Eva E. Marszewski, O. Ont., L.S.M.
Peacebuilders’ Founder & Board Member
EVA'S BIO
Eva is passionate about restorative justice and creating more just and peaceful communities that support youth to succeed. She started running restorative justice programs for youth in Toronto in 2002. She is a former Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, where she taught “Law and Social Change: Restorative Justice”. Eva was one of the founders of the SPIDR youth initiative and YouCAN!. She was a member of the Board of Directors of SPIDR (now ACR), and the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association, ADR Section. Eva is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Smart Justice Network.
For her pioneering work in adapting Peacebuilding Circles to Toronto’s diverse communities, Eva was awarded the prestigious Law Society Medal from the Law Society of Upper Canada, the YMCA Peace Medallion in 2006, the Canadian Congress on Criminal Justices’ Crime Prevention Award in 2007, and the Dianne Martin Medal for Social Justice Through Law in 2009. Eva became a Fellow of the Ashoka Foundation in 2010 and was the first recipient of the Roy McMurtry Community Service Award in 2013. Eva was awarded the 2015 Order of Ontario, which is the province’s highest official honour recognizing her high level of individual excellence and achievement in restorative justice. In 2019, Eva’s career contributions were recognized by the Ontario Bar Association with an Award for Distinguished Service.
Awards
2019 Bryden Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement presented Eva E. Marszewski
2015 Order of Ontario presented to our founder Eva E. Marszewski
2015 Marvin E. Johnson Diversity and Equity Award
2015 American College of Trial Lawyers Emil Gumpert Award
2013 Roy McMurtry Community Service Awards
2009 Toronto Community Vital Ideas Awards
2008 City of Toronto Community Safety Award
2006 YMCA Canada Peace Medal