Challenge and Opportunity: What Is Next for the School of Restorative Arts?

Dear Friends and Supporters of the School of Restorative Arts,

People often share with me how proud they are of the good work that has been done, and continues to be done, through the School of Restorative Arts (SRA). I share in this deep pride.

It was the School of Restorative Arts that brought me to North Park Theological Seminary, first as an adjunct instructor and later in my current role as Director of the Master of Arts in Restorative Justice Ministries, the degree program we have offered to individuals in custody at Stateville Correctional Center and Logan Correctional Center.

This is a powerful program, and we celebrate the accomplishments of our students and graduates that exemplify lives transformed, communities strengthened, and the power of education rooted in justice and restoration.

• We celebrate the seventy-six individuals who began their program inside Stateville or Logan Correctional Center and have graduated from North Park Theological Seminary with Master’s degrees in Christian ministry and restorative justice ministries. We praise God that four of these students completed their degrees on campus after returning home.
• We celebrate one of these alumni, Dr. Antonio Pizarro, who graduated in May 2024 with his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from NPTS!
• In addition to our four alumni who were released from prison over the course of their program, we celebrate four additional members of our SRA community who were granted parole.

Beyond these milestones, the program’s long-term impact continues to grow. Across IDOC facilities, our students and alumni are leading Peace Circles, initiating and leading peer mentoring programs, and creating spaces for healing, accountability, and growth. Our current students are facilitating classes on trauma and healing, conflict resolution, communication, parenting, art therapy, and more. These are just a few of the accomplishments that speak to the strength, resilience, and vision of our students and alumni.

The School of Restorative Arts has also not been without challenges.

In fall 2024 Stateville Correctional Center—where our program began—was closed and its residents transferred to correctional facilities across the state of Illinois. North Park’s program was moved to Illinois River Correctional Center, located in Canton, Illinois, a three-to-four-hour drive from our Chicago campus.

This transition was extremely difficult for our learning community, especially so for our inside students and alumni. While several of our incarcerated alumni moved to River with the North Park program, most were transferred to different correctional centers across the state of Illinois. Our community inside had very little control over where they would be sent, and they were typically not informed of their move dates until the very day. I cannot express how proud I am of the resilience and grace with which our students and alumni navigated this difficult and disorienting transition.

The relocation to Illinois River Correctional Center (IRCC) has posed new challenges for our program. Due to the significant travel distance to Illinois River combined and limited classroom availability, we have consolidated programming to one day each week—significantly reducing student access to faculty, classmates, and other educational resources. The transition to a new facility has also necessitated building new relationships within the Illinois Department of Correction and navigating new cultural norms.

In May 2025 we commemorated the graduation of our women’s cohort at Logan Correctional Center. After four years of our students’ hard work and dedication, we were able to celebrate them well with a beautiful graduation ceremony. While we know it was a disappointment to many, we determined as a faculty not to recruit a second cohort at this location, having discerned that we did not have capacity to deliver programming at two facilities located so far away.

As our third cohort of men persevere to their planned May 2026 graduation, we are taking time to discern as a community where God is inviting the SRA and North Park Seminary next. Over the course of this academic year we will be listening for the Spirit through communal prayer and dialogue with all stakeholders—faculty, students, alumni, friends of the program, and other community partners. We are prayerfully expectant as we look forward with both humility and hope as we discern what sustainability and flourishing may look like in the years to come. We are deeply grateful for your ongoing support and ask that you join us in prayer as we enter this new season.

As I often say, when you think about us, pray about us!

With gratitude,

Michelle S. Dodson
Milton B. Engebretson Chair in Evangelism & Justice