Once a victim, perpetrator of violence, a voice of hate, and a contributor to the destruction of my community known as “La Villita” located on the West side of Chicago. I spent half my life in the Chicago street wars of the 90s when Chicago’s violence was at its peak. My actions and behavior caused many physical and emotional wounds from which I developed a condition known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTDS). It was not until my last near-death experience that I started my healing transformation process. In my search for simply surviving life, I ended up finding my resilience in the Restorative Justice (RJ) community, where I experienced healing within the community. This method allowed me to practice self-care and to introduce RJ to marginalized youth, students, teachers, peers, judicial workers on local, national and international level with a focus on street violence. I focus on Youth Development and all of my work is informed by Asset Based Community Development.