“Yes, This Is Still Circle”: Circle-Keeping Online During COVID—An Interview with Kay Pranis and Becky McCammon

This Practice Note is an interview with leading Circle-keepers Kay Pranis and Becky McCammon about their experiences facilitating Talking Circles virtually during COVID. They describe their respective leaps into the unknown of online Circle to meet peoples' need for community at a time when we could not gather together in person and how they each managed during that time of uncertainty. The conversation was edited for length and clarity in which they discussed the needs of restorative justice practitioners and others for relational support and how they worked to meet the need. What they both learned is that while there were some challenges, there were also many unanticipated opportunities and benefits discovered in the process of adapting to virtual Circles. This retrospective interview documents how practitioners adapted quickly during a pandemic in response to the need to be in the community when we could not meet in person.