Capstone Project: Decreasing Disproportionate Minority Contact Through Restorative Practices and Relationship Building: Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) is our Juvenile Justice (JJ) System, and school discipline policies have been an overrepresented practice in Waterbury compared to the other four large cities in Connecticut (New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford.) In Waterbury, efforts have been made to help decrease the overrepresentation of black and brown youth that enter the Juvenile Justice System and receive harsher penalties, including out of school suspension and expulsion for similar school delinquency offenses. These efforts include a school-based policy for 12 and under students to increase their access to community diversions rather than be arrested, a change in the progressive school discipline policies to reduce and eliminate more severe consequences (out of school suspensions) for repeated minor offenses (i.e., dress code violations), increased evaluation of court referrals to include Probation’s ability to refer to community diversion programs, the introduction of Restorative Practices to the school staff and expanded efforts to reduce school expulsions (also to include community diversion referrals). With these efforts, a significant decrease in the minority referrals to court, including the school system and judicial system, ensures all options are available to all youth and increases early interventions and diversion programs to decrease contact with the Juvenile Justice population. Established research supports that early contact with the juvenile justice system can lead to more risk factors in a young person’s life and increase criminogenic behaviors.