February 2013 Archives

Be sure to check back often as we update the audio archives and upcoming guests frequently! Listening/Downloading archives: simply click link to stream; to download, right-click for Windows or ctrl+click for Apple.

Host Molly Rowan Leach

Thursday, Feb. 7th 5pmPST/8pEST--

Rochelle Arms and Peter Miller of the New York Peace Institute

AUDIO ARCHIVE

Rochelle Arms is the Restorative Justice Coordinator of the New York Peace Institute (formerly the Safe Horizon Mediation Program). She is responsible for mediation and restorative justice initiatives with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Juvenile Justice Courts, schools, and community agencies in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In the last 12 years, she has worked both in the U.S. and abroad in collaborative processes and restorative justice projects, with a variety of groups, including civil society organizations in India, indigenous peoples in Argentina, immigrants and refugees, and homicide offenders and victim survivors in Kentucky.  Rochelle was a Rotary Peace Fellow in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 2003 - 2005. She is originally from Panama.

Peter Miller worked closely with Ms. Arms to develop the Criminal Mediation program; an expert Transformative Mediator, Mr. Miller has been a key player in the evolution of the NY Peace Institute's work with criminal cases.

Thursday, Feb. 14th--

Therese Bartholomew, Restorative Justice Initiative and Director of The Final Gift AUDIO ARCHIVE (Free)

About Therese Bartholomew

It was her brother’s 2003 murder that drastically changed her path.  A former high school dropout and teen mother, Therese is now a filmmaker, inspirational speaker, and restorative justice educator.  Coffee Shop God, a collection of essays, details Bartholomew’s struggle to adjust in the weeks and months following her brother Steve’s untimely death.  Author Pat MacEnulty says the book is “sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes humorous and always brutally honest…”

Bartholomew’s film, The Final Gift, follows the filmmaker’s pursuit to find meaning in her life after her brother’s murder - and her historic meeting with his killer in a South Carolina prison.

The documentary shows the impact of violence on a family and one survivor’s path to healing.  This compelling story has garnered the support of universities, faith-based groups, departments of correction, and victims’ advocacy organizations and is fast becoming a catalyst for a national dialogue on restorative justice. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, calls The Final Gift “a remarkable journey…intimate in the telling, honest and brave and true.”    

Therese holds a masters in criminal justice, serves on the board of directors of North Carolina Victim Assistance Network and is the co-founder of The Final Gift Restorative Justice Initiative an organization aimed at educating the public about restorative justice.  She facilitates journaling workshops with incarcerated youth and mentors incarcerated women.  Therese speaks on various topics including faith, forgiveness, and restorative justice and is currently working on her second book and producing a social justice film on the topic of race. 

   

Thursday, Feb. 21st 5pmPST/8pEST--

Sequoyah Trueblood, Choctaw (Reschedule from January, "Indigenous Perspectives on Restorative justice")

AUDIO ARCHIVE (Free)

 Sequoyah Trueblood (enrolled with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) has contributed selflessly for many years in Canada, and the United States, and around the world as a role model for healthy leadership, bringing peace and joy to the hearts of many. As a pipe carrier and messenger of peace and with an “off the grid” style in his work he offers something most have never experienced: the genuine guidance of a supportive, profoundly inspired and diversely experienced Elder. His consistent ability to touch wounded hearts and sooth troubled minds with compassion and wisdom has endeared Sequoyah to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike. He has a varied background in leadership capacities within Indigenous peoples contexts as well as Western institutions including the U.S. Army, World Bank, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Harvard University Program for Extraordinary Experience Research, and Correction Facilities across North America. Paramount in his work is always placing the needs of the young people first. Currently he spends most of his summers living from the Kankurwa Medicine Lodge (Place of Peace) at Cross River Wilderness Centre in the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia.

Thursday, Feb. 28th 5pmPST/8pEST--

Jesse Lava, Campaign Director-Beyond Bars

AUDIO ARCHIVE (Free)

Jesse Lava, Campaign Director. Jesse conceptualized and runs the Beyond Bars campaign to curb mass incarceration. His work includes strategic planning, producing videos, writing articles, and forging partnerships with groups working to make a positive difference in this field. Previously a political campaign staffer and communications strategist for progressive causes, his work has covered an array of policy areas including climate change, campaign finance, drug treatment, and funding for social services. Jesse was also the founding director of Faithful Democrats, a group that worked to reclaim the national values debate from the Religious Right. He has a master's in public policy from Harvard and a bachelor's in government from Wesleyan University. You can contact him at jesse [at] bravenewfoundation [dot] org.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Restorative Justice on The Rise was founded by Peace Alliance Board Member Molly Rowan Leach in September of 2011. She is the telecouncil host. In its 2nd full season the series provides a live dialogue circle for connectivity, education, action ideas and more regarding Restorative justice and the powerful times we are amidst as an old worn-out Prison Industrial Complex dies and punitive paradigms no longer are accepted as appropriate when crime and conflict occur.

The Restorative Justice on The Rise weekly telecouncil series features global guest speakers from many diverse backgrounds and areas in the field and related fields and has included powerful conversations with equally powerful leaders on community and global levels such as Kay Pranis, Robin Casarjian, Azim Khamisa, Steve Korr, The River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding, Arun Gandhi, Fleet Maull, Dr. Judith Thompson, Belvie Rooks and Dedan Gills, Lauren Abramson, Dr. Carl Stauffer, Michelle Alexander, Sujatha Baliga, Lois DeMott, Dominic Barter, and so many others doing significant work and sharing their stories.

The Peace Alliance is committed to mobilizing and educating while offering a greater depth of resources in this area and longer term plans include a clickable map for easy access to local, state, national, and global resources in RJ and related fields.

The telecouncil is a service of our collective part in transformation of our systems, and is for you, the people who matter, day to day, as we mobilize and change our world for the better, together. Thank you for your participation in this series, and please consider helping keep it free by contributing any amount, tax-deductible, to The Peace Alliance.