Restoring Voices: Victims and Survivors
Event Type
Talk
Location
University Hall 1000
Start Date
22-10-2013 9:25 AM
End Date
22-10-2013 10:40 AM
Description
Lauren Abramson, Founding Director, Community Conferencing Center & Assistant Professor, Child Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Lauren Abramson is a psychologist who has worked with children and families in communities for the past 25 years. In 1995, Lauren brought Community Conferencing to Baltimore. She advances conferencing as a means of building social capital and collective efficacy on many levels, including empowering individuals and communities to resolve their own conflicts, keeping young people out of the criminal justice system, and mobilizing the existing untapped human assets in communities. Lauren publishes articles on both the theoretical and empirical socio-political aspects of conferencing. The work of the Community Conferencing Center is ground breaking for its multi-sector use of conferencing in highly distressed urban American communities.
Sujatha Baliga, Director of Restorative Justice Project, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency
Sujatha Baliga’s work is characterized by an equal dedication to victims and persons accused of crime. A former victim’s advocate and public defender, Sujatha was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship in 2008, which she used to spearhead a successful restorative juvenile diversion program in Alameda County, CA. Today, as director of the restorative justice project at NCCD, Sujatha assists communities in implementing restorative justice alternatives to juvenile detention and zero-tolerance school discipline policies. She also provides technical assistance to the US Attorney General’s Task Force on Childhood Exposure to Violence. Sujatha earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and her JD from the University of Pennsylvania. She has held federal clerkships with the Honorable William K. Sessions, III, and with the Honorable Martha Vázquez. A national voice in restorative justice, she was honored as Northeastern University Law School’s Daynard Fellow, featured in the New York Times Magazine, and has been a guest on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation.”
Ruett Stephen Foster, Pastor, Community Bible Church, Culver City, CA
Pastor Ruett Stephen Foster has over 30 years of experience as a teacher; counselor; and advocate for the children, youth, and families of Los Angeles. For the past 13 years, Pastor Foster has served as an ardent public activist for violence prevention. He became an assiduous advocate after the tragic and senseless loss of his innocent seven-year-old son, Evan, to gun violence in 1997. Pastor Foster and his wife, Rhonda, have partnered with several causes in the hopes of eradicating youth violence. Mr. Foster became Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church (CBC) of Culver City in June of 2007. Pastor Foster continues to serve as an advisory board member for the Office of Restorative Justice of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is comprised of a group of individuals committed to empowering people to understand what it means to restore justice systemically.
Restoring Voices: Victims and Survivors
University Hall 1000
Lauren Abramson, Founding Director, Community Conferencing Center & Assistant Professor, Child Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Lauren Abramson is a psychologist who has worked with children and families in communities for the past 25 years. In 1995, Lauren brought Community Conferencing to Baltimore. She advances conferencing as a means of building social capital and collective efficacy on many levels, including empowering individuals and communities to resolve their own conflicts, keeping young people out of the criminal justice system, and mobilizing the existing untapped human assets in communities. Lauren publishes articles on both the theoretical and empirical socio-political aspects of conferencing. The work of the Community Conferencing Center is ground breaking for its multi-sector use of conferencing in highly distressed urban American communities.
Sujatha Baliga, Director of Restorative Justice Project, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency
Sujatha Baliga’s work is characterized by an equal dedication to victims and persons accused of crime. A former victim’s advocate and public defender, Sujatha was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship in 2008, which she used to spearhead a successful restorative juvenile diversion program in Alameda County, CA. Today, as director of the restorative justice project at NCCD, Sujatha assists communities in implementing restorative justice alternatives to juvenile detention and zero-tolerance school discipline policies. She also provides technical assistance to the US Attorney General’s Task Force on Childhood Exposure to Violence. Sujatha earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and her JD from the University of Pennsylvania. She has held federal clerkships with the Honorable William K. Sessions, III, and with the Honorable Martha Vázquez. A national voice in restorative justice, she was honored as Northeastern University Law School’s Daynard Fellow, featured in the New York Times Magazine, and has been a guest on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation.”
Ruett Stephen Foster, Pastor, Community Bible Church, Culver City, CA
Pastor Ruett Stephen Foster has over 30 years of experience as a teacher; counselor; and advocate for the children, youth, and families of Los Angeles. For the past 13 years, Pastor Foster has served as an ardent public activist for violence prevention. He became an assiduous advocate after the tragic and senseless loss of his innocent seven-year-old son, Evan, to gun violence in 1997. Pastor Foster and his wife, Rhonda, have partnered with several causes in the hopes of eradicating youth violence. Mr. Foster became Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church (CBC) of Culver City in June of 2007. Pastor Foster continues to serve as an advisory board member for the Office of Restorative Justice of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is comprised of a group of individuals committed to empowering people to understand what it means to restore justice systemically.
