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Jared Seide
executive director 
​Jared Seide is the Executive Director of Center for Council, as well as its successor organization, Beyond Us & Them. He has designed, piloted and coordinated council-based programs in prisons, assisted living facilities, youth groups and a variety of non-profit, faith-based organizations, social service and law enforcement agencies, including the "Co-Mentoring Project,” for emancipated foster youth, the "Organizational Wellness Project,” for the staff of scores of community-based organizations, the “Council for Insight, Compassion & Resilience” active in more than twenty prisons throughout California and winner of the American Correctional Association’s Innovations in Corrections award, the "Trainer Leadership Initiative," supporting emerging council leaders serving impacted communities, and the council-based "Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience” (POWER) Training Program for law enforcement and correctional officers. “Compassion, Attunement & Resilience Education” (CARE) for Healthcare Professionals is a program he developed with Dr. Ann Philips Seide that focuses on burnout and dysregulation amongst physicians, nurses and other first responders and utilizes innovations in mindfulness science and compassionate communication techniques like council to support a culture of professional wellness in healthcare.

Jared is author of Where Compassion Begins: Foundational Practices to Enhance Mindfulness, Attention and Listening from the Heart and editor of the illustrated novella,  Leaving Prison Behind: A Council Before I Go. He has coordinated, mentored and facilitated council programs at over a dozen schools in Southern California and has led trainings and retreats focusing on reconciliation and community-building throughout the U.S., and in Poland, Rwanda, France, Ireland, Colombia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Jared directed the "Center for Council Practice" initiative of The Ojai Foundation, the antecedent of Center for Council. He co-led the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Conference on integrating council and SRM in California and Rwandan prisons and was a Resident Fellow at the Bellagio Center. Jared has been featured in numerous interviews, articles and podcasts and is a frequent presenter at conferences and seminars, speaking on the integration of council into varied arenas, including South by Southwest, International Association of Chiefs of Police, California Rehabilitation Oversight Board, Association of Change Management Professionals, Bellagio Fellows Gathering, Monterey Restorative Justice Commission, Restorative Justice in Motion Conference, at Eastern Methodist University, and he has served as a member of the US Department of Justice National Officer Safety and Wellness Workgroup and the POST/UCSD 720 Health Council of Advisors.

​Jared received the 2023 Marcia Slater Johnston Award for Outstanding Leadership in Community-Based Efforts to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness conferred by the Foundation for Social Connection for "exemplifying exceptional leadership and dedication in reducing social isolation and loneliness and promoting connection in his community." Jared’s educational background includes a BA with high honors from Brown University. Prior to his work with Center for Council, Jared led careers in the entertainment industry and the corporate world. He is a member of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, a graduate of the Upaya Institute Chaplaincy Program and has been a Spirit Holder for Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Retreats around the world.

books

Where Compassion Begins: Foundational Practices to Enhance Mindfulness, Attention and Listening from the Heart

Where Compassion Begins is an invitation to build the muscle of compassion, through exercises and practices that enhance our capacity to listen from the heart and, in so doing, take care of ourselves and those around us.

Compassion is sometimes confused with empathy, or even sympathy. It is neither, though it includes some aspects of both. Compassion begins when we allow ourselves to really hear and attune to suffering, that of others, as well as ourselves. And hearing and perceiving this anguish, we are moved to do something about it. What takes compassion beyond sympathy or empathy is that it includes action, action that is considered, skillful and beneficial. 

This book is intended to provide a resource for anyone who has had an opportunity to sit in a council circle, or whose curiosity has been ignited by what the practice of council may have to offer. It offers explanations, definitions and distinctions that are part of the Introduction to the Way of Council Workshop and that have been culled from many years of council practice in many settings. It also includes material created to encourage and support extending the teachings of council into one's life, outside of the council circle. The core intentions of listening and speaking from the heart can unfold in every facet of one's life, well beyond the experience of the council circle. This book provides a roadmap for the journey of discovery along this rich path.

Leaving Prison Behind: A Council Before I Go

​Leaving Prison Behind: A Council Before I Go is an illustrated novella created from the words and stories of system-impacted individuals, and those who support them.

The book grew out of Center for Council's Council Reentry Program, with the intention of supporting and resourcing incarcerated individuals preparing themselves for the journey home. The book tells the story of the last night of our protagonist's incarceration, as he creates an imaginal council in his cell to call in the important voices from his life, those stories he knows he needs to hear. Some will recognize the practice of council that the characters enact in this story -- and others will encounter it for the first time

​Compiled and edited by Jared Seide, Leaving Prison Behind includes a robust resource section with ideas, references and practices intended to be of support to those preparing for and embarking on the challenging journey that lies ahead.

articles and features

podcasts

workshops and talks

recognition and honors

  • Marcia Slater Johnston Award for Outstanding Leadership in Community-Based Efforts to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness, Foundation for Social Connection - 2023
  • Seal of Excellence, International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training - 2022
  • Innovations in Corrections Award, American Correctional Association - 2020
  • Rockefeller Foundation Residential Fellow, Bellagio Center, Bellagio, Italy - 2015
  • The Listening Award, Our Little Blue Box - 2014

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