On Saturday, December 10, 2022, Center for Council’s extended reentry family gathered at the Los Angeles River Center for a powerful day of warm celebration, beautiful music, delicious food and heartfelt connection, organized as part of our Council Reentry Program.​

​While resources and offerings were plentiful, the spirit of appreciation and celebration was most apparent in the experiences of the individual participants and was evident in the warm chatter, friendly smiles, excited children, emotional reconnections with old friends and the care and kindliness that was on display everywhere. 

If you missed this year’s event, mark your calendar -- plans are already underway for December 2023!

On October 15, Center for Council joined our friends at Peace Over Violence to host a workshop focused on Domestic Violence Prevention at the Midnight Mission, in the Skid Row District of Los Angeles.

​This workshop was offered as part of Center for Council’s Council Reentry Program (CRP), which provides resources and support to formerly incarcerated individuals who are returning home and are committed to successful reentry. CRP offers warm hand-off support services initiated during incarceration, and continues throughout the release and reintegration process with case management, ongoing council sessions for participants and their families, and advanced training in council facilitation, as well as periodic workshops and sessions on important issues facing those on the journey of reentry, including the prevention of domestic violence.
 
This workshop was co-created with Center for Council’s longtime partner, Peace Over Violence. Partnership between the two organizations has been built over the last decade, as C4C gas helped integrate council practice into the organizational fabric of Peace Over Violence and as POV’s work has been embraced and supported by Center for Council. The workshop included an opportunity to drop into deep sharing in council, led by C4C’s Executive Director, Jared Seide, and an in-depth presentation and discussion of the nature, origins and prevention of domestic violence, led by POV’s Director of Counseling Services and Trauma Recovery, Wendy Blanco, LCSW.

​The workshop was offered at Midnight Mission, a residential facility for unhoused individuals, many of whom are formerly incarcerated. Participants in the workshop were offered an opportunity to reflect on the forms domestic violence can take and explored how harm can be experienced physically, emotionally, even financially.
 
One participant observed that domestic violence can show up in intimate relationships, as well as other family dynamics and, if unexamined, can negatively impact the way our various relationships develop moving forward in our lives. Information, reflection and community can offer ways to work with these life challenging experiences and help avoid future harm. As another participant observed, past mistakes don’t have to just be “baggage,” but can be transformed into experiences that can be integrated as learning and growth.

The Council Reentry Program is offered to individuals returning to the LA area and is designed to provide assistance navigating the trepidation, uncertainty and anxiety of reentry, tailoring linkages and referrals to key service providers to help make the transition from incarceration as smooth as possible. Council Circles specifically offered for formerly incarcerated individuals are held throughout the month and offer participants a nonjudgmental space to connect with a positive community. Additionally, participants in CRP are offered free council training workshops and professional development sessions, with the opportunity to engage in internship, mentoring and feedback—as well as certification as a council facilitator and trainer. For more information, click here.

Center for Council looks forward to continued partnership with Peace Over Violence, which is a sexual and domestic violence, intimate partner stalking, child abuse and youth violence prevention center headquartered in Los Angeles. POV is committed to social service, social change and social justice, offering innovative and comprehensive programs include Emergency, Intervention, Prevention, Education and Advocacy services offered in Los Angeles and the 22 cities within the West San Gabriel Valley. For more on POV's work, their website can be found here.

​Center for Council’s Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy and Resilience (POWER) Training Program has received the National Certification Program Seal of Excellence from IADLEST, International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training.

IADLEST is an association of standards and training managers and leaders. Its primary focus is criminal justice standards and training. IADLEST's mission is to support the innovative development of professional standards in public safety through research, development, collaboration and sharing of information, to assist states and international partners with establishing effective and defensible standards for the employment and training of public safety personnel.
 
The National Certification Program Seal of Excellence is conferred after a thorough and rigorous independent review process conducted by IADLEST’s professional assessment team, which concluded that Center for Council’s POWER curriculum and program design was of exceptional quality. IADLEST National Certification marks the latest step in Center for Council’s partnership with the US Department of Justice COPS (Community Oriented Policing Solutions) Office, which began in March of 2022. This partnership seeks to promote the POWER program and its innovative curriculum at “the intersection of wellness, compassion, procedural justice and community building."

The Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience (POWER) Training Program offers an intensive and interactive curriculum for police and correctional officers that utilizes mindfulness practices, compassion-based communication exercises, and training in wellness-related areas such as stress management and self-care. POWER encompasses a deep exploration of the science and experience of mindfulness and compassionate communication as it relates to stress, resiliency, performance and community building. With a focus on developing tools and resources that enhance self-awareness, attunement to others, compassion, wisdom and elite performance, participants learn skills that can be translated to their personal, as well as professional, life.

POWER offers an opportunity to enhance performance, improve situational awareness, increase physical and cognitive health, and develop new leadership capacity, balancing operational demands with life beyond the watch. For more information, visit centerforcouncil.org/le.

We are deeply grateful to receive new funding to expand our Council for Insight, Compassion and Resilience for incarcerated folks -- and our Council Reentry Program, now active in Los Angeles.
 
Our work with law enforcement officers is expanding, as well! We’ve entered an official partnership with the Department of Justice’s Community Office of Policing Services to promote programming at the intersection of officer wellness, compassionate communication, procedural justice and community building.

​And check out this powerful evaluation of our recent program with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office!
 
More in the pipeline – stay tuned!

Forceful article featuring our POWER Training for police officers by Camilla Patterson on MEDIUM.

Learn more about the impact of Center for Council's POWER Training program for police and correctional officers in this article, or listen to the new podcast.

Clerestory Magazine interviewed Center for Council Executive Director, Jared Seide, on the work of our organization. Read the in-depth and powerful piece on ​the importance of listening from the heart, recognizing our shared humanity, and moving toward compassion.

Read the full story here.

The workshop features Center for Council’s Peace Officer Wellness Empathy and Resilience (POWER) training program, which was created to improve physical, emotional and mental health, boost team and individual performance and support community relations.

Executive Director Jared Seide will co-lead this session in partnership with Richard Goerling, retired police lieutenant, mindfulness trainer and co-designer of the POWER program. This opportunity highlights Center for Council's continued focus on providing skills of self-awareness, self-regulation and enhanced communication to law enforcement officers.

Read more about Center for Council’s work with law enforcement

​In this video interview, Nicole discusses this new work with Center for Council Executive Director Jared Seide:

My name is Efrain Ortiz. I am the Program Assistant with Center for Council, but most importantly I am an example of what transpires when one engages in the practice of council.

I believe in life you don’t merely stumble across opportunities by chance. I was first introduced to council while serving a 12-year sentence inside of California State Prison-Los Angeles County, in Lancaster, California, where I worked as a clerical assistant in the
main office. I was in charge of typing up incidents and rules violation reports. I already had my share of violent experiences, but working inside the main office I got to witness how violent and disruptive prison really is, as I had a firsthand view of every violent incident which took place in our facility. Our yard was one of the most violent, high-security facilities in the state of California at the time. We lacked resources and support with only two self-help groups (Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous) which rotated every Saturday, until Center for Council came along.
​
It was here, in the circle created by Center for Council, where we as individuals had the opportunity to sit amongst other men and both speak and be heard with regard. We learned the four intentions of council: speak from the heart, to speak from that sacred place where often I wouldn’t share with just anyone; listen from the heart, something I continue to work on as it is often times the forgotten half of true communication, holding my judgement or my need to resolve; be spontaneous, allowing yourself to say what arises at the given moment that the talking peace is in your hand; be lean, so others have a chance to share their stories, and I found that often I learned more about myself through the stories of others.

To be able to get to this point was no easy task. I was sitting in a high security, level four prison with men who have committed some horrible crimes. But in the council circle, I was no longer sitting with those boys from back then. Through practice, we began to trust each other as the stories got deeper, the layers we began to peel off revealed the hurt we suppressed for many years. We began to connect to one another through our shared stories, as we connected the dots to our past, understanding those traumatic experiences and how they led us to a tumultuous life. The amazing thing was, we started to look at one another as human instead of by race, gang affiliation or moniker.

Organizations across the country, from the non-profit sphere to the corporate sector, are standing at the gates of a tremendous opportunity to create new processes and policies that intentionally set a tone of inclusion and that truly value all voices and perspectives of their staff.  

Fundamental organizational culture change cannot be engineered through top-down edicts, or generalized policies, nor designed and imposed on staff by outside experts. Diversity Training and Implicit Bias Workshops are not effective when offered as a multiple choice, hour-long seminar to be tossed at individuals in order to check a box. Individual employees must be given the opportunity to engage topics and conversations deeply, and at their own pace, in ways that are relevant to their lived experience, cultural orientation, and personal communication styles. They must be invited into meaningful conversation, in which they feel their voices are respected and honesty is valued. This is especially true when challenging topics such as bias, racism, power differentials and conflict are involved. 

Center for Council has worked with a wide variety of teams to strengthen internal culture, helping to develop concrete skills and practices to foster greater collaboration, build community, navigate power, privilege and diversity issues and effectively manage conflict. The council practice provides the container for sincere reflection as well as the space to listen to the lived experiences of others. The practice offers tools for individuals to have honest conversations that lay the foundation for genuine understanding. Council values every voice, reinforces respectful communication, builds positive relationships between participants, and neutralizes hierarchical dynamics and conflict. It is a resource for increasing compassion and engagement and recognizing our essential human interconnectedness. Center for Council's programs deliver customized, on-the-ground, community-building solutions; its evidence-based programs have been shown to increase mindfulness and engagement, enable participants to connect with others in new ways, create safe and supportive environments for self-expression without fear of judgment, and help with the development of effective communication skills and resilience. 

The importance of meaningful connection and mutual understanding is ever present, and the current moment in society underscores the need to listen beneath opinions and rhetoric to people’s lived experiences involving identity, inclusion, and bias. This is exactly what the council practice offers: the opportunity to listen to personal experiences, and share one's own story. Authentic action that affects change must come from a foundation of honest self-reflection, on an individual and on a group level. In order to look forward with clarity and integrity, we must look inward to discover new possibilities. 
Learn more about Center for Council’s professional staff trainings here.

We are grateful for Hazel Kight Witham's expansive interview with Executive Director Jared Seide on the work of council in the world and Center for Council's programs.

Read the full article, "The Power Of Story: Jared Seide On How Listening To Each Other Can Restore Our Humanity," here.

The American Correctional Association has awarded Center for Council's Inmate Council Program its 2019 "Innovation in Corrections Award."  This prestigious  award honors the powerful work C4C has done building programming for the state's incarcerated population, now reaching 22 of the state's 35 prison facilities.  The Inmate Council Program is a six-month intervention where participating inmates are trained to facilitate Council sessions for their peers, empowering them to become positive agents of change, on the prison yard, and in their lives. The program contributes to a shift of culture within prisons and equips participants with tools for successful reentry and reintegration into their communities upon release

The award was presented on January 14, 2020, in a ceremony at the end of ACA's Convention.  The award was presented to Center for Council "For its outstanding efforts in reducing recidivism and promoting future success for offenders" and was accepted by Sam Escobar and Jared Seide.

ACA President, Gary Rohr, and Chair of the Awards Committee, Vicki Myers, presented Sam and Jared with the award. The American Correctional Association is the oldest association developed specifically for practitioners in the correctional profession. The ACA provides a professional organization for individuals and groups committed to improving the justice system. The annual "Innovations is Correction Award" is intended to broaden the knowledge and familiarity amongst the membership of the ACA of successful rehabilitative program interventions and to recognize an outstanding correctional program.  ​

A wide-ranging new study, led by Principle Investigator Dr. Stacy Calhoun, of the University of California Los Angeles, has found that Center for Council's statewide Inmate Council Program demonstrated "significantly positive outcomes" for the subjects involved in the  study.
​This study involved 399 inmates participating in ICP groups throughout eight different facilities, and examined quantitative measures, as well as qualitative assessments of program impact.  The study looked at factors including changes in physical and verbal aggression, anger, hostility and PTSD symptomatology and found notable decreases in those areas, among inmates who participated in the program.  The study also found statistically significant increases in measures of resilience, empathy, mindfulness and social connectedness.  Dr. Calhoun's report states that "findings from this evaluation suggest that this program is having a positive impact on participants who complete it, with many indicating a high level of satisfaction with the program." 

The study utilized a range of academically validated measurement scales, including the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI),  Brief Resilience Scale (BRCS), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form (FFMQ-SF), Short-Form Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ-SF), Social Connectedness Scale-Revised (SCS-R), Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5), The Active-Empathic Listening Scale (AELS), and the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). In addition to statistical analysis, the research team also conducted interviews and focus groups with participants, as well as program staff.  

The research design has been developed over several years of analysis of the ICP, which has been offered to inmates in CDCR facilities since 2013.  In 2018, Center for Council was asked by the Office of the Inspector General to present its approach to research, which focuses on shifting criminogenic factors like empathy, impulse control and anti-sociality, to the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board.  Methodology developed for this research has been referenced in the state's CARE Grant program, enacted into California penal code in July of 2019.

The results of the study will be published in an upcoming article.  The evaluation report can be viewed here.

Center for Council's Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience (POWER) Training for law enforcement officers has now been recognized and certified as an effective and valuable training protocol by California's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).  In granting this statewide certification, POST will provide officers who participate with credit toward their annual requirement of training hours in the areas of "De-Escalation and Interpersonal Communication." Participation in POWER will also satisfy the annual "perishable skills requirement" in the area of interpersonal communication.  

​This recognition by POST is a powerful affirmation of the importance and efficacy of innovative training programs like POWER and will help establish this program as a critical tool supporting officer wellness, self-regulation and performance.

Center for Council launched the POWER Training course with six cohorts of LAPD officers (150 officers), initially, funded by resources provided through the state's Innovations Grant Program.  Statewide POST certification will enable C4C to adapt and customize program delivery to meet the needs of a variety of other interested law enforcement and corrections agencies and to further expand this training program throughout California and beyond.

Center for Council confirmed the certification of twelve new Council Trainers in a ceremony at Temescal Gateway Park's Stewart Hall on December 14, 2019.

​Center for Council's Mentor Circle has been shepherding and supporting each of the candidates through a rigorous three-year process of trainings, assignments, internships, practice, observation, co-leading and self-reflection.  

Uniquely, this cohort all began their path to certification as Council Trainers through their participation in the Trailer Leadership Initiative, funded by our friends at the Angell Foundation.  All twelve have earned this recognition by demonstrating mastery of the core capacities required of a Council Trainer.

​

The complete list of newly certified Council Trainers is as follows:
Jennifer Browne
Hannah Chodos
Lotara James
Nina Lau-Branson
Ricardo (Ricky) Miranda
Nora Novak
Kristy Pace
Jaime Reichner
Loren Rubin
Lui Sanchez
Goreti da Silva
Sofia Rose Smith

Center for Council is thrilled to welcome all twelve dynamic practitioners of this work into the ranks of Certified Council Trainers, working to foster deeper connection, greater presence and more compassion in our world.

Through the generosity of local philanthropists, a team of Center for Council trainers travelled to Jacksonville, Florida, to engage with local community based organizations, and with law enforcement, in the hope that the work of Council would be a nourishing and relevant practice for this diverse and challenged community.  

Our team sat in Council with the staff of several dynamic and energized CBOs, including JASMYN (Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network), NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), JPEF (Jacksonville Public Education Fund), JCRP (Jacksonville Community Remembrance Project), and K-9s for Warriors.  In addition to this diverse group of organizations, our team was invited to meet with Sheriff Mike Williams, and the staff of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, about our Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience Training program. ​

 ​The response to this initial engagement was extremely positive and inspiring and has led to design of a more in-depth training program that will unfold throughout the Jacksonville area over the Spring and Summer of 2020.  We are thrilled to be collaborating with this dynamic community, engaging deeply with staff of both the social justice and law enforcement community.  Our programs are tailored to meet participants where they are, providing a nourishing container for staff to reaffirm their commitment to their mission, strengthen their ability to sustain and flourish in highly stressful environments, explore ways to collaborate internally and with allies, and develop useful skills to serve their clients and stakeholders.  Ultimately, the intention is to explore weaving unlikely allies in the model of C4C's "Cops & Communities: Circling Up."  We are very excited to partner with the Jacksonville community in this powerful and critical work.