R j: Community Leaders

I work as a Victims Assistant Coordinator with the Diocese of San Diego. I support community services working with survivors.  I traveled from San Diego to take this training to enhance my skills.

I learned much more about the definition of and practical applications of Restorative Practices versus Restorative Justice practices.

A recent graduate of San Diego State University, I completed a degree in Social Work with an emphasis in Community Corrections Case Management, and I intend to begin my Master's Work in Restorative Justice in the fall of 2019.  As both a survivor and an offender of violent crime I'm passionate about contributing to long lasting effective change with my family, my community, and the world around me. I'm dedicated to being a part of the solution in creating programs and participating in communities to establish emotional literacy and positive relationships which is the reason why I took this training. 

On May 25,2017 my life changed when my brother Giovanny Alvarez was murdered in a violent way. I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

On May 25,2017 my life changed when my brother Giovanny Alvarez was murdered in a violent way. Although his case is still unsolved I have learned to accept it. I never lost my faith and trust in God. Losing my brother in a violent way has motivated me to get involved in the community. Helping others has helped me to start healing as well. Taking the Restorative Practices training taught me that communication, listening and respecting others is an important thing to restore any relationship in our lives,with ourselves, our family and our community. I’m planning to apply these new skills personally and eventually in my community. Helping others feeds my soul.  

On May 25,2017 my life changed when my brother Giovanny Alvarez was murdered in a violent way.  I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

Lost my daughter's boyfriend in violence. I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

I'm a social entrepreneur, community leader, and founder of Circle of Sistahs, a renovations and cleaning business. As a reentering citizen, I'm deeply committed to building a pipeline of jobs and housing for reentering women. She’s one of the Co-Creative Designers of the Women’s Social Entrepreneurship Center in East Oakland where she’s worked on creating
a space designed and tailored to the needs of reentering and undocumented immigrant women of color seeking a sanctuary space. 

I always thought that restorative justice was all you needed to give back to society.

After finishing this restorative practices training I learned the following:

1) To restore something before it even begins to be broken to catch it at that very first crack in it's foundation.
 
2) Then after you can try to mend that crack you use creative conflict resolution if those things don't work then that means that the crime is going to happen and after it happens that's when you come in with restorative justice.

3) So now that I look at Society for what it is we need to educate, we need to teach, we need to let everybody know and understand that there are ways to solve problems before we send somebody to jail or send somebody to a psychiatric hospital or send somebody to prison for their life.

I work as a Job Developer at Success Centers in San Francisco. I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously. 

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously. 

In 1978 I began working for the State of California, which led to a Civil Service career (and also meeting my future Bride, Diane DeHerrera J!). I gave over 20 years to the California Conservation Corps (youth development with emergency / disaster response work).

These experiences prompted eventual formation to the Diaconate and becoming a full-time Chaplain, with California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In our 40^th year of marriage, my wife and I have happily been parishioners of various Catholic churches in northern California. We are parents of three adult children. We hope to continue our journey with what we both are learning in Restorative Practices; especially we look forward to continued preparation to serve our extended family and community in the way we began our Sacrament of Marriage: “Two can light a home… Together we can light the world”

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously. 

I'm a Survivor Restoration Program Director for the San Francisco Sheriff's Department (SFSD) and a nationally recognized expert in criminal justice reform and approaches. My job is to bring restorative justice into law enforcement which has helped shift the focus to offender accountability, survivor restoration, and community involvement to reduce recidivism, responsibly return ex-offenders to their communities, and prevent further violence.

Additionally I lead a team of survivor staff who works directly with the women, children, and men who have been harmed and silenced by violence in their lives, providing them with practical and emotional support for leading healthy lives.  As a survivor of violence, I understand the importance of providing services to all those affected by crime.

I'm also President of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco’s Sheriff’s Department Five Keys Charter School.  Five Keys is the first charter high school in the nation for adults who are incarcerated.  
I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

I'm an In-Custody Case Manager/Facilitator with Five Keys Charter Schools. I began my career working within the Non- Profit community over 20 years ago at Fred Finch Youth Center as a counselor to S.E.D youth. I received training as a Cadet with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

I have worked as a First crisis response to families of victims of violent crimes and as a Case Manager with clients recently released from the prison system.Most recently I worked with Covenant House California for several years as a Lead Case Manager/Facilitator working with  the beloved TAY population. While there, I introduced this community to the W.R.A.P ( Wellness Recovery Action Plain) Program, Harm Reduction process workshops, Mindfulness groups, Self defense and Awareness, Narcan Training and LGBTQ inconclusive awareness models. 

I take great pride in assisting people from all walks of life with personal development and reaching life goals. 

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

I'm 20 years old. I'm a fourth year political science major, criminal justice minor on the pre law track at Hampton University, in Hampton, Virginia. I'm a first generation college student originally from Oakland, California.

I witnessed many of the inequities, gun and domestic violence, growing up in my immediate community. I have been an activist and advocate for mass incarceration, gun violence prevention, social and restorative justice.  I'm a current intern with community works, an organization that empowers people impacted by incarceration, and use the work on the front lines to advocate for a more humane criminal justice system.

I work inside of all of the San Francisco County Jails & Prisons practicing restorative with violent cases. I plan to take my LSAT this fall in hopes to attend University of California Berkeley School of Law and continue my commitment in my community, social justice and my future.  My long term goals are to become an attorney, congresswoman and eventually a judge, to change the laws and policies our system abides by that disenfranchise people of color disproportionally.

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

I'm the founder of Stepping Stones to Success. I'm very passionate about working with inmates. For the last pass 10 year I have been a contracted employee working at several prisons. I have been an Alcohol and Drug Counselor, Facility Parenting and Anger Management Class.

Also I give the inmate a bundle of services; such as transitional living, employment, and locating love ones.  In the earlier years as a young adult my family owned a licensed Board and Care where I was the Administrator. Also for over 25 years I have been a foster parent of teenagers’ boy and girls.

I'm committed to the population of incarcerated inmates, by helping them a bond release. I graduated from High school in 1989 with a 3.5 and pregnant, so college was not in my priorities. I have a certificate in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College. I am certified through Anderson and Anderson to facilitate Domestic Violence, Anger Management. I'm certified to facilitate Parenting classes with the Parent Project. For about a year and half I have been facilitating Positive Parenting and Creative Conflict Resolution, where I focus on incarcerated fathers. I received a certificate with Friends Outside.

I support the Prop 57 and Rehabilitation with CDCR. ”Let rehabilitate the inmates, because they will be coming to a neighborhood near you.”

The training was excellent. I was in alot of pain, but learned alot. I came home and did the circle with my family. After the circle found out we are suffering from grief I found that alot of my pain came from emotional pain. So what a learn is reduce harm. In my business I would love to get the criminal and the victim together. 

I was born in Kenya, into a family of three boys and two girls.  I am the third child. My father died by suicide when I was only seven years old, and my mother was left to take care of us on her own.  She never remarried.  My father’s death was never talked about in our family, and we have lived with this “shame” for all our lives.

I have worked extensively in conflict resolution amongst youths from two different tribes in Kenya, especially after the deadly Kenya post-election violence in 2008, where over 1,300 people were killed when different tribes turned against each other after a disputed presidential election results.

I have also worked with communities in rural Kenya who have been adversely affected by HIV, and started one of the first youth HIV testing and treatment centers.  I have also been a youth mentor and health educator, and have been instrumental in starting youth life skills programs in several high schools, training young people as peer educators. As a result of my work with youth on HIV education, I was awarded a one year Commonwealth Scholarship to the United Kingdom, to work as a Professional Fellow. Following, this development, I got an opportunity to attend a UN meeting for sustainable societies in Bonn, Germany, both of which improved my knowledge immensely in supporting the community. I later went on to obtain a Higher Diploma in Environmental Management and Business management in the United Kingdom.

I came to the USA three months ago, and heard about the Restorative Justice training from a friend who has also been involved on conflict resolution.  The training I have gained during the past four days has given me the tools I need to be able to deal with some of the internal conflict I have had as a result of my father’s death, and will allow me to continue working with young people here in the USA in a more empathetic manner.

I was born in a small village in Kenya.  Growing up in the village, I had a ‘hunger’ for education and a compelling desire to learn more. Through my mother’s community and church networks and family units, I graduated from high school and went on to obtain a university degree in Law. I have worked mostly in the field of social justice and twenty-five years ago I founded Mama na Dada (Mother and Sister) Africa, a non-governmental organization (NGO), which works with survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. 
 
Seventeen years ago, I lost my adult son to suicide, under very unclear circumstances, and this sent me on a continuing enquiring path for restoring my soul, to allow me to continue serving the women and children that I work with.
 
I currently live in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, California, and I am working to establish programs to bring African immigrant and African-American women together across divergent boundaries in developing positive support networks with and for each other and in empowering each other to become active participants in their diverse settings.
 
I came to the Crime Survivors Leadership Development Training to enhance my skills on how to build, maintain and restore relationships. The skills I have gained during the past four days have surpassed my expectations and I am hoping to use these in a restorative justice ministry within a church, a non-profit organization, or a county criminal justice department, to serve those who have been harmed by violence. 

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

I reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and am currently the Administrator-Case Manager for the Swords to Plowshares COVER Program for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department providing support services to Veterans. I have over 10 years of experience working as a Wellness Coach with aging and adults, cancer survivors, trauma, and domestic violence survivors. My educational background is in Psychology.  I'm committed to expanding into the larger restorative justice practices field to build and engage community in positive behavior intervention support.

The Restorative Practices training taught me the processes for proactively building healthy relationships and a sense of community to prevent and address conflict and wrongdoing. I also learned to facilitate Circles where social skills such as listening, respect, and problem solving are used to provide participants the opportunity to speak and listen to one another in a safe atmosphere. Lastly, I learned to facilitate Restorative Conferences which involves the participation of each person affected by the behavior and allows all stakeholders to contribute to the conflict resolution process.  Upon completing the training, I plan to use my new skills/tools to support social-emotional learning, promote accountability, and enhance two-way communication between clients, their peers, staff, and the greater community.

I have had a desire to serve God by being of service to His people since I was a child.  Currently I am a volunteer in the Catholic Chaplaincy at Folsom State Prison and California State Prison Folsom. I serve as a victim presenter and a facilitator in the Bridges to Life program.

I am employed at Mother Teresa Maternity Home. This home serves disadvantaged pregnant women through their pregnancy, birth and three months after delivery.   I enjoy knowing people from different cultures than mine.

I volunteered with Lutheran Refugee Services in Colorado Springs, CO. My responsibilities were serving the refugees from time of arrival through
resettlement. These and other experiences have led me to develop many
friendships from all over the world.

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

My name is Kelly Savage. I am a 46 year old women, who has just recently released after 23 years of incarceration. Governor Brown commuted my Life With Out the Possibility of Parole sentence, allowing me the chance at freedom.

As a domestic violence survivor I have been forced to witness the similarities with Domestic Violence and incarceration, and the shattering effects it has on the spirit and mind. 

Working first hand with survivors I have been able to assist many women claw their ways out of the system. The shame and guilt a survivor  deals with on a daily bases tends to help form her behaviors. I strive to help teach them to go from learned helplessness to empowerment. It must come from within. 

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

I was commissioned as a Detention Minister for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1990 and has been offering communion services and one-on-one visits to the youth in San Mateo County’s Juvenile Hall ever since. 
 
I have been trained in mediation, earning a State certification in 2005. I became aware of restorative justice in 2007. That year she took Insight Prison Project’s Victim Offender Education Program (VOEG) and began training as a facilitator for the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), which uses experiential workshops to teach inmates and the community how to handle conflict constructively. I became a full AVP facilitator in 2011.  In 2009, I trained in circle processes with Catholic Charities of the East Bay, taking advanced circle training with Kay Pranis and Carolyn Charleboy at Restorative Justice of the East Bay (RJOY) in 2013.   
Today, I mediate for both the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center PCRC) and the San Mateo County Superior Court’s Juvenile Offender Mediation Program.  Since 2007 I have been a member of San Mateo County’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission, which is responsible for overseeing the administration of juvenile justice in the County.

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

I did very well in school because I was able to adapt to the learning environment stemmed from growing up in Turkwood housing projects. At the age of 11 I was introduced to drug dealing.

I started getting into trouble and going into the Juvenile justice system at 15. I really did well in school so the Juvenile system never tried to throw me away.  At 18, I began going to jail, though I was able to receive my high school diploma at the age of 20 from International Studies Academy High School with the help of Dr. James Hirabayashi. I did manage to get 18 months clean with Positive Directions Equals Change (PDEC) holding my hand, so it was imperative that I come back to PDEC to start on this new journey. Since “Getting Back to Basics”,

I have received my Associate degrees in Health Education and Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Social and Behavioral Sciences on May 24, 2018.  I am also received certificates for Community Mental Health Worker and Drug and Alcohol counseling. I am continuing my education at San Francisco State University while working at Health Right 360.

I am currently a member of Positive Direction Equals Change,  The San Francisco Reentry Council, Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice and The Men's Mentoring Movement.

My goal is to receive my Master’s degree in Mental Health or Public Health in 4 years. I cannot forget about Health Right 360, they helped me understand the term “Better” and what that looks like. Most importantly, I have been clean for over 4.5 years - “No wet or dry drugs."

I took this training to become a new leader advocate (to help former incarcerated people), to become a new leader advocate (to help support Homicide Survivors) and I will work with families who have a loved one incarcerated and previously.

My name is Yvette and I was raised in San Francisco's Mission District by Mexican immigrant parents. I graduated from Harvard with a BA in sociology and a middle school teacher license. Since then, I have worked on an early childhood research project at Stanford University and spent three years volunteering throughout Latin America in education and child welfare organizations. I am currently the Program Manager at City Youth Now, a non-profit organization that provides educational, employment, and extracurricular support to youth in San Francisco's foster care and juvenile justice systems. I am grateful to the SF Archdiocese, the Mercy Center, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and the International Institute for Restorative Practices for this incredible opportunity, which has provided me with invaluable personal and professional enrichment. Since attending, I have developed a training on Restorative Practices for all of our volunteer tutors, who will apply these skills in their direct work with youth detained at the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center.