Youth worker with the Latin American Youth Center
August 2008: In Washington, DC I am working with the Latin American Youth Center, in the Independent Living Program, working with youth transferring out of the Foster Care System as they navigate their way toward finishing school, finding work and living on their own.
January 2008: I completed my position as a Founding Partner at the Voluntown Peace Trust in New York City. Now I am doing some restorative justice consulting with a non-profit organization called CASES – Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services. Through a partnership with the NYC Department of Education, CASES operates an alternative high school for youth transferring out of the juvenile detention system. The school has incorporated restorative principles into its vision, and I am helping to develop curriculum and structure for the high school advisory program rooted in restorative justice principles, practices and processes.
August 2004: I am a Partner at theVoluntown Peace Trust(www.voluntownpeacetrust.org), a non-profit center for social change and sustainable living located on 57 acres in Eastern Connecticut. Voluntown Peace Trust is focused on creating space for hospitality and healing, particularly for those struggling against injustice, coming out of prison, or transitioning from work overseas. We offer peace and justice oriented programs for youth and adults. We also promote local organic agriculture and the resurgence of a local economy.
In April, ’06, I became involved in organizing a campaign called Declaration of Peace, which spearheaded a week of nonviolent action in September. That week included congressional visits, rallies, vigils and nonviolent civil disobedience in over 120 cities across the U.S. to advocate for a shift of funding from war to meeting human needs, particularly in Iraq.
Phase 2 of the campaign is now under way with our message being, “Defund the War and Declare Peace in Iraq!” We will continue to target Congress, building on the ever-growing mandate for peace (as exhibited by the elections and the current opinion polls), which indicate that the people of the U.S. and Iraq want an end to the U.S. Occupation.