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Discussion Series

Join Us Every Tuesday thru June 18th After Watching Sunday Episodes

* This Discussion Series is not a direct production of CNN, Van Jones, or The Redemption Project, but is allied and supportive of each in this endeavor.
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Presenting A Public Virtual Forum Every Tuesday at 5pmPST After Sunday Episodes of:

The CNN Original Series, The Redemption Project with Van Jones
Photo of Van Jones: CNN

Van Jones has long been a proponent of restorative justice and decarceration. RJ on The Rise interviewed him a few years ago about Cut50, a project focusing on reducing mass incarceration in the US. He is now spearheading a massive project that you'll want to check out: The REFORM Alliance.  Thank you Van for your voice and efforts. Your work inspired a recycled glassware re-entry program in Ada County, Idaho, that we had the honor of helping found with the IDOC, DOL, and many others, to provide female inmates a chance at job skills training, mindfulness, and to recycle used glass into fantastic glassware that was sold and used in Boise, Idaho's finest eateries.  --Molly Rowan Leach, Host & Founder-Restorative Justice on The Rise

Mariah  Lucas' mother was murdered by Jason Clark. Their story was the focus of the Premiere Episode on April 28th--and they joined us for an initial discussion April 30th, & we're scheduling a second discussion TBA

Sundays at 9pm ET/PT

With incredible access to the US prison system, Van Jones takes viewers into the room as offenders come face-to-face with those impacted by their violent crimes as part of the restorative justice process.

Please Sign up (free) to receive all the information and access to discussions every Tuesday, and about these amazing people and organizations involved in this project. Also to find out more about The REFORM Alliance, a massive project recently launched...

Join Facilitators and Stakeholders From The Redemption Project. Including:

Martina Lutz Schneider
Ahimsa Collective

Karena Montag
Stronghold

Javier Stauring
Healing Dialogue & Action

Gretchen Casey
River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding

Jonathan Scharrer
Director of the Restorative Justice Project

(Photo: Sharon Garner)

Special Guest Host Belvie Rooks

Belvie Rooks has worked with Van Jones over a number of years on various projects and endeavors including, the Ella Baker Center, The Dream Reborn, and The Green Jobs Initiative. She and Dedan Gills, her partner in life and love who transitioned in 2015, were honored guests on Restorative Justice on The Rise in 2011.

Pictured above: Three Extraordinary publications -- Links just below.

LAUNCHING IN JUNE 2019, I Give You The Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Love Song a book that she and her beloved late husband Dedan Gills envisioned and worked on even as he entered Zen Hospice in San Francisco, where he took his final breath, in December 2015.

In reflecting on Springtime...Danny Glover has said, "This beautiful and engaging love story by two friends and life-long human rights and social justice activists models what love can be in these times. Dedan's poetic vision, ranging from the personal to the cosmic, enriches us all."

Belvie is also a contributor to a book about to launch from Inner Pathways Publishing: The Power of Love: A Transformed Heart Changes The World, Compiled by Dr. Fran Grace based on a journey inspired by Dr. David Hawkins, in which she co-authored the essay, “Love and The Healing of Societal Wounds”, with Dedan.

It is well on its way to becoming a textbook on global ethics, launched at the Parliament of World Religions in November 2018. In addition, Grandmother Mona Polacca and The Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmother's essay appears in the same anthology. Grandmother Mona and Belvie are both presenters and mentor faculty for The Connection Series, a yearlong mentorship opportunity with global experts in Restorative Justice offered by RJ on The Rise.

Belvie was the host of the ConverZations That Matter Series for the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), inspired and supported by then- President James O'Dea. The Series included Van Jones and other visionary thought leaders and activists ranging from Julia "Butterfly" Hill, cosmologist Brian SwimmeRiane Eisler and scientist Erich Jarvis to theologian Barbara Holmes, Carl Anthony, Insight Meditation Ruth King, astronaut Edgar Mitchell (the 6th man to walk on the moon)Mary Evelyn Tucker and others. The weaving of those dialogues and conversations is the subject of the book that Belvie is currently working on.

Host Molly Rowan Leach

Molly Rowan Leach is an Executive Producer, Strategist, and Media Specialist. In addition, she has served as the Restorative Justice Fellow for The Peace Alliance, is a published essayist specific to transforming our justice systems, and has trained with many seasoned guides and practitioners in the field of Restorative Justice.

She has been involved in multiple forms of media advocacy and hands-on community based work towards restorative systems change since her mother’s incarceration which lasted fifteen years (1995-2014), and which led her to witness the dire complexities of a punitive justice system.

As a result of her life experiences, a framing question arose: how can one’s personal struggle with injustice across the board be transformed to service, to give back to the countless millions who suffer each day?

Molly recognized that victims voices are excluded from process, and that offenders are especially treated inhumanely, often forced to re-live their crime endlessly. The lack of any form of say from any stakeholder in the criminal justice system keeps people separate and uninvolved in outcomes, while in fact millions of lives are destroyed needlessly.

The US incarcerates 25% of the worlds prisoners, while comprising 5% of total global population. Within that statistic is also the fact that the system oppresses black men, and the mentally ill, at rates that are astoundingly clear: criminal justice is not about healing or equality--it has been about denying those who are our most meek, or those who this culture deems undeserving or dangerous. Molly's work aims to make real the tough issues we've long swept under the rug. Her life is dedicated to truth and advocacy.

Molly founded Restorative Justice on The Rise, an ongoing public dialogue and education platform, in 2011, and has trained in facilitation of Circles with Dominic Barter, Sylvia Clute, the late Dr. Beverly Title, and has participated in or led dialogues with both high-risk and misdemeanor conflicts.

Session Recordings

Restorative Justice on the Rise

Media That Matters: Public Dialogue On Justice

To provide connection, advocacy, education and inspired action as a public service to individuals and communities seeking to proactively improve relationships and structures within their spheres and our world.

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