Jared Seide
Jared Seide is a non-profit leader, educator and innovator in compassionate-based community-building practices. He is the Founding Director of Center for Council,[1] a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that utilizes the practice of Council to promote wellness and resiliency, to foster social and restorative justice and to nourish cohesive and thriving communities.
Career
For over 15 years, Seide has designed, piloted, coordinated, and led Council-based programs within in prisons, schools, assisted living facilities, youth groups, and a variety of non-profit and faith-based organizations and social service agencies, including the "Co-Mentoring Project” for emancipated foster youth, the "Social Justice Council Project” for the staff of community-based organizations, the “Inmate Council Program” throughout California Department of Corrections,[2] and the Council-based "Wellness and Resiliency Skills Training" program for correctional officers in partnership with Center for Mindfulness in Corrections.[3] He has coordinated, mentored, and facilitated Council programs at a dozen schools in Southern California and has led “Rite of Passage” retreats for a host of middle and high school youth,[4] in addition to coordinating the Los Angeles-based “Council Collaborative Initiative" for educators.
Seide first discovered Council In the early 1990s when his daughter’s school was experiencing stress and racial tension as a result of the Los Angeles riots. As the President of the school’s Governing Board, he invited in The Ojai Foundation to introduce Council as a way to help quell the unrest. Following the introduction of Council to teachers, students, and community members, Seide saw a profound shift in the school’s culture and the creation of a more empathic and cohesive community.[5] This experience led him to study the practice of Council and eventually work for The Ojai Foundation as a Senior Council Trainer and Initiative Coordinator. Seide was coordinator of the nine-member leadership team that relaunched the "Center for Council Practice" division of The Ojai Foundation.
In 2014, Seide led the creation of Center for Council as its own independent organization, based in Los Angeles. He serves as the organization’s Director. Council is a compassion-based attentional practice that fosters greater awareness of self and others and capacity for cultivating skillful communication, respectful relationships and ethical action; the practice of council is a foundational element of programs that promote wellness and resiliency, team-building and community engagement.
In 2015, Seide co-led the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Conference on integrating Council and SRM in California and Rwandan prisons.[6] He was subsequently invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to be a Resident Fellow at the Bellagio. He has presented on the integration of Council into varied arenas to the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board, Association of Change Management Professionals, Bellagio Fellows Gathering, Monterrey County Community Restorative Justice Commission, Restorative Justice in Motion Conference, and elsewhere.
Seide holds a BA with honors from Brown University. He is a student of Bernie Glassman, Egyoku Nakao and Joan Halifax, a member of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, a sixth cohort graduate of the Chaplaincy Program of Upaya Institute Chaplaincy Program,[7] and a Spirit Holder for Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Retreats around the world.[8]
References
- ↑ http://www.centerforcouncil.org/#!team/c1zh4
- ↑ "Beyond Prison". Beyond Prison. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
- ↑ http://www.codepink.org/jared_seide
- ↑ "At Risk Youth | Rites of Passage | Warrior Films". Warrior Films | Warriors | Movie. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
- ↑ "Center for Council". Center for Council. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
- ↑ http://commonwise.com/peace-without-boundaries/
- ↑ https://www.upaya.org/social-action/chaplaincy/graduates/
- ↑ http://zenpeacemakers.org/jared-seide/