May 1, 2018. Knox News
In pressing public officials to take action on social problems in Knox County, Justice Knox doesn’t shy away from tension — it embraces it.
“Collectively, we raise our voice and call for our public officials to hear their constituents,” Justice Knox Co-president Rev. Meredith Loftis told the hundreds of people who packed into Central United Methodist Church on Monday evening.
“This will cause tension, but let’s be clear, it is tension borne of hearts that care.”
April 30, 2018. Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Before a collection of more than 20 congregations across the Richmond region, Chesterfield school administrators made commitments to expand teacher training to drive down minority student suspensions that have garnered Richmond-area schools scrutiny from the state and federal levels in recent years.
At the same time, Richmond schools Superintendent Jason Kamras responded with a “maybe” when it came to rolling out a pilot program to improve student reading levels.
April 19, 2018. The Post and Courier.
The two boys were play-fighting, until suddenly they weren’t. The slap rang out at Northwoods Middle School.
Students at Northwoods are bound by the same rules and consequences as anyone else in the Charleston County School District. But thanks to a pilot program that started at their school and four others last year, the students also have a unique opportunity to face one another and make amends for their mistakes.
The pilot program is known as “restorative practices,” an approach to resolving conflicts that emphasizes personal responsibility and healing relationships. The approach was developed by Australian police to work with juvenile offenders in the 1990s, and it has since spread to schools worldwide.
April 17, 2018. WHAS 11.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – It was a crowded auditorium Tuesday night, as hundreds from the organization, CLOUT, offered their solutions for some of Louisville Metro’s most critical problems: affordable housing, mental illness and school safety.
CLOUT, the Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together asked city leaders like JCPS Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio to commit to putting restorative practices in 10 more schools by the 2019-20 school year.
March 24, 2018. Herald-Tribune.
SURE’s annual Nehemiah Action Assembly is a model for advancing community justice
Though my heritage on my father’s side is Jewish, and on my mother’s Episcopalian, I wasn’t raised in either faith. In fact, the extent of my early religious training was attending Sunday school at the only church that existed in our rural village while my parents returned home for a gratefully quiet morning without children.
Over the years, I’ve studied many spiritual traditions and absorbed aspects of a few. But it wasn’t until I walked into the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium last week for the Nehemiah Action Assembly of SURE (Sarasota United for Responsibility and Equity) that I felt ready to convert.
