In the ongoing battle against systemic injustice grassroots leaders and social justice professionals are often at the forefront, tirelessly advocating for change. However, amidst the fight for equity and well-being, it’s crucial to emphasize mental health this May and every month for recovery and healing. Communities of color continue to be disproportionately affected by the…
There have been so many moments these past months when I wanted to pause, gather my thoughts, and tell you about the incredible things happening at EJUSA. I am finally getting that chance. I told you a little about our incredible event with the Players Coalition in Las Vegas, just days before the Super Bowl….
For years there has been a constant debate around the word“gang” and what it means. For some, it means a group of close knit people, like when you say “the whole gang’s here.” For others, it’s a loaded term. It means a group of organized criminals. A quick Google image search will show you exactly…
I have been working at EJUSA for almost 19 years, all of them spent beating back our legacy of killing people as punishment for harm they committed. State by state, we have repealed death penalty laws or convinced governors to halt executions to end this terrible, misguided practice that does not make us safer. Now,…
Spinoff from Impact Justice Completes EJUSA’s Practice Model with a Response to Harm that Aligns with Mission and Values Equal Justice USA (EJUSA) announced today that it was growing to absorb the Restorative Justice Project, which is being spun off by Impact Justice. The Project will join EJUSA’s existing slate of programs that are transforming…
Earlier this year, international opera singer Ryan McKinny emailed EJUSA out of the blue. He told us that he was performing the role of Joseph De Rocher in a new production of “Dead Man Walking” at The Metropolitan Opera. He wanted to use his platform, the biggest of his career to date, to elevate our…
Have you ever thought about your relationship with your breath? To your body? For Black, brown, indigenous, queer, and trans people working on the frontlines of violence intervention, the relationship to the body and breath can be simultaneously sacred, tenuous, and uncertain. BlPOC communities have experienced generations of surveillance from police, forced labor, and bodily…
In 2016, we launched a groundbreaking program in Newark, NJ, that brought community members and police officers into the same room to explore trauma — especially as it is connected to encounters with policing. And we wanted to explore the trauma of both groups. Since then hundreds of community members and police officers have gone…
Thirty years ago, my father was the victim of a brutal assault that had a lasting impact that no one in my family could appreciate in that moment. We all struggled in different ways. A big part of that struggle stemmed from not seeing ourselves as survivors of violence, and not having access to the…
In 2018, I left the Department of Justice after a dozen years as a prosecutor. I had seen our criminal legal system up close and came away certain that it was too big, too rigid, and too steeped in its racist origins to ever deliver true justice. I wanted to find the solutions to violence,…