“Healing Wounded Hearts: Our Responsibility to Victims and Survivors of Crime” is the theme of a restorative justice seminar to be presented by the California Catholic Conference on Sept. 21 at the Provincial Center of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Montebello.The 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. event is designed as a "transfer of knowledge” seminar to examine the needs of those most personally harmed by crime and violence, according to the CCC. The goal of the day is to surface the truths needed to effectively interject healing and change for all victims and survivors of crime. Invited to attend the seminar are restorative justice professionals, educators, volunteers, members of law enforcement, agencies, non-profits and faith groups, and those impacted by or who work in all areas of the criminal justice system.The day’s schedule includes three sessions (to be simultaneously translated into Spanish) featuring panels of individual victims of violent crime, family and friends of murder victims, as well as experts, including a violence prevention specialist, a director of a prison project, a Catholic diocesan ministry coordinator, a licensed marriage and family therapist and a pastor. The panels will address the impact of serious and violent crime on victims and survivors, the need to develop a “new-normal,” the relationship between experiencing trauma and engaging in violent behavior, the conflict of unresolved grief, and ways to offer support to those in search of healing. The panels will also explore effective ways to mobilize the community’s response to crime and violence.The Provincial Center of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary is located at 441 N. Garfield Avenue, Montebello. The cost of the seminar is $25, which includes morning coffee and lunch. To register, visit www.cacatholic.org and scroll down the left side to Events. For more information, contact Debbie McDermott, (916) 313-4000.
