From Sparks to Light - Inspiring Stories for Challenging Times

Her Life With Lifers - Elaine Leeder, MSW, MPH, PhD

March 30, 2023 Season 2 Episode 36
From Sparks to Light - Inspiring Stories for Challenging Times
Her Life With Lifers - Elaine Leeder, MSW, MPH, PhD
Show Notes

Elaine Leeder was always drawn to the dark side of life. The daughter of a Holocaust refugee, she  spent the better part of her life trying to understand that darkness.  The desire to make sense of that which seems so difficult led her on a journey into one of the darkest places in our society, our prison system. Elaine volunteers in a restorative justice program that offers both victims and offenders the opportunity to face one another, not as adversaries but as equals, to engage in conversations that have the potential to set them free.

From inside the walls at some of California’s most famous prisons, Elaine has worked with some of the most traumatized of individuals. Hurt people hurt people she reminds us. And yet it is in these conversations, through the power of restorative justice, that she has witnessed moments of profound transformation, for both the victim and those who have done the harm. 

To learn more about Elaine's work, please visit her website.

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.

To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago

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