Snapshot of compassionate listening: Lorenn Walker & restorative justice

Before her days working with restorative justice, Lorenn was an
Hawai’i state deputy attorney general, as well as general counsel for
the state public welfare system (1984-94).  In addition, she served as
a family court representative for typically underserved cross-sections
of the population (1994-99).  During this time, she also had a term as
president of the Child and Family Advocacy Section of the Hawai’i State
Bar Association (1998-99).

Clearly, it’s not as though Lorenn wasn’t fully invested in social
justice before her encounter with Compassionate Listening, but it seems
that receiving CL training, in conjunction with other contemporaneous
and similarly momentous shifts in her life, really did bring her work
to a new level.

Beginning around 1996, Lorenn has reoriented her work away from its
original legal focus, and now directs her energy toward ways that she
can foster social justice as a health educator in the public health
sector.  Nevertheless, she still draws on her previous experience with
law and social service – in addition to core Compassionate Listening
principles – to establish evidence-based, measurable, testable programs
that aim at achieving reconciliation, preventing violent crime, and
promoting restoration of individuals with a criminal past.  She works
collaboratively with individuals and organizations, wherever there is a
need.  Impressively, but certainly not surprisingly, her work is
international in scope: just recently, she told me, she received an
email from someone in Belgium who is interested in integrating her
methods into their own social justice programs.

I don’t know when this woman sleeps – she has piloted about a dozen
projects in her field, published 25 articles on her work, and trains
for triathlons.

Read the whole entry. And check out Lorenn’s website.