Webinar: Transforming Police & Community Relations- March 29, 12:30 PM EST

MBBI is pleased to announce the upcoming webinar on Transforming Police and Community Relations Through Collaborative Practices.

In this webinar, participants will hear from and have a conversation with a diverse panel of collaborative and peace professionals. Our panelist have decades of experience working with both the community and police to strengthen relationships and build trust. Their combined experiences will touch upon many of the nuances of rebuilding trust and addressing historical fractures between the police and community. They will speak on how collaborative problem-solving, procedural justice, and peace practices help to transform police community relationships.

The panelist will discuss best practices, promising practices, and new initiatives in which they are involved. They will share tools from mediation, police problem-solving, peace building, community policing, academia, and community engagement.

Register here

Marcia Thompson, Esq. is a trained neutral and certified collaborative problem solver and a Supreme Court of Virginia certified mediator with over 20 years of experience in the corporate, academic and public sector. She has also served as an advisor to several law enforcement organizations on Civil Rights and law enforcement issues for over 15 years.

Ms. Thompson has been an active member of the IACP Civil and Human Rights Committee for over 10 years and has provided insight and guidance on timely and novel civil rights and human rights matters impacting law enforcement nationally (bias-free policing; use of force; stop and frisk; constitutional policing; procedural justice; hate crimes; affinity group protections). She has also served as General Counsel and advisor to the National Organization of Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) for many years. In both capacities, she provided a legal perspective and civil rights lens on law enforcement, community policing and criminal justice matters.

Grande Lum is Director of the Divided Community Project (DCP) at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where he also serves as a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence. DCP’s mission is to strengthen communities so they can transform community division into positive action. DCP’s initiatives include establishing programs in advance of civil unrest. In 2018, the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section announced that it will be awarding this year’s Lawyer as Problem Solver Award to DCP. Mr. Lum is also a Lecturer at Law and Research Fellow at Stanford Law School. Mr. Lum currently serves as the chair of the Community Engagement and Education Subcommittee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Human and Civil Rights Committee.

Previously, Grande Lum was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2012 as the Director of the Community Relations Service (CRS), an agency within the Department of Justice. Mr. Lum guided CRS during a time when race and law enforcement reemerged as a critical national priority. CRS focuses on preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, and in restoring stability and harmony. In addition, CRS also works with communities to employ strategies to prevent and respond to alleged violent hate crimes committed on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or disability. During his tenure, Mr. Lum expanded services in the areas of Transgender and Law Enforcement interaction, anti-Muslim hate crime prevention, Intellectual Disabilities and Restorative Practices.

From the age of 21, Barbara Wien has worked to end human rights abuses, violence and war. She is the author of 24 books, chapters and articles, including Teaching Peace through Popular Culture (2016), Ending School Violence (2015), “Peaceful Bodyguards for Human Rights” in The New Humanitarians (2009), Peace and World Order Studies A Curriculum Guide (1984), and many others. Ms. Wien is a nonviolence trainer, peace educator, public speaker, gender scholar, human rights activist, and a mother of two. She has protected civilians from the death squads in 12 countries using “nonviolent protective accompaniment” as Co-Director of Peace Brigades International.

Ms. Wien awarded grants to women’s movements around the world while on staff at the V-Day Foundation with Eve Ensler. Author of the “Vagina Monologues,” She trained U.S. Foreign Service Officers, UN officials, humanitarian workers, police, soldiers, and grassroots leaders to de-escalate violence and armed conflicts as a Program Officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace. She has conducted peace seminars in 58 countries, led 8 national nonprofits, taught at 6 universities, and awarded grants for 3 funding agencies. Further, she catalyzed 280 Peace Studies programs on university campuses and organized safe streets for kids with women in Harlem and Washington D.C. neighborhoods.

Erricka Bridgeford was trained as a mediator in September of 2001. By 2005, she became the Director of Training for Community Mediation Maryland. In this capacity, she continues to provide training to the 17 community mediation centers in Maryland. She also provides training to state agencies and organizations, and for national conferences.

Ms. Bridgeford’s most proud achievement is the fact that she, through CMM, was the first trainer to go into prison (Jessup Correctional Institution & Maryland Correctional Training Center) to provide inmates with the same, full 40-hour Basic Mediation Training that is given to mediators in communities all over MD.

Please note that the deadline to register is March 28 at noon. A Zoom link to the webinar will be sent to the registrants a day in advance. For further information, please reach out to Kathleen Ibarra, MBBI’s Webinar Coordinator. 

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