Our National conference will be on Zoom, on Saturday, November 23rd. It will be from 9am-5pm PT with a 30-minute meal break, plus breakout sessions after each of the three segments.
The purpose of the conference is:
- To explore what life is like for people and their families experiencing incarceration and after release.
- To highlight programs and initiatives that successfully prepare and support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in their rehabilitation and safe reintegration into society.
- To offer new opportunities for partnerships by promoting meaningful dialogue and collaboration.
- To inspire people to support programs that reduce recidivism, promote social justice, and transform lives during and after incarceration.
We are starting the transformation with a National virtual conference on Zoom. We would love for you to join us (register here)
Speaker number 2 on our hit parade:
Michael Todd 
Coming From The Heart
Synopsis: Michael Todd shares his life and his work making the point that effective programming, coupled with the ability to change, makes personal transformation possible, which in turn can lead to community and societal transformation. His work with Compassion Prison Project and the development of the New Start Parole Preparation Class is one of the many ways Michael gives back.
Our Speaker: Michael Todd is the Manager of Rehabilitative and Reentry Programming at Compassion Prison Project, and a survivor.
He has survived many Adverse Childhood Experiences. He has survived a Traumatic Brain Injury suffered in an automobile accident that killed the other people he was with.
Most importantly, he has survived a Life Sentence in the California Department of Corrections, before they decided to offer any type of rehabilitative programming.
Michael was tried as an adult for a crime he committed when he was 15 years old. He served over 27 years on this sentence before he was granted parole. While in prison, Michael participated in many self-help and rehabilitative programs, including Compassion Prison Project’s ‘Trauma Circle’ that was used in the Step Inside the Circle film.
Since being released, Michael has continued to work to make a difference in the way that people view people in prison, and those who are released from prison. He facilitates classes teaching people about the types of trauma that lead to crime, and that come from crime, and how to heal from that.
He also trains Service Dogs for Military Veterans with PTSD and teaches Veterans how to train the dogs themselves.
