Odyssey Impact: Town Halls

With DV statistics skyrocketing during the pandemic, there is great urgency to equip emerging faith leaders to respond appropriately.  Educators share trauma-informed teaching practices and their own classroom experience in engaging the topic.  Support the show (https://www.classy.org/campaign/compassion-in-action/c283581)

How can we move beyond distrust and divisions towards understanding and solidarity? What can we learn from women of different faiths who have united against hate?  How do we really work to eliminate hate in our communities?  JCo-Leaders of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, Atiya Aftab and Sheryl Olitzky joined filmmakers and a panel of leading changemakers for a live conversation. Stranger/Sister is the story of two ordinary women, one Muslim and one Jewish, who dare to believe they can join hands to stop the wave of hate. Overcoming a history of distrust between their two religions, they build a movement that turns strangers into sisters, challenging our assumptions about how to fight hate. The Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom is building a powerful network of hope in a time of division, chaos and hate.Support the show (https://www.classy.org/campaign/compassion-in-action/c283581)

“Who will we be together?” Our Live Town Hall conversation with faith leaders and change makers included special guests from The On Being Project and RNS as we considered together how we listen, learn, and move forward in the face of deep national divisions.

Odyssey Impact and Ending Mass Incarceration convened a town hall conversation on the challenges of life post-incarceration, the importance of communal support for the formerly incarcerated, and the power of second chances. The town hall was led by Melissa C. Potter, Head of Social Impact and Communications at Odyssey Impact and Rev. John Vaughn, Executive Pastor, Ebenezer Baptist Church. Panelists included: Brittany White, Live Free Decarceration Campaign Manager, Faith in Action; Chad Sean Alexander, Featured in Milwaukee 53206, Owner of Plethora World and Craig DeRoche, Senior Vice President, Advocacy & Public Policy, Prison Fellowship.For more information visit:milwaukee53206.comodyssey-impact.org

In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Odyssey Impact and the NAACP Youth & College Division held a conversation on the legacy of Recy Taylor, the disproportionate discrimination faced by survivors of color and why it is important to be a vocal ally against racism and sexual assault.The Rape of Recy Taylor highlights the legacy of physical abuse inflicted upon Black women by examining the story of Recy Taylor who, in 1944, bravely identified her White rapists in racially segregated Alabama. Since 2018, the film has educated the public about sexual violence against women and the historical trauma faced by Black women in the Jim Crow South. Please join us as we celebrate the conclusion of the social impact campaign for The Rape of Recy Taylor documentary film. Co-presented by Odyssey Impact and the NAACP Youth & College Division

Trapped: Cash Bail in America is a compelling new film that takes a close look at the controversial cash bail system in the United States, the people adversely affected by its implementation, and the ongoing grassroots efforts to combat its negative consequences and to reform the system. Join moderator, Topeka K. Sam, filmmaker, Chris Jenkins, and a leading panel of social justice change makers for a conversation on the economic and racial inequalities of the cash bail system, emerging reform efforts, the opposition posed by the bail industry and how the 2020 election will shape the future of the American criminal-legal system. Trapped: Cash Bail in America highlights the complex and multifaceted ways in which cash bail fundamentally punishes individuals, upends families, and destabilizes minority communities; all without a guilty verdict.

In a year when political extremism is compounded by concurrent pandemics, how are faith leaders uniquely positioned to help heal and convene healthy dialogue? Many faith leaders face difficult choices about how to provide leadership and care amidst severe political polarization, often within their own communities. Faith communities may be among the few public spaces where Americans of diverse political and cultural viewpoints can meaningfully dialogue and be in relationship. Join us as we gather faith leaders to share their candid experiences and diverse perspectives on how to provide hope and healing amidst vitriol and even violence.

Odyssey Impact, Faith Trust Institute and ACPE are convening a live town hall conversation examining how COVID-19’s stay-at-home orders are impacting the psychological and spiritual isolation of people experiencing, or at risk of experiencing intimate partner violence, and how both chaplains and congregational leaders can help.

For chaplains and faith leaders, the mental health of teens and young adults is a spiritual care issue made more urgent by the compounded chronic stress of 2020. With rising rates of suicide and mental health crises among our young people, what particular care strategies should every chaplain and every congregational leader know? Join us for a conversation with a panel of expert practitioners as we explore together how we end the shame, stigma and silence surrounding severe mental health crises, attending also to the ways particular communities bear these burdens disproportionately.

Odyssey Impact’s Young Adult Initiative convened a conversation on how the Christian Church of 2020 can show up to help lead the work of anti-racism in society and equitable policing in Black and Brown communities. The town hall was led by Rev. Terrance McKinley, Director of Racial Justice and Mobilizing, Sojourners and Senior Pastor, Campbell AME Church. Panelists included: Rev. Jazmine Brooks, Itinerant Deacon, AME Church, Program Director, Mary Baldwin University Office of Inclusive Excellence, Rev. Tyler Sit, Pastor and Church Planter, New City Church, Oriana Mayorga, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Rev. Leslye Dwight, Minister of Social Justice, Community of Hope AME Church.For more information visit:odyssey-impact.org/oiyaiodyssey-impact.org

Co-presented by Odyssey Impact, Macedonian Ministryand Institute for Collective Trauma and GrowthFor faith leaders, no disaster exactly parallels the COVID-19 pandemic. However, what about other crises and communal traumas weathered by congregations and those who lead them? Join us for a conversation with colleagues and experts who’ve led congregations through both human-caused and natural disasters, and what pastoral care and leadership wisdom those experiences provide us now.We encourage ALL faith leaders, in any context, to join us!PANELISTSRev. Matt Crebbin,Senior Pastor,Newtown Congregational Church,Newtown CTRev. Dr. Storm SwainAssoc. Prof. of Pastoral Care & Theology,United Lutheran Seminaryauthor of Trauma and Transformation at Ground Zero: A Pastoral TheologyRev. Tyshawn Gardner,Pastor,Plum Grove Baptist Church,Tuscaloosa ALMODERATORSRev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime,Director of Religion and Civic Engagement,Odyssey ImpactRev. Mark Ramsey,Executive Director,Macedonian Ministry

A candid conversation with leading chaplains and pastoral theologians about the particular challenges facing those who provide spiritual care in health care settings. We discuss solutions for moral dilemmas facing spiritual caregivers: when “do no harm” is threatened by a chaplain’s bodily presence, and when acute moral stress is caused by denials of care and other pandemic dynamics. What unique value does spiritual care have in the COVID-19 pandemic?PANELISTSStephanie Crumpton, Associate Professor of Practical TheologyMcCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, ILCarrie Doehring, Clifford Baldridge Professor of Pastoral Care and CounselingIliff School of Theology Denver, COZachary Moon, Assistant Professor of Practical TheologyChicago Theological Seminary, Chicago ILMichael Shochet, Senior ClergyTemple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church, VA

In this moment of social uprising and the compounding crises related to the global pandemic, many clergy and lay leaders are experiencing a pull to use pastoral skills in service to the wave of social change and constantly shifting needs. Movement Chaplaincy, the work of spiritual accompaniment to justice movements and their leaders, is an emerging vocation that brings care, healing, and resilience-building to our struggles for justice. Join us for a conversation on how spiritual leaders can show up in this movement moment in supportive, healing, justice-centered ways of accompaniment such as the emerging vocation of movement chaplaincy and beyond

As preachers look ahead to creating sermons in 2020, the national context of interrelated crises is impossible to ignore: pandemic, racial injustice and economic fallout, and escalating pastoral care needs. What does this mean for the task of preaching? Which theological frames and homiletical strategies do we consider, as the backdrop for many in the “pews” includes trauma, fatigue, depression, anxiety, grief, despair? How do we pair our need for healing from the collective trauma of the pandemic, with the urgent opportunity to face and address systemic racial injustice in America?

Spiritual Care Providers working within correctional facilities across multiple faith identities face many challenges every day. But now, in pandemic conditions, the complexities have multiplied: grief needs, religious accommodations, increased stress and trauma on both those who are incarcerated and staff, and overall strain on already scant resources. Join us for a critical conversation with chaplain colleagues who are working in various correctional contexts, including men’s and women’s, private/federal/state/county, juvenile/adult facilities. How are they providing care and hope during COVID-19?PANELISTSRev. Ulli KlemmReligious Services Administrator Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections, PADr. Rachelle GreenFordham University, NYRabbi Dr. Shaul Marshall PraverCheshire Correctional Institute, CTRev. Lillian HinesNorthern State Prison, NJChaplain Zeynab AbdullayevaAlbion Correctional Facility, NY