PART 1: SAFETY & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY – THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
February 28, 2024
Hosted by Sandra Bloom and Sarah Yanosy
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Guest Information
Episode Description
In the first segment, Dr. Bloom and Ms. Yanosy will expand the definition of the word “safety” and discuss how the establishment and maintenance of safety is not just an individual issue but a social responsibility of organizations, communities, and whole societies. In our present culture, there is an expectation that basic physical safety is the domain of the criminal justice system. As our justice system – especially prisons – have grown, it is arguably less safe now than even a couple of decades ago. And for many people in our culture, there is no justice. In the second segment, we focus on ideas around trauma-informed justice systems by engaging in a conversation with Dr. Stephanie Covington who, through her many publications and training programs, has been involved in gender-responsive and trauma-informed services in the justice system for over twenty-five years. In the third segment, we have a conversation with two other activists in the justice system, Robert Reed and EL Sawyer. Mr. Reed is currently serving as the Executive Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, after thirty years as a prosecutor for the Department of Justice. In his current role, Mr. Reed is endeavoring to help the justice system in Pennsylvania become trauma-informed through his work with Heal PA, whose mission is to lead and support Pennsylvania in becoming trauma-informed and healing-centered by providing resources, advocacy, and education via a multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach. EL Sawyer is a filmmaker and activist who draws on his own experience with incarceration to help move the justice system to become more humane and therapeutic.
Creating Presence with Dr. Sandra Bloom & Sarah Yanosy
Wednesdays at 9 AM Pacific Time on VoiceAmerica Empowerment Channel
Creating Presence with Dr. Sandra Bloom and Sarah Yanosy explores how our biological and psychological vulnerability collide with our political, civic, and economic landscapes to create potentially catastrophic toxicity for our collective social health. Using the lens of public health science and their own experience as mental health providers and educators, these two thought leaders in trauma-responsive practice engage experts from a range of fields that shape social health at both individual and community levels. These conversations capitalize on this critical point in human evolution to change the paradigm for how we think about who we are and what we need to conquer toxicity and promote social health. This series will highlight successful strategies from the spheres of politics, spirituality, education, justice, art, and parenting, as well as steps for reshaping our work environments and the places we seek healing, connection, and recovery.
Sandra Bloom and Sarah Yanosy
Dr. Sandra L. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, graduate of Temple University School of Medicine and currently Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, where she teaches five courses focused on the impact of psychological trauma on individuals and organizations. From 1980-2001, Dr. Bloom served as Founder and Executive Director of the Sanctuary programs, inpatient psychiatric programs for the treatment of trauma-related emotional disorders and during those years was also President of the Alliance for Creative Development, a multidisciplinary outpatient practice group. Dr. Bloom is recognized nationally and internationally as the founder of the Sanctuary Model. Between 2005 and 2016 over 350 social service, juvenile justice and mental health organizations were trained in the Sanctuary Model. In extending her work to include an online delivery program for Leaders, Clinicians, Direct Service Staff, and Indirect Service Staff called Creating Presence, Dr. Bloom hopes to make the innovative approach to service delivery known as “trauma-informed” and “trauma-responsive” more available and cost effective. Dr. Bloom is a Past-President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and author or co-author of a series of books on trauma-informed care: Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies published in 1997 with a second edition in 2013; Bearing Witness: Violence and Collective Responsibility in 1998; Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Delivery Service Systems published by Oxford University Press in 2010 and Restoring Sanctuary: A New Operating System for Trauma-Informed Systems of Care, published by Oxford University Press in 2013. She is a founder of and immediate past-president of a new national organization, CTIPP – The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice whose goal is to advocate for public policies and programs at the federal, state, local and tribal levels that incorporate up-to-date scientific findings regarding the relationship between trauma across the lifespan and many social and health problems.
Ms. Yanosy’s career has integrated clinical work, education and administration, resulting in expertise in individual and family therapy, program and curriculum development as well as program evaluation and replication. Ms. Yanosy currently teaches at the Fordham University School of Social Services and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She served as the Founding Director of an international training and consultation organization serving over 350 organizations across the US and in 7 other countries, teaching human service providers to implement trauma-informed interventions. Most recently, Ms. Yanosy co-developed the PRESENCE Model, an online training model for trauma responsive practice. Ms. Yanosy has been a keynote and featured speaker on trauma and organizational culture and has published extensively on the implementation and impact of trauma responsive practice. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Cornell University and Smith College respectively, and has completed post graduate programs at New York University, Fordham University and Columbia Business School.
