Collective
Voices
reconnecting, repairing, and rebuilding
Founder, Trainer, Consultant,
Grief Support Specialist, &
Circle Keeper
"To work with a practitioner who seeks to employ the totality of the participants' human experience, to inform the concert of her strategic intervention is rare, rewarding, and so invigorating. This is what Jessie brings to the table. I am fortunate to have her."
~ Dr. Al Felice www.culturalbridges.org
Hello and thank you for taking the time to learn about Collective Voices! I am the founder, a direct care provider, trainer, consultant, mediator, Grief Support Specialist, and Circle Keeper with Collective Voices. I have worked with teens, young adults, families, and professionals for over 35 years.
In 2011, I co-founded the non-profit, Forward Learning Youth and Young Adults (FLYY) in Madison, WI. FLYY’s wilderness expeditions offered high-risk and marginalized youth and families a way to discover and develop character and resiliency. FLYY’s innovative approach - a 25-day wilderness expedition, parent skill development and support groups, and critical post-expedition aftercare resulted in long-term successes for young people and their families throughout Wisconsin. In 2015, FLYY spearheaded “FLYY Tribal” (as named by FLYY’s Tribal partners), for Native American youth and families. FLYY partnered with the 12 federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin, and served teens through our wilderness expeditions. Additionally, we worked closely with the teen's families and community members throughout the 25 days (while the teen was on expedition.)
From the summer of 2018 to the summer of 2019,
I co-developed and co-directed a
Community-Based Peace Program held at a community center in Madison, WI. In many communities, people do not have a free, safe, local space to share, heal, discuss, resolve, or celebrate with one another. The Peace Program aimed to address lack of access to vital services that all people deserve - services in which residents themselves can become lead facilitators and stakeholders. Over the length of a year, the Peace Program mentored a group of youth by teaching them how to facilitate a variety of types of Peacemaking Circles, Nonviolent Communication and de-escalation skills, while simultaneously engaging local adult leaders to help support the youth. Who is at the table to support and develop a Community Peace Program? Gatekeepers that support "public safety" and "community wellness" initiatives. A Community Peace Program is a community and public health approach to safety and connectivity. It is an investment in a social and sustainable infrastructure.
The goal of the project was to create a change in community culture that moved away from firearms and antisocial behavior. At the conclusion of the Peace Program, the community was able to use this free and accessible program to better address the prevalence and impact of violence and victimization on Madison’s Northside. The components of the Peace Program offered residents an opportunity to reconnect, repair, and break silence.
I have spent over 35 years as a crisis responder in situations as varied as: working with survivors of Hurricane Katrina; supporting the Indigenous communities at Standing Rock; developing and managing the national high-risk teen program at Outward Bound; co-founding a non-profit serving marginalized communities and individuals through wilderness programming, parent skills and support groups, and community-based aftercare (Forward Learning Youth and Young Adults); co-directing a community-based Peace Program; training Child Welfare professionals and serving as a Restorative Family Facilitator supporting reunification plans; working with the Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the City of New Orleans and training their staff in de-escalation techniques and conflict and repair intervention models; and in 2019,
I founded Collective Voices.
Through Collective Voices, I currently provide services that heal, strengthen relationships, give voice, enhance equity, accountability, and respect, and interrupt longstanding cycles of conflict, and begin the process of repairing harm. Some people best know me for my work in building relationships with diverse populations, delivering trainings and consulting services, and facilitating Peacemaking Circles focused on Community-Building, Celebration, Conflict, Repair, Harm, Re-Entry, Grief, Loss, Change, and Transition. I use a restorative framework to create spaces for productive conflict and healing to occur. I believe that all people need the opportunity to tell their story, and be seen, heard, valued, and understood. I work alongside people and help them to develop the skills and capacity to uncover and express their feelings and needs in ways that minimize harm, violence, and "negative peace."
I have extensive working in several Tribal Communities in the capacity of lead trainer, consultant, and facilitator as a part of each Tribe’s coordinated effort of moving forward the values and methods of restorative practices and peacebuilding across their communities and numerous departments within. I have worked with the following Tribal departments: Healing to Wellness Courts, Behavioral Health and Education departments, Youth Drop-In Center, Equine Therapy Program, Victim Services, Recovery Homes, and a Tribal School. In addition to her work with Tribal Communities. I currently work closely with several Tribal communities including The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe; The Forest County Potawatomi Community; The Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa; The Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians; and the Tulalip Tribes, as well as a variety of non-profits, schools, communities, businesses, and departments around the country and locally. Living “better" together is the gist of my work.
I received a B.A. in Outdoor Education; mediator training from the UW-Wisconsin Continuing Studies; training as a Circle Keeper from the Minnesota Department of Education and Legal Rights Center, as well as from many mentors I have had the privilege to work alongside; facilitator training on the Red Road Approach for Adults from Generation Red Road; and Grief Support Specialist training from the UW-Wisconsin Continuing Studies. Additional training and experience come from decades of first-hand experience living life and all that has come with it. My best teachers have been the hundreds of people I have met while on the road, and the youth, adults, and colleagues I have worked with. I am humbled and grateful for being able to walk together with people on their and my life journeys.
