ICJA Webinar Series

Centering Lived-Experience in Reentry

Real change in reentry and community justice begins by centering the voices of those who have lived it.

This 3- session webinar series brings together leaders with lived experience to explore financial stability, mental health, peer-led reentry support, and grassroots policy change. Grounded in personal insight and practical strategy, each session offers actionable tools for practitioners, supervisors, and community partners seeking to build more responsive, equitable, and effective reentry systems.

Participants will leave with concrete approaches to strengthening economic opportunity, supporting mental health and post-incarceration adjustment, empowering peer leadership, and engaging families and communities in sustainable change.

Post-Incarceration Syndrome, Mental Health, and Moving Forward

[completed, registration closed]

Presenter: Alex Harper

Date & Time: May 6, 2026 – 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.

This webinar will explore post-incarceration syndrome and its impact on mental health, behavior, and daily decision-making for individuals returning to the community after incarceration. Grounded in lived experience and research-informed insight, the session will focus on understanding triggers, managing responses, and building tools that support long-term stability and growth.

Rather than centering solely on past trauma, this conversation will emphasize forward movement, highlighting skill-building, self-awareness, and the importance of reframing success beyond traditional measures like recidivism. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how environmental triggers (such as law enforcement presence or institutional settings) can affect individuals with lived experience, and how supportive strategies can help mitigate their impact.

Key topics will include:

- Understanding post-incarceration syndrome and its effects on mental health.
- Identifying and managing triggers in everyday and professional settings.
- Shifting the narrative from failure and deficit to growth, progress, and resilience.
- Supporting justice-involved individuals while preventing burnout among practitioners.

This session is designed for practitioners, supervisors, and system partners seeking to better support individuals with lived experience - while also sustaining their own well-being and perspective.

Grassroots to Systemic Policy Change

Presenter: Tanaine Jenkins

Date & Time: June 10, 2026 – 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.

This webinar will explore how meaningful criminal justice policy change often begins at the local and city level - and how practitioners, advocates, and community leaders can play an active role in shaping that change. Drawing from lived experience and real-world advocacy efforts, the session will examine grassroots organizing, relationship-building, and practical strategies for influencing policy in diverse political environments.

Participants will gain insight into:

- Why local advocacy is often the most effective starting point for systemic change.

- How personal relationships and community connections can influence decision-makers.

- Navigating policy conversations in politically mixed or conservative spaces. 

- Translating lived experience into impactful advocacy and leadership

This session is designed for justice professionals, service providers, and advocates who want to better understand how policy is shaped - and how they can engage more intentionally and effectively at the local level.

Peer-Led Support, Mutual Aid and Community Empowerment

Presenter: Sean Ellis, Sean Graham

Date & Time: July 21, 2026 – 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.

This webinar will provide an overview on how to center lived experience in reentry services with peer-led reentry support, how to build a mutual aid community, and how to involve families and communities in the reentry process. 

The New England Innocence Project’s Exoneree Network (EN) is a peer-led program to support the reentry needs of exonerees and people who have experienced long-term incarceration as they process the trauma and work to rebuild their lives in freedom. Drawing from lived experiences of long-term confinement and systemic racial oppression, EN is run on a mutual aid model with a focus on the empowerment of community and family members, and the community as a whole. Because of shared lived experience of the stigma and discrimination associated with prior incarceration and criminal history, EN provides a community of people who can truly understand the challenges of reentry because they have lived it and continue to survive it. The work is grounded in the belief that release from incarceration is only the beginning—we must also ensure that people have the resources, opportunities, and community they need to achieve positive outcomes and to heal, stabilize, and thrive. 

Key topics will include:

- Supporting staff with lived experience.
- Key elements of a mutual aid reentry community. 
- Specific ways to involve family members, loved ones, and communities in support and healing. 

This session is designed for practitioners, supervisors, and community partners seeking to center lived experience in reentry work while providing holistic support.

Please select a pyment type to see the available options.