jared seide
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Jared Seide
Beyond Us & Them Executive Director
Council Trainer | Author | Speaker
Jared’s educational background includes a BA with high honors from Brown University. He is the founder of Center for Council, the organization that gave rise to Beyond Us & Them. Previously, Jared led careers in the entertainment industry and the corporate world. He is a member of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, a graduate of the Upaya Institute Chaplaincy Program and has been a Spirit Holder for Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Retreats around the world.
Jared has led workshops, trainings and retreats focusing on compassion, reconciliation and community-building throughout the U.S., as well as in Poland, Rwanda, France, Ireland, Colombia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and has been a Resident Fellow and Convening Host at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center. He is a member of the US Department of Justice National Officer Safety and Wellness Workgroup and the POST/UCSD 720 Health Council of Advisors.
Jared has designed, piloted and coordinated compassion-based programs in prisons, assisted living facilities, youth groups and a variety of non-profit, faith-based organizations, social service and law enforcement agencies, including:
- The Co-Mentoring Project for emancipated foster youth
- The Organizational Wellness Project for the staff of scores of community-based organizations and other agencies
- Council for Insight, Compassion & Resilience, a rehabilitative program active in over two dozen prisons throughout California and winner of the American Correctional Association’s Innovations in Corrections award
- The Trainer Leadership Initiative, supporting emerging council leaders serving impacted communities
- Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience (POWER) Training Program for law enforcement and correctional officers
- Compassion, Attunement & Resilience Education (CARE) for Healthcare Professionals, which focuses on burnout and dysregulation amongst physicians, nurses and other first responders and utilizes innovations in mindfulness science and compassionate communication techniques like council to support a culture of professional wellness in healthcare
Where Compassion Begins: Foundational Practices to Enhance Mindfulness, Attention and Listening from the Heart
Where Compassion Begins... is an invitation to build the muscle of compassion, through exercises and practices that enhance our capacity to listen from the heart and, in so doing, take care of ourselves and those around us.
This book is intended to provide a resource for anyone who has had an opportunity to sit in a council circle, or whose curiosity has been ignited by what the practice of council may have to offer. It offers explanations, definitions and distinctions that are part of the Introduction to Council Workshop and that have been culled from many years of council practice in many settings. It also includes material created to encourage and support extending the teachings of council into one's life, outside of the council circle. The core intentions of listening and speaking from the heart can unfold in every facet of one's life, well beyond the experience of the council circle. This book provides a roadmap for the journey of discovery along this rich path.
Available to purchase in English & Spanish and audiobook, and available in a special edition for incarcerated persons.
Leaving Prison Behind: A Council Before I Go
Leaving Prison Behind: A Council Before I Go is an illustrated novella created from the words and stories of system-impacted individuals, and those who support them.
The book grew out of Beyond Us & Them's prison and reentry programs, with the intention of supporting and resourcing incarcerated individuals preparing themselves for the journey home. The book tells the story of the last night of one man's incarceration, as he creates an imaginal council in his cell to call in the important voices from his life, those stories he knows he needs to hear. Some will recognize the practice of council that the characters enact in this story -- and others will encounter it for the first time
Compiled and edited by Jared Seide, Leaving Prison Behind includes a robust resource section with ideas, references and practices intended to be of support to those preparing for and embarking on the challenging journey that lies ahead.
Buy or gift a copy of Leaving Prison Behind to an incarcerated individual or donate to the Leaving Prison Behind campaign
recognition & honors
- Marcia Slater Johnston Award for Outstanding Leadership in Community-Based Efforts to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness, Foundation for Social Connection - 2023
- Seal of Excellence, International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training - 2022
- Innovations in Corrections Award, American Correctional Association - 2020
- Rockefeller Foundation Residential Fellow, Bellagio Center, Bellagio, Italy - 2015
- Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Convening Host, Bellagio Center, Bellagio, Italy - 2014
- The Listening Award, Our Little Blue Box - 2014
workshops & talks
- Panel Presentation on Compassion and P.O.W.E.R. Training for Law Enforcement Officers @ 2024 International Association of Chiefs of Police Officer Wellness and Safety Conference
- "Council as a Structure of Compassion" @ Compassion 2.0 Conference - April 2023
- "Mindfulness & Resiliency Meets Community Engagement: Empathy, Awareness & Procedural Justice" @ International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Officer Wellness Symposium - March 2021
- "Where Compassion Begins" @ Mastery Circle of Los Angeles - December, 2021
- "The Generativity of Not Knowing" @ Chicago Zen Life and Mind Center - June, 2017
- "Roots of Council" @ Prison Mindfulness Summit - October, 2022
- "Listening from the Heart: Where Compassion Begins" @ Zen Peacemakers Circle - October, 2021
- "Compassion and Council" @ Mindful Heart - July, 2020
- “Finding Spiritual Community Both On and Offline" @ South by Southwest - March, 2018
- "A Taste of Council" @ Association of Change Management Professionals - July, 2015
