WYOMISSING, Pa. — Roy Waterman, project manager for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs’ Criminal Justice Initiative, will speak at Penn State Berks at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18, in Room 150 of the Franco Building. This presentation is free and open to the public.
According to the JPCA website, the Criminal Justice Initiative is focused on educating and empowering the Jewish community relations field to advocate on criminal justice reform at the national and local level, fostering relationships and building alliances between Jews and communities of color, policy work to improve law enforcement practices, and developing pilot projects in the field to support communities in crises.
Before joining JCPA, Waterman co-founded Drive Change, a vibrant social enterprise nonprofit, that uses the mobile vending industry to train, empower, employ and teach transferable skills to formerly incarcerated young people ages 18-25 who have been released from adult jails and prisons in the New York City area. One of its initiatives, The Snow Day Food Truck, won the 2015 NYC Best Food Truck and People’s Choice Award.
Waterman has spoken at numerous public schools, community colleges and Ivy League universities, and has been featured on several national media outlets. He specializes in changing mindsets, re-scripting the narrative around the realities of formally incarcerated people and concretely assisting and supporting those who have been intercepted by the criminal justice system. As an advocate for equal justice for all, Waterman challenges the moral fabric of Incarceration and other human rights violations.
This lecture is sponsored by the Penn State Berks Criminal Justice degree program. For additional information, contact Jennifer Murphy, associate professor of criminal justice, at 610-396-6050 or [email protected].