Ripple Conference

ZOOM LINK
Olivia Elder - FWD.us
At its core, Olivia's breakout session will be about what "liberation" and "justice" mean and who they're for. She will provide a faith-based narrative history of the American criminal legal system, but she will also provide allegory for the global struggle to be free. While this training will be largely presented in a racial justice frame, Olivia will lay out the argument that Black Lives Matter, Abolish the Police, Families Belong Together, Abolish ICE, Love is Love are all one call -- a call that belongs to all people of faith, because our faith tells us so. Every global faith tradition (and many non-traditional traditions that function like faith) focuses on justice, redemption, and family. The systems that we live under in the US are designed to separate Black and Brown families, focus on punishment rather than redemption, and are inherently unjust. All of us are called to fight for something better for all of us -- liberation of everyone depends on the liberation of the least among us.
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Olivia Elder is a nonprofit professional, organizer, and dancer based in Washington, DC. Raised in Houston and New Orleans, Olivia moved to DC to attend The George Washington University, where she studied International Affairs with a concentration in Contemporary Societies and Cultures. During her undergraduate studies, she focused mainly on faith-based and minority communities, particularly on the role that faith has on social movements. Currently, she works on the criminal justice reform team at FWD.us, where she focuses on families of incarcerated people. She has led faith and justice workshops around the District and sits on the board of a DC-based service organization.