Jared Seide is the founder and Executive Director of Center for Council, a nonprofit organization that fosters social connection by creating innovative programs and teaching impactful dialogic practices throughout the social justice continuum. He is the author of Where Compassion Begins: Foundational Practices to Enhance Mindfulness, Attention and Listening from the Heart. Center for Council offers evidence-based programming, combining the latest innovations in contemplative neuroscience with instruction in mindfulness practice and in facilitation of peer-led council circles. The organization’s wide variety of council-based offerings foster a culture of social connection, engagement and resilience for system-impacted, incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated individuals, educators, students, healthcare and mental health professionals, community leaders and law enforcement officers. Jared recently launched Beyond Us & Them, a new nonprofit that expands the vision of Center for Council by creating “structures of belonging” that promote mutual respect, wellbeing and care across sectors, helping to dismantle systems of oppression, exclusion and racism and creating the conditions for compassion to emerge.
