Claire de Mézerville López welcomes Reverend Annette Love to the Restorative Works! Podcast.

Rev. Love speaks to us about her experience facilitating restorative conferences in matters of domestic abuse, homicide, and assault. She emphasizes that participation in these conferences is often steeped in familial love, relational bonds, and the need for accountability and forgiveness for healing to occur. She tells us stories of restorative justice in action and how members of the justice system, including city council and law enforcement, were all interested and moved by the power restorative justice provided.

She reminds us that educating oneself is imperative to providing support within and for one's community. She shares that helping others find what they need is a matter of knowing what your community needs, where things are lacking, and where you can turn to find help. She practices this within her faith community, speaking directly on issues of violence and harm rather than shying away. This reinforces that no one in the community is alone.

Rev. Love has over 14 years of volunteer work and is a trained crisis responder, certified by the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She owns and operates her own organization, Faith Based Service Network: A Place of Peace. She speaks, educates, trains, raises awareness, and provides resources around domestic violence in the faith community and in the broader community.

Tune in to learn more about Rev. Love's work and if you know of anyone who has suffered or continues to suffer from domestic violence, please visit www.faithbasedservicenetwork.com for more information.