Mend Collaborative

06/05/2026

Thank you to for inviting Mend Collaborative to present on the Victim Offender Dialogue program and how public defense can create opportunities for healing and accountability for both survivors of harm and their clients.

04/30/2026

This February Mend, Whole Consulting, Responsibly Driven hosted a convening that brought together survivors of DUl related harm, people incarcerated for DUI related offenses who are participating in accountability focused programming, and decision makers for a facilitated conversation about accountability, prevention, survivor support, and public safety.

Guests were invited to hear from people with lived experience and explore how accountability driven programming inside prisons can support survivor needs, reduce future harm, and contribute to meaningful prevention and public safety.
DUl related harm leaves lasting impacts on individuals, families, and communities. Survivors carry grief, loss, and unanswered questions. Incarcerated people carry responsibility for harm caused and, in many cases, a commitment to understanding that harm and preventing it from happening again.
Accountability is an active, ongoing process that requires honesty, responsibility, and sustained change. This event highlights how the Responsibly Driven program can support accountability, reduce recidivism and align with survivor goals of preventing future harm.
Thank you to the families and speakers that shared their story’s, purpose, and solutions, Assemblymember Nick Shultz, California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, and Whole Consulting among others.

04/29/2026

A wonderful “Day of Healing” community building through sharing stories of truth and resilience, sessions such as Dance from the Heart curated by Azucena Ortiz, art where we ask participants to paint “What does it look like let go of your burden or grief”, and importantly joy. Thank you to our guest friends, families, survivors to organizations that joined us for this day of healing and celebration.

03/11/2026

This was the first Day of Healing where we nearly exclusively held it for the Youth Offender Program (YOP). The YOP program is offered to residents age 18-25 that wish to be in a facility that has access to rehabilitation programs, education, and resources. At Avenal it is peer-mentor led and it was these peers (many serving life without parole sentences) that helped organise this as an opportunity for young men to speak about themselves, address and find support for harm, express accountability, and build community. We began the day with survivors sharing a part of their healing journey, did body and healing movement "Dancing from The Heart" facilitated by the great , shared a meal together over grief work through painting, and later concluded with a community offering of music and poetry.

01/15/2026

11/07/2025

Our programs take us into prisons but our work happens in the community. We are a resource for healing and justice, transformation and accountability, which are interwoven into the needs of both persons responsible for harm and for survivors. In our dialogues we often hear survivors ask these questions, “who are you now” “how have you changed” and “are you remorseful”. And we hear persons responsible for harm share how they wish to take accountability, express remorse, as a direct amends to survivors and society. That accountability and living amends can look different and may include empathy in action when we reconnect with our humanity through caring for an injured dog that just needed TLC as you will hear through our featured storyteller Larry. These stories can hopefully make us think deeply about the best of our humanity. Thank all of the incarcerated storytellers for joining us. and thank and for this amazing partnership. Full story in bio link on YouTube.

05/28/2025

We are honored to hold multiple experiences with care and compassion and hear the stories shared by survivors about the impact of our healing and justice programs and services. A special recognition and appreciation to a longtime friend, supporter, and advisor to Mend Collaborative for sharing her experience.

04/24/2025

At California Institution for Women (CIW), Mend Collaborative sponsored “In their Shoes,” an event self organized and led by the residents to commemorate those impacted by harm and violence for National Victims Rights Week. Attendees held a sacred walk, wrote names of family or friends on the sidewalk to honor them, and circle groups were organized where survivors were able to share and have dialogue with the residents creating space for healing and community.

01/22/2025

We thank the Pollen Initiative https://polleninitiative.org/ for their mission to bring journalism to California Prisons and for The Paper Trail at CCWF, resident journalist Coleen Torres, for covering this important story of our programs at Mend Collaborative.

Editor’s note: last names have been withheld from this story for privacy. Elle was on vacation when she received a