Juvenile Justice System: A child not embraced by his village with Sousan

Collective Power Podcast

...will burn it down to feel its warmth" An African Wisdom Saying--that Sousan mentions on the show.
In this episode, we talk with a mother who has seen all three of her children in the juvenile justice system. We talk about personal power, race, and the split between how the private juvenile "injustice" facilities offer high quality services--to predominantly white children, while the state facilities are youth prisons with predominantly children of color. Sousan also describes the soul-crushing experience of juvenile court.
Our guest, Sousan is the mother of 3 children age 30, 18 and 16 and grandmother of 3. She was widowed last May when her childhood sweetheart died suddenly of a heart attack. She works for the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit where she serves as a school counselor for several schools in the county. She is currently completing the requirements to become a Licensed Professional Counselor. Sousan considers herself a healer and cares deeply about helping others to remember who they are, to re-claim their power and to use their incarnation in a mighty way.

Sousan is a Certified Family Recovery Specialist and serves as a peer support to other parents who have children with substance-use disorder. She is involved in and deeply committed to the recovery community. Sousan regularly attends parent support groups and continues to educate herself about the disease of addiction. She volunteers at a Women’s Treatment Center as part of a Mom’s group for mothers of addicted children, lovingly referred to as the Mama Bears.

Sousan is also a member of Power, an interfaith organization and movement committed to building power within communities and creating a more just and loving world. Her focus and passion is police reform, ending mass incarceration and systematic racism and overall systems change.

The guiding force of Sousan’ life is the divine presence. She believes that we are all emanations of the most-high. Sousan is known to carry index cards of affirmations to give out to others and she frequently writes herself reminders, applied with a sharpie to her hand, of how she intends to walk thru life, in order to guide her through each day. Her highest intention is to be in a state of:

Reverence Grace Humility and Thanksgiving
Resources mentioned on the show:
Contact sousan: [e-mail]
An article on Crossover Youth
First aired on July 3, 2020
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