Mecklenburg Council of Elders Completes Court College
By FRAN FARRER
CHARLOTTE, NC – Last month, C. Maria Macon, the Executive Director of Mecklenburg Council of Elders, hereafter referred to as MCOE, announced that 12 of the 15-member governing body successfully completed the Justice Initiatives education program, “Court College.”
The 14-hour program meets two hours weekly for seven weeks, and offers the community an up close and personal look at how the court system operates, and is just one of the many training requirements for MCOE members.
Macon said, “It is important to the success of the services we offer to the public that our members are wholly equipped to do the very best job for our community, particularly given the audience that most needs the work we do, and that work in criminal justice.”
Macon, founder and executive director is trained, and so is president, Sylvia Grier. Everyone must be trained to accomplish success. The organizations Media and IT specialist, Freddy Romero, said, “We don’t want to be just a pretty name, we have to be serious and intentional; there are people depending on our voices to be their voices and much more than that.”
In addition, MCOE’s member training requirements include: Basic Mediation (2-days of theory), as well as volunteering in Personal Warrant Court (PWC) for practical experience observing, co-mediating and mediating at least 4 cases; 2-hours of Cultural Awareness Training facilitated by Maura Chavez – CRC liaison; Race Matters Juvenile Justice (RMJJ) – 2 full days (16 hours) of intense interaction of listening and talk-back experiences; and CMPD Citizens Academy – a seven week program held on Tuesdays from 6:30-9:30pm with a graduation component; Know Your Rights Youth Symposium (1-day 5 hour session) held quarterly; CMPD Transparency Workshop and participate in the 7-Criminal Record Expunction Clinics held throughout the year.
The Mecklenburg Council of Elders, Incorporated’s “Mission is:” to serve as a legal service agency promoting criminal justice to create a sense of safety, trust and justice through provided programs and educational awareness that serves as an alternative to arrest of youth, young adults and adults of all ages; Thereby, implementing community services with goals and objectives toward three primary concerns: Prevention, Intervention and Post Incarceration; which addresses the areas of Law, Justice and Community Outreach.
MCOE’S HISTORY
Mecklenburg Council of Elders, Incorporated is the phoenix organization emerging from a committee of dedicated volunteers of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations (CRC), into a legally structured 501c3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization. It is a collaboration of 15 organization leaders working as one-body. The work began in 2014 when the Crisis Response Committee of CRC was created, and thought was injected into the questions: “What appears to be the real crisis emerging through the crevices of our city that could rip through the fabric of Charlotte, and, “What could and should be put into place to reinforce that tapestry of cultures, races and customs.?”
Thirty-three organizational heads, community leaders and pubic citizens from nonprofits to churches were brought together under the CRC banner to work through the process of answering these two questions.
According to Macon, many meetings ensued, and much dialogue engaged as the group had to work through its own cultural, racial and custom differences. Some did not survive. However, after 36-hour of meetings over a 12-month period and over 150 hours of training, in mid-2015 the Council of Elders emerged.
Today, the Council of Elders is ow the Mecklenburg Council of Elders and has become one of the most highly trained groups in Charlotte. Having undergone training and certification in Basic Mediation and Person Warrant Court training; Implicit Bias workshops, the Assistant Public Defender’s Know Your Rights; Court College, 13th Amendment viewing; CMPD Citizen’s Academy; CMPD Transparency workshops; Dismantling Racism and hands-on criminal justice expunction training.
MCOE’s member make-up is comprised of 94% male (African, White and Hispanic Americans) and 6% female (African and White Americans). It meets monthly on the 1st Wednesday of the month at Mecklenburg County Bar, 2850 Zebulon Avenue, Charlotte, NC from 4-6pm, with no general meeting in December.
Expungement Clinics and the Know Your Rights Youth Symposiums are held 4 times a year. There are two emerging programs; Juvenile Court Watch designed to serve as a juvenile advocacy post-sentencing , and Post-Incarceration Evaluation, a wrap-around service designed to retard recidivism.
