Healing & Hope is unique among Washington events. Families members of people serving juvenile life without parole, victims’ families, and people given extreme sentences as children who are now free join together with policymakers, our advocacy partners from across the country, and those in the legal community here in DC to celebrate the progress we have made together toward ending the barbaric practice of sentencing children to die in prison.
Healing & Hope 2018
On November 13, 2018 we held our annual Healing & Hope celebration in Washington, DC. The event featured an awards ceremony honoring champions of our cause, advocates and supporters, while benefiting the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.
Throughout the evening we had the opportunity to celebrate our successes and re-energize ourselves for the work still ahead in ending life without parole sentences for children.
With dozens of ICAN members in the room, we challenged our guests to raise an additional $20,000 to offer self-care convenings for ICAN members. We are thrilled to report that the crowd met our challenge! We are grateful for the support and look forward to deploying these additional funds next year.
Healing & Hope is our opportunity to recognize the hard work and commitment that takes place year round. We could not do this work without you and your support.
During the event, we premiered the below video about ICAN member Steve Austin. He joined us at the event after spending 42 years in prison. He was sentenced to life without parole in Pennsylvania at age sixteen and was freed last year due to recent reforms. Steve shared about his time in prison mentoring young people there — now he now works with families who have lost loved ones to violence.
