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Amy Ellenbogen with Derick Scott

Amy Ellenbogen has been the director of the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center since 2002, developing and implementing programs and overseeing day-to-day operations. Amy has run community and school-based programming on topics as diverse as violence prevention, adult and youth leadership development, family and community mediation, truancy prevention, intergroup relationship building, pregnancy prevention, and race and identity. Amy planned and directed the first New York State Cure Violence replication site, Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) Crown Heights, an anti–gun violence program that uses a public health approach. Currently, Amy is part of the planning team developing culturally competent trauma-informed programming for young men of color and Save Our Streets Bed-Stuy. Prior to working at the Center, Amy worked in a home for young women who were previously incarcerated and were mentally ill and chemically addicted. Amy is the founder of ROOTED (Respecting Ourselves and Others Through Education), a Columbia University program designed to facilitate student dialogue around issues of identity as they relate to power and privilege. Amy received both her BA in ethnic studies and her MS in social work from Columbia University. She is a licensed Master Social Worker and a mediator.

Derick Scott is an Outreach Worker with S.O.S. Crown Heights. Affected by violence early in life, Scott started reacting while still at school by fighting and getting into gangs. He was expelled from school and spent four years in a juvenile center, ending up running away. During a period of incarceration, he started focusing on trying to change, eventually becoming head of a religious organization in prison. Within two weeks of his release in 2002, Scott got a job, began reaffirming his relationship with his children, and started volunteering at the Herbert G. Burch Head Start and the Mount Moriah Christian Academy. In 2010 he began employment at the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center and Save Our Streets where he is continually motivated to fight for positive changes for youth, families and adults in his neighborhood and community.