Emily Kaufman – Planting a Seed of Change: One White Woman’s Journey Into the Police Reform Movement
In this week’s talk, guest speaker Emily Kaufman will share about her journey into the police reform movement. A native Huntingtonian, Emily will outline the ways in which her upbringing on Long Island shaped her racial identity development and the ethical framework that anchors her racial justice lens. An original steering committee member of Long Island United to Transform Policing and Community Safety, Emily will walk us through the creation of The People’s Plan, the community-led police reform plan introduced to both Nassau and Suffolk Counties during the height of 2020’s police reform movement, following the murder of George Floyd.
Emily will also bring us up to date with LI United’s current work, including the effort to transform mental health crisis response by removing armed police officers from these encounters. A leader in the “Safe Roads Suffolk County” campaign, Emily will also speak about the effort to eliminate the serious racial disparities that exist in traffic stops. Finally, Emily will share how you can get involved with the police reform movement here on Long Island to ensure that Long Island is truly safe for ALL Long Islanders.
Emily Kaufman is a licensed Clinical Social Worker whose background includes extensive work in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice systems. In these roles, Emily brought an anti-racist lens to her work and a strong commitment to advocacy when assisting families to confront systemic and institutional racism. Currently, Emily is a full-time mother to a beautiful, 15-month old baby girl, Cooper Lee. Emily also maintains a part-time insurance-based private therapy practice, in which she strives to provide quality mental health services to all who seek help, regardless of income level.
In her spare time, Emily organizes for systemic change. She is one of the founding organizers of the Long Island Network for Change (LINC), started in 2016. Emily has previously led LINC’s Racism Discussion Group to educate and dialogue with white people about the ways in which white supremacy shows up in our systems and our individual lives and to explore ways to identify and interrupt it.
Additionally, Emily has served on the Steering Committee of LI United to Transform Policing and Community Safety since its founding in 2020. At LI United, Emily co-chairs both the Alternative Crisis Response workgroup, which seeks to reduce the presence of armed police officers in mental health crises as well as the Traffic workgroup’s “Safe Roads Suffolk County” campaign, which seeks to eliminate racial disparities in traffic stops in Suffolk County.
As long as marginalized communities face unjust treatment, lack of resources and criminalization, Emily will be organizing for change. Complacency is not an option.
In person at 38 Old Country Road, Garden City or on Zoom.
To join our meeting via Zoom, please click on this link or cut and paste it into your browser:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87199821900
Meeting ID: 871 9982 1900
Please join by 11, the meeting will be closed at 11:10