Linda Harvey has been a social worker, mediator and volunteer community organizer for close to 40 years.  She has national and international standing as one of the 35 candidates to pilot “transformative mediation,” a process developed by Joseph P. Folger and Robert A. Baruch Bush.

She founded Transformation House in 1995 and serves as its full-time Executive Director on a voluntary basis.  Transformation House provides assistance to victim survivors who are struggling with the emotional devastation of homicide crime.  It also conducts victim awareness classes in prisons.

For those who are willing, another service paves the way for face-to-face meetings with the offender and victim survivor of the specific homicide crime. By providing the safe and structured environment for meetings, Transformation House’s mediators create an open space for offenders and victims that allows for the possibilities of confession, forgiveness and healing.

Not all victims desire to work through a reconciliation process, but for those who do, Transformation House’s staff facilitates the lengthy process (sometimes taking more than a year) of preparing both parties for the meeting.

Linda also co-founded the Mediation Center of Kentucky in 1992 and is a founding member of the Mediation Association of Kentucky. She worked as a mediator trainer for the U. S. Postal Service, and has served as a mediator for E.E.O. disputes.

Harvey's affiliations include

• the task force for Reconciliation Networks of the World.  

• the National Association for Community Mediation,  

• Victim Offender Mediation Association,  

• Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution  

• Academy of Family Mediators (latter two, along with the Conflict Resolution Education Network, have merged into The Association for Conflict Resolution).

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Important Idea

The kind of mediation we do is called transformative. It is different from traditional mediation because besides reaching settlement, it also deals with people's emotions. It gives both parties a chance to understand each other, or sometimes even to forgive and reconcile.

What we do with criminals and their victims' survivors is also mediation, but of course we are not dealing with settling issues. We do not pass judgments or offer advice. We just provide a safe and structured environment in which the victim is allowed to discuss the crime, to release pain and anger and ask questions, and the offender can admit responsibility for the crime and express remorse.

I am moved by the stories of inmates who have committed homicide and the of victim survivors of homicide. We as a team of volunteers at Transformation House are choosing to enter their pain, a very sacred work.

I have a passion for the Restorative Justice philosophy because it is about the healing of relationships and harm.  I believe that I am doing the ministry of reconciliation to which God is calling all of us.

Linda Harvey

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Leading Edge. Linda's vision for promoting reconciliation is to bring death row inmates together with surviving victims of their crimes.   

Linda’s goal is to reach all 8 state-controlled medium security prisons and one maximum-security prison in Kentucky with the Transformation House program. Through facilitating understanding between offenders and victims, she hopes to bring healing to local communities across Kentucky where hope is now seen as destroyed.

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Reach Linda Harvey  at   lharvey@igc.org