Connection, listening, empathy, voice, resolution, understanding – these are words that aptly describe the center of Laurie Nathan’s work as a mediator and as the director of the Kroc Institute’s Mediation Program. His professional focus is aimed at bringing conflict parties together, guiding them so they can sort out conflict in ways that create an amenable, healthy path forward. His work takes him around the world – to Switzerland, where he leads an annual high level mediation course for the United Nations, and to Norway, where he teaches a summer international mediation course for Ph.D. students – as well as to Notre Dame’s wider community of South Bend, where he has offered meditation training for violence prevention officers through the city’s Division of Community Initiatives.
So it was a serendipitous moment when Nathan happened to meet the co-founders of locally based Connect2bethechange (C2BTC) through his wife at the South Bend Civic Theatre.
“I didn’t know Laurie was a peace studies professor,” said TaKisha Jacobs, who launched C2BTC in 2020 with Loria Perez who works at the Civic Theatre, as does Nathan’s wife, an actor there. “Once we met and learned about each other’s work, Laurie and I decided to get together, to determine how we could collaborate,” she said. “There was a natural affiliation.”
The goal of C2BTC is to decrease gun violence by creating and maintaining a sustainable peer-to-peer environment that encourages youth and young adults in South Bend to seek healing. Through counseling, therapeutic workshops, community service and immersive trips outside the city, participants build new and healthy social, emotional, and behavioral skills.
The nonprofit emerged from loss. Abdul Cross, Jacobs’ son, was just 15 when he died, killed by gun fire after being mistaken for someone else. Meanwhile, Perez lost two of her four sons to gun violence, in 2017 and again in 2020.
“Gun violence not only claims lives but also inflicts profound trauma, fear, anger, and mental health issues,” said Jacobs. “Our organization brings together a dedicated coalition of mothers, therapists, psychologists, teenagers, and young adults to address these challenges.”
The organization partners with other South Bend nonprofits, and Nathan saw opportunity in creating kinship between his mediation program and C2BTC and its network of contacts. He invited Jacobs to speak in his mediation class in the spring 2025 semester; she was excited at the possibility that she could recruit students interested in community outreach.
It proved to be the perfect match.
Three students in Nathan’s class – graduating seniors Aria Bossone and Clodagh McEvoy-Johnston, and Sara Laine (MGA ‘25) who specialized in international peace studies – volunteered in the “Guns to Gardens” event in late March, a collaboration that included C2BTC and St. Joseph County’s “St. Joe’s Cares,” and took place at First Presbyterian Church in downtown South Bend.
“These are the kinds of opportunities that students can learn so much from,” said Nathan. “They get to think about and apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to a real-world setting. That’s some of the best learning there is – to connect with community leaders and activists in real time, listen and support them.”
Guns from the South Bend community were collected and disassembled, with bullet casings from the guns beaded into bracelets by volunteers, including Nathan’s students. Inserted within each bracelet is the Isaiah 54:17 biblical verse – a promise of divine protection and vindication for God’s people, stating that no weapon formed against them will prosper, and any accusation against them will be condemned.
Plays and spoken word poetry were written and performed by local high school students, enabling participants to share their personal experience with trauma and loss due to gun violence. Parent cafes – tables with cafe seating – were set up, enabling adults and youth, parents and children, to talk about risk factors, care factors, and behaviors that they can be watchful of, as a means to take care of each other.
“The way TaKisha spoke about the program when she visited our class was so beautiful,” said Laine, who performed in one of the plays. “She centers the program in everything she does; in spite of her personal tragedy, she has taken the loss of her son and transformed it into an inspirational, positive force for the community.”
McEvoy-Johnston enjoyed volunteering, “particularly because I’m interested in grassroots activism, and because making bracelets with other volunteers was just a lot of fun.”
Added Bossone, “We should focus more on South Bend, meaning that students have the chance to get off campus and integrate with the local community as part of our learning at the university. But we loved having TaKisha come to our class – so much so that we invited her to have a table as part of the student peace conference in April.”
Bossone was one of the co-chairs of the 2025 Notre Dame Student Peace Conference, which takes place each year in the spring semester. Jacobs set up shop at the conference, making bracelets onsite upon request. She raised nearly $2,000 from donations over the two-day event, enabling her to take the organization’s change agents – youth and young adult community leaders – to Washington, DC. There they met with other nonprofits working with marginalized communities, cultivated their curiosity, and imagined the future they see for themselves.
“The relationships I’ve developed at Notre Dame, in part through Laurie, are opening doors for my organization and helping to strengthen the support system for those in need, in South Bend,” said Jacobs. “ We’re doing this work together, and our connectivity and collaboration is critical to making South Bend a stronger, safer, and healthier place to live.”