- Is there something new that your team has been working on that you’d like folks in the community to know about?
Last month, Collective Justice completed five Community HEAL Circles and our HEAL2Action 2.0 Cohort for Black, Indigenous People of Color survivors of interpersonal and state violence.
We are celebrating the relationship, healing, and joy that came out of our time in circle! We are filled with gratitude and humility for the wisdom, commitment and fortitude of our facilitation teams and the authenticity and love of our participants.
We held five distinct circles for community members coming home from prison, those who have been impacted by gun violence, femme survivors of violence, and young people impacted by violence and incarceration (shoutout to community partners Community Passageways and Creative Justice!). Circles provide an opportunity to break isolation and build intentional community, learn tools toward trauma healing, and practice new ways of being.
One of our participants reflected, “The value that this Collective Justice cohort brought to my life cannot quite be described. My ability to navigate the free world, work on relationships, and manage my own PTSD and other trauma related symptoms. My whole life has been improved and I am so grateful.”
Our communities carry powerful wisdom and are worthy of rest, connection and care. We are worthy of investment in our leadership and visions for futures without violence. HEAL2Action (H2A) is our survivor organizing academy. This year H2A will be holding feedback sessions with former participants, then using that feedback to restructure and finalize the curriculum for their third cohort in 2023!
- Is there something new and exciting (in general) that you’d like for us to highlight?
Collective Justice is slowly moving towards a decentralized structure with shared leadership and ownership over our decision making process. In order to make this possible, our team has identified investment in training & skill-building across all staff as a huge necessity in order to flourish in an organization structure. With the help of our Capacity Building Director, Martina Kartman, our team has been working on identifying professional development opportunities to boost our skills individually and as a collective. We are excited to continue building, growing, and working towards our dreamiest dreams!
- Any big announcements? Transitions? Comms or Blogs you’d like us to repost?
- Join us on October 29th for our CJ x University Beyond Bars Eat & Greet Community Event at the SeaTac Community Center from 4pm-7pm! Follow us on Instagram @collectivejustice for more information and updates.
- HEAL alum, Christopher Blackwell, was featured in this article on CBC about his fight against the ban on books in prisons. Read more here!
- Is there a call to action you’d like us to push?
We are launching a series of restorative justice trainings over the course of 2023, stay tuned for more information by following us on Instagram and checking out our website!
