Radically Healing Schools and Communities

A new movement of healing justice is essential to facilitate efforts of repairing the damage done by the erosion of hope resulting from structural violence in urban communities. Culture can be viewed as a type of psychic armor that prepares people to confront systemic and internalized oppression while at the same time embracing an identity with personal and communal life-affirming meaning. Efforts to promote personal and collective liberation requires a self conscious process that allow individuals to challenge the personal and structural barriers by drawing upon the strengths of one’s history and cultural connection. The power to speak about painful experiences related to racism, sexism, and poverty facilitate healing because the act of testifying exposes the raw truth about suffering, and releases the hidden pain that is the profound barrier to resistance.

This plenary will feature a keynote talk by Dr. Shawn Ginwright on the principles and power of radical healing, which emphasizes the need to place healing and hope at the center of our educational and political strategies. Ginwright’s talk will be followed by a panel of practitioners who actively center and apply radical healing frameworks and practices in their daily work: Farima Pour-Khorshid, Christina “V” Villarreal, and Cory Greene. Breakout sessions following the plenary will be available for conference attendees to learn more about and actively engage in activities based on the five principles of the radical healing framework: CARMA: Culture, Identity, Agency, Relationships, Meaning, and Aspirations