Some may be wondering: what is Healing Justice and why does it matter for the workplace? The truth is that for many staff, and particularly BIPOC staff, have experienced trauma: surviving extreme weather, losing a loved one to the effects of industrial pollution, racist work environments, legacies of genocide, ableism, and more. Yet, many organizations view healing as work to be done outside of the workplace, ideally in therapy and on staff's own time.

This approach, often held under the banner of professionalism works for some (largely the white and upper class) while compounding trauma for the rest. Shenequa Golding’s article “Maintaining Professionalism in the Age of Black Death is… A lot ” viscerally illustrates that what happens outside of work doesn’t stay there. Furthermore, the traumas inflicted by systematic racism outside of work are also inflicted in the workplace through microaggressions, discriminatory policies around appearance, and outright racism. JEDI programming in an organization should also include frameworks of care.

This is where Healing Justice comes in. Healing Justice as a movement and a term was created by queer and trans people of color and in particular Black and brown femmes, centering working-class, poor, disabled and Southern/rural healers. Healing Justice started as kitchen table and community clinic operations led by grassroots organizers and community healers. For an in depth history of Healing Justice, check out Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarashinha’s essay “ A Not-so-Brief Personal History of the Healing Justice Movement”. The video below provides a brief introduction to Healing Justice through a conversation between Patrisse Cullors and Cara Page.

Healing Justice is relevant to the workplace because healing is a central part of what it means to advance liberation and justice. As explained in Autumn Brown and Maryse Mitchell-Brody’s “ Healing Justice Practice Spaces: A How-to Guide with Links,” Healing Justice “refers to an evolving political framework shaped by economic, racial, and disability justice that re-centers the role of healing inside of liberation; that seeks to transform, intervene and respond to generational trauma and violence in our movements, communities and lives; and to regenerate our traditions of liberatory and resiliency practices that have been lost or stolen.”

In the workplace, Healing Justice can look like carving out space, time, and resources for care for the collective. The goal is move towards a paradigm of shared responsibly for individual and communal care, rather than individually centered “self-care”. For those with more privilege, whether it be white, heterosexual, cis-gendered, or class; “self-care” results in disengagement from justice movements. This retreat from the movement is the manifestation of that privilege: those without it do not have the luxury of retreat. Therefore Healing Justice is not interchangeable with “self-care” and why organizations should center practices that create collective care.

Linked Resources

• Golding, Shenequa. “Maintaining Professionalism in the Age of Black Death Is....a Lot.” Medium, 29 May 2020, shenequagolding.medium.com/maintaining-professionalism-in-the-age-of-black-death-is-a-lot-5eaec5e17585. 
• Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi. “A Not-so-Brief Personal History of the Healing Justice Movement, 2010–2016.” MICE Magazine, 10 Nov. 2016, micemagazine.ca/issue-two/not-so-brief-personal-history-healing-justice-movement-2010%E2%80%932016. 
• What Is “Healing Justice”? L GMA Digital, 24 July 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODhRcnhuarQ&ab_channel=GoodMorningAmerica. 
• Brown, Autumn, and Maryse Mitchell-Brody. Healing Justice Practice Spaces: A How-to Guide*, justhealing.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/healing-justice-practice-spaces-a-how-to-guide-with-links.pdf.
• Picker , Caroline. “Privilege, Reparations, and Communities of Care.” Bodies of Story, 18 Oct. 2012, bodiesofstory.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/privilege-reparations-and-communities-of-care/. 
• Loewe, B. “An End to Self-Care.” Convergence, 6 Aug. 2022, convergencemag.com/articles/an-end-to-self-care-b-loewe/.

Supplemental Resources

• “A Conceptual Mapping of Healing Centered Youth Organizing: Building a Case for Healing Justice.” Urban Peace Movement, urbanpeacemovement.org/report-title-number-1/.
• “Healing Justice and Holistic Security Frameworks.” Astraea Foundation, 2019, www.astraeafoundation.org/microsites/healingjustice/02-frameworks. 
• Emery, Michelle. “A Guide for Community Building and Collective Strategizing for Safer and Peaceful Communities.” TransformHarm.Org, 2011, transformharm.org/hj_resource/a-guide-for-community-building-and-collective-strategizing-for-safer-and-peaceful-communities/. 

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