A Spirithouse South and Forward Justice Collaboration
Forward Justice and SpiritHouse South, have launched a Community Transformative Healing Justice Program that prioritizes caring and healing for our communities disproportionately impacted by initially COVID-19 and structural harms.
Our primary goal is to provide interdisciplinary, culturally rooted, comprehensive resources tailored to addressing the systemic harms, including public health harms, that consistently affect people living in underrepresented communities.
Our program operates based on a central understanding about the need to invest in the healing and wellness of underrepresented communities. Together, we offer a variety of educational and training opportunities, including offerings- for health and wellness, community advocacy, civic activism and engagement, culture and arts, and self/community healing- in a space that is safe, welcoming, and free from harm for underrepresented communities in Durham. Together, relying on personal experiences, lessons learned through our cultural work, and the wisdom of the community, we are building trust, investment, interdependence, shared language, analysis, and vision.
Our Areas of Focus Include:
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Community Education:
Grounded in SpiritHouse South’s Harm Free Zone (HFZ) restorative and transformative justice training, Our educational offerings infuse art, culture, local and world history to encourage the collaborative development of complete, community-driven strategies to amplify the strengths of our community’s cultures, practices, histories and makeup to explore what kind of accountability can exist for us beyond punishment and prison.
Policy education towards collective action, through the Harm Free Zone restorative and transformative justice training, and community advocacy are tools we leverage to empower people to create safety, awareness and tangible change in their daily lives, families and communities.
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Health & Wellness Access:
We offer a range of community health and wellness programming, rooted in an arts and culture pedagogy, recognizing art as a powerful medium for expression and healing. Our offerings to the Durham community encompass movement classes, meditation, yoga, and art experiences.
