A Spirithouse South and Forward Justice Collaboration
In 2021, Forward Justice and SpiritHouse South, have launched a Community Transformative Healing Justice Program, centering caring and healing for communities disproportionately impacted by the ongoing harms of COVID-19 and deep rooted structural injustice.
Our primary goal is to provide interdisciplinary, culturally rooted, and comprehensive resources designed to address the systemic harms, including public health harms, that consistently burden people living in underrepresented communities.
Our program is built on the foundational commitment to investing in the healing, wellness, and wholeness of underrepresented communities. Together, we offer a variety of educational and training opportunities spanning health and wellness, community advocacy, civic activism and engagement, culture and arts, and self/community healing, all held in a space that is safe, welcoming, and free from harm for Durham’s underrepresented communities. Drawing 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
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.
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.
Arts & Culture: We work with local artists, community members, and health professionals to create arts and cultural events, integrating an understanding of trauma and its impact into all aspects of engagement. Grounded in principles of care and respect, our programming creates intentional space for participants to explore, express, and process experiences of individual and collective harm. Through creative and cultural expression, the initiative seeks to acknowledge structural inequities while fostering healing, connection, and joy.
Community events and activities:
- Community dinners and discussions
- Health and wellness workshops — yoga, dance, meditation, etc.
- Healing community activations
- Trauma-informed arts workshops
- Social Justice popular education engagements and collaborations
- Cultural events
- Wellness workshops
- Documentary discussions & book studies