Division of Transformative Leadership
Through the Division of Transformative Leadership NYJN offers resources, and community building spaces to engage with healing justice frameworks for and with our member base. We provide workshops and practices to address the impact of structural trauma on individuals and communities in order to deepen our capacity for healing and liberation work. Together we explore how the harmful and racist youth legal systems have shaped our paradigms and create spaces for connection and skill-building to inform our advocacy efforts. We seek to imbue our policy platforms and advocacy strategies that bring us back to healing through reinvestment into holistic resources that create thriving communities.
“Healing justice is a framework that identifies how we can holistically respond to and intervene on intergenerational trauma and violence, and to bring collective practices that can impact and transform the consequences of oppression on our collective bodies, hearts and minds.”
— Cara Page
“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.”
— Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Healing Justice
Through our healing justice offerings our member base has access to:
- Somatic trauma awareness
- Ecosystems of healing and movement building
- Restorative conflict transformation
- Anti-racism and pro-liberation strategies
Youth Justice Leadership Institute
The Youth Justice Leadership Institute (YJLI) deepens the leadership capacity of Black Indigenous Leaders of Color who are committed to transforming harmful systems and investing in community models of care centered on healing and empowerment. Recognizing that those most impacted by systems of oppression need access to individual and collective healing opportunities, YJLI is grounded in healing justice for BIPOC leaders. YJLI connects advocates to mentors, cultivates a supportive network amongst cohorts and alumni, facilitates advocacy learning opportunities, and shares individual and communal healing opportunities. YJLI participants:
- Engage with distance learning activities grounded in healing practices and advocacy tools
- Receive mentorship from YJLI alumni
- Immerse in two in-person retreats that explore ancestral healing practices and movement strategies
- Access a national platform uplifting their work
- Access policy, research, legislative, and organizing support for their on-the-ground work
- Graduate with a lifelong connection to an incredible alumni base of BIPOC advocates in the field of youth justice
YJLI is for BIPOC advocates, organizers, healers, and creatives with leadership experience to expand and elevate their advocacy efforts.
Young Stewards of Justice
Young Stewards of Justice (YSJ) is a community organizing and power-building model for system-impacted young people. YSJ will provide healing justice centered teachings and practices to support system-impacted young people in transmuting harm and trauma in their lives and communities, thus broadening their capacity to engage in liberation work. YSJ will offer education in Black feminist theory including adrienne maree brown, Angela Davis, and the Comabhee River Collective as well as Indigenous and ancestral wisdom like drum circles, plant medicine, and meditation. The pillars of historical education and ancestral wisdom combine to forge an experience of healing and power-building for the young people involved. Their participation will culminate in an advocacy project including a national policy platform that integrates their learnings and leads the transformation of the dismantling of the youth legal system and reinvestment into holistic resources.