HEALING WORKSHOPS & PRACTICES
Healing is at the heart of all we do
and is infused into all our processes.
...Through workshops we offer to the community and to people who work and operate inside the systems the legal and social service systems
...Through continually asking, “How do we make a space that makes space for everyone?”
...Through organizational practices that let us create a trauma-informed space, practice and honor pay equity, and center collaboration and shared power - and sharing out these practices with other community partners
...Through the ways we support community members and team members, understanding that healing is our lifelong work we do in community to reclaim our rights to joy, love, beauty, and connection. We provide direct support to community members as part of the healing work we do, knowing that establishing stability and security is essential in the healing journey.
Dismantling Systems of Oppression
Since 2018, The BRC co-founders have facilitated workshops on how to dismantle systems of oppression and heal from the impact of living under systems that overvalue few and undervalue most. Workshops for our community offer healing spaces to address the impact of internalized oppression and healing from racialized trauma. We also offer workshops to folks in universities, reentry service providers, public defenders, legislators, and people who work with the systems that hold oppression in place. These healing spaces help change narratives that influence our laws, media, housing, employment, etc., and impact our community.
Culturally-Responsive Compassionate Communication (CRCC)
The BRC Co-founders reframed Nonviolent Communication with a racial equity framework. The outcome was CRCC, a process that provides an access to understanding empathy and self-empathy.
Healing Workshops We Offer
ADVOCACY
The Black Rose Collective members advocate to pass new laws that reform our judicial system. For example, in 2024, we are working to reform the 2023 Juvenile Points Bill to add retroactivity.
We also advocate for individuals at resentencing or clemency hearings and provide support letters or testimony as needed to help folks petition for release. We collaborate with community members inside institutions to support their legislative priorities, Department of Corrections policy change, and advocating for individuals who need support working with DOC while incarcerated or after release.
David Heppard and Eugene Youngblood attend the 1324 bill signing ceremony with Gov. Jay Inslee in May, 2023.
In protest to the bill being passed without retroactivity, David attended while wearing a shirt that reads, “What if the 13th amendment wasn’t retroactive?”
INSIDE INSTITUTIONS
Since 2003, The Black Rose Collective members have been facilitating healing circles and workshops inside Washington prisons, jails, and youth detention centers.
Collective members have decades of long-standing relationships with our community members who are currently incarcerated inside Washington prisons and jails. We collaborate to support:
-
Leadership and curriculum development
-
Building relationships to support legislative advocacy initiatives
-
Creating healing environments and healing-informed spaces.
Since the Pandemic, the Department of Corrections has paused programs inside. We are working actively to advocate the reinstatement of programs with Black Rose Collective facilitators. Our aspiration is to respond to requests from the community members inside to re-establish weekly series and monthly workshops in Culturally-Responsive Compassionate Communication, among other healing resources.