Train Communities in Trauma Informed Care

Across the US, the political, legal, and cultural landscape deeply impacts BIPOC, immigrant, queer, and trans survivors of trauma—many of whom are already navigating profound personal and generational wounds.

Times like these can shock our bodies into trauma responses—often referred to as “protective responses”—chronic fear, avoidance, or shut down—making it difficult to connect to our sense of agency, discernment, and power to advocate for a better world. And yet, these are also moments that dare us to lean into purpose and community.

Our team in the US has been working with educators, community organizers, immigrants, and children of immigrants to build resilience together through practices of collective care, art making, imagining, and conflict tending.

Healing Centered Approaches to Conflict

Set at Canticle Farms in Oakland, this retreat was the culmination of a year of skill building and healing for Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) teachers selected as Racial Healing Fellows.

Throughout the year, Healing Together supported fellows in exploring how trauma, family history, and cultural context shape our responses to conflict. Together, we practiced slowing down—learning to pause, respond versus react, and interrupt ingrained patterns. These tools help foster greater choice, connection, and care—for ourselves, our students, and our communities.

“RevitalUS” Educators’ Retreat

To close a school year marked by burnout, grief, and chronic stress, 30 SEL (Social & Emotional Literacy) educators from Alameda County gathered for a day of rest, reflection, and reconnection in Oakland.

Our team held space to slow down, feel, and heal. Participants danced, connected to childhood joy, dissolved written burdens into water, and shared stories that had long remained unspoken—reminders that healing isn’t about fixing. It’s about feeling seen and affirmed. Participants left the retreat with a shared sentiment: we need healing spaces like this.

As another school year begins, join us in sending gratitude and care to all the educators and youth workers. Your healing matters!

Centering Safety - Rooting in Purpose

We continue to offer dedicated healing circles and mental health workshops for survivors, organizers, and frontline communities navigating the impacts of an increasingly hostile political climate.

To honor their safety—and protect the integrity of our work—we hold these stories in confidence and remain unwavering in our commitment to center the safety of our communities.

What we can share, with honesty and humility, is that transformation is happening. Grief is being witnessed. Deep networks of community care are being built. And, survivors are remembering that we belong to each other.

As the need for our work rises—amid shrinking resources and mounting threats—we remain clear: Safety is non-negotiable. Healing is our lifeline. And the survivors we walk beside remind us every day—we already carry the medicine we need to build the world we deserve.

Dear Healing Together family,

I’ve been sitting with the ways our world is shifting. The truth of our work is that every space we move through is in a constant state of change. We can’t always control what changes take place or the end result. As power structures rise and fall, our support of our communities remains a reliable constant.

When the world around us moves in ways that feel out of our control, we can ask ourselves:

• What do I need?

• Who can I lean on for support?

• Who is this moment asking me to be?

No one has all the answers, but we have the power to explore these questions with curiosity, in community, together.

Our communities in the United States have been facing unpresedented changes. Our work has been challenged to meet this moment as fear and uncertainty envelop our communities, movements, and organizations. These aren’t easy times. Yet, our spirits cling to the power of our collective imagination to create, shape, and guide us towards the healing we know is possible.

Healing through Creative Engagement

Healing Together’s team in the US partnered up with Teachers 4 Social Justice and Agency by Design Oakland in California to host a healing event for eductors and youth workers.

Teachers who are on the frontlines of serving our youth every day had an opportunity to build tools for resilience by engaging with art prompts for creative storytelling, self reflection, and collective care.

Participants engaged with prompts based on elements of nature. Each element challenged participants to explore questions about the wisdom that comes from our wounds, the practices that nourish us, their hopes and intentions for future generations, and the wisdom that their ancestors have offered them.

Through engaging with murals, sculptures, and seeds, participants reflected on what it means to be affirmed by the power and resilience of nature.

Our work wouldn't be possible without the support of healing advocates like you! Thank you for all the ways you show up for your communities, support our work, and practice care for yourselves and each other.

With gratitude and compassion,

Lory