Who we are

The Institute for Social Healing is a collaboration of faculty and staff across a number of colleges and universities in the Mid-Atlantic region, hosted by York College’s Center for Community Engagement, with the mission of mobilizing the resources of higher education to promote research that can support social healing.

We recognize the inherent and collective strengths, resourcefulness, insight, and resilience of our communities. Yet we know that many face challenges caused by pervasive and deeply-rooted trauma and injustice. Institutions of higher education have a role to play in supporting systems changes that allow communities to adopt evidence-informed, healing, and trauma-centered approaches in order to effectively face the hurt that has persisted for too long.

Trauma-informed approaches realize the prevalence of trauma, recognize the impact it has, respond in ways that promote healing and actively resist re-traumatization (SAMHA, 2014).

We will work to provide community members, advocacy organizations, service providers and policy makers access to the best possible information to aid in their efforts to understand and prevent the root causes of violence, injustice, and other sources of trauma, explore pathways to support healing and improve the teaching of these issues.

Who we are

The Institute for Social Healing is a collaboration of faculty and staff across a number of colleges and universities in the Mid-Atlantic region, hosted by York College’s Center for Community Engagement, with the mission of mobilizing the resources of higher education to promote research that can support social healing.

We recognize the inherent and collective strengths, resourcefulness, insight, and resilience of our communities. Yet we know that many face challenges caused by pervasive and deeply-rooted trauma and injustice. Institutions of higher education have a role to play in supporting systems changes that allow communities to adopt evidence-informed, healing, and trauma-centered approaches in order to effectively face the hurt that has persisted for too long.

Trauma-informed approaches realize the prevalence of trauma, recognize the impact it has, respond in ways that promote healing and actively resist re-traumatization (SAMHA, 2014).

We will work to provide community members, advocacy organizations, service providers and policy makers access to the best possible information to aid in their efforts to understand and prevent the root causes of violence, injustice, and other sources of trauma, explore pathways to support healing and improve the teaching of these issues.

What we believe

What we believe

1

Good scholarship and pedagogy is rooted in the respect for and promotion of human dignity, engagement with the community, collaborative, problem-based and service-oriented learning
2

Effects of trauma are pervasive in our communities and are contributing factors to many social issues
3

Violence, exploitation and injustice are both caused and continued by deeply rooted individual, community and political wounds
4

Healing occurs through positive, safe and equitable relationships between individuals, families, communities, organizations and institutions.
5

Establishing and sustaining positive relationships requires building upon and celebrating individual and community resiliency and strengths and understanding and acknowledging individual, community and historical wounds.
6

Community organizers, activists, organizations and policy makers working to promote social healing benefit from access to valid and reliable information, opportunities for collaboration, an informed citizenry and workforce
7

Trauma-Informed Approaches offer pathways to healing
8

Institutions of higher education have the human and physical resources to provide valid and reliable information, virtual and physical space for collaboration, and the ability to educate the workforce and citizenry

What we do

What we do

1

Promote collaboration between community organizations, policy makers and scholars across institutions to conduct participatory and action-based research on issues of social violence and healing
2

Establish and maintain a contact list of experts and speakers on topics related to violence, exploitation, injustice and healing
3

Translate existing academic research into usable reports for community members, organizations and policy makers
4

Host community trainings and workshops
5

Host yearly symposiums and or conferences to share research and promote collaboration and conversation about topics related to social violence and healing
6

Provide a resource library of research, news articles, videos and resources on related topics
7

Provide a space to share syllabi and other teaching tools related to these topics

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