Body-Centered Practices for Community Healing
Rev. Lis Valle, PhD, Quintin Williams, and Jia Johnson co-teach a transformative course on body-centered practices for community healing for incarcerated students.
Books students will use during this course, Holding Change by adrienne maree brown and My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem.
Rev. Lis Valle, PhD and Quintin Williams have joined forces with Jia Johnson to co-teach a 12-week course entitled "Body-Centered Practices for Community Healing." This course is designed to be a train-the-trainer model, where incarcerated students learn the practice of facilitation in "Holding Changing: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation" by adrienne maree brown.
Throughout the course, students spend time co-facilitating discussions on "My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathways to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies" by Resmaa Menakem. At the end of the semester, a celebration circle will be held to reflect on and celebrate the collective work of building the learning community.
One unique aspect of this course is the space it creates for students to not only be learners but also practitioners. They are able to step into their power, discover more about their gifts, practice their leadership, and co-create knowledge through praxis. The teaching team also learns alongside the students as they teach us, making it a mutually transformative process.
After completing the course, students are invited to co-facilitate book discussions on "My Grandmother's Hands" with their deck-mates at the jail. In the previous winter, four students from the course co-facilitated a book discussion with ten of their deck-mates, and the experience was described as life-giving.
This course is designed to empower and transform incarcerated individuals through education and practice, creating a ripple effect of healing within their communities. The second iteration of this course is eagerly anticipated, as it promises to continue to cultivate growth, leadership, and healing within the incarcerated community.
