SURVIVORS ALLIANCE | Communities United

SURVIVORS
ALLIANCE FOR HEALING AND JUSTICE

Survivors Leading Transformative Change and Community Reinvestment

Survivors Alliance for Healing and Justice

The Survivors Alliance for Healing and Justice (SAHJ), a project of Communities United, is a survivor-led, intergenerational racial justice initiative. It is through our body of work over the past 20 years that has led us to formalize what we call our “Healing through Justice” approach. “Healing through Justice” develops the sustainable leadership of low-income survivors of color to create safe communities and social change.

This approach provides an alternative to what healing looks like outside of clinical approaches and top-down interventions. The building blocks include a focus on developing community healing practitioners that play a leadership role in building communities of support where present-day and historical trauma is acknowledged, root causes are examined and addressed through collective action to transform systems, and networks are developed to address issues of interpersonal harm and healing outside of the justice system.

The Survivors Alliance for Healing and Justice engages leaders from across Chicago communities as well as partner organizations such as Broken Winggz, a survivor-led group whose mission is to give support to people who are paralyzed from gun violence and their families, and build alliances to advance a common goal for safe and healthy communities.

PROGRESS MADE

We engage leaders from Broken Winggz, a survivor-led group whose mission is to give support to people who are paralyzed from gun violence, their families, and building alliances to advance a common goal for safe and healthy communities.
SAHJ and members of the Reducing Barriers to Recovery campaign are leading efforts to end the failed policies of the war on drugs that have caused significant harm in our Black and Brown communities over decades.
Through Girls Empowering & Motivating Sisters (GEMS), a group out of our Survivors Alliance for Healing & Justice, cis and trans girls and young women of color have led a year-long story collection project focusing on mental health and wellness and its intersection with race, trauma, and healing. Building off of GEMS’ project, girls and young women of color are partnering with institutions to support community-led efforts and healing approaches led by girls of color.

MEET

Roxanne Smith

Roxanne is a resident of the Austin community on Chicago’s west side and has been an active leader in CU’s work around affordable housing and police accountability over the past 8 years. She is also a founding member of CU’s Survivors’ Alliance for Healing and Justice. Roxanne is a mother of two sons,one who is living with Fragile X syndrome, and one who is a victim of police brutality and is currently incarcerated. She works alongside other survivors to share their lived experiences with...

Roxanne Smith

Roxanne is a resident of the Austin community on Chicago’s west side and has been an active leader in CU’s work around affordable housing and police accountability over the past 8 years. She is also a founding member of CU’s Survivors’ Alliance for Healing and Justice. Roxanne is a mother of two sons,one who is living with Fragile X syndrome, and one who is a victim of police brutality and is currently incarcerated. She works alongside other survivors to share their lived experiences with...

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