The Future of Healing Continued: Healing Centered Engagement Certification and Podcast

Shawn Ginwright Ph.D.

I often say that today we sit directly between trauma and transformation. When I say “transformation”, I’m referring to the term in a holistic sense. This is not where we put our superhero capes on as youth development professionals and expect to help others when we haven’t dealt with our personal issues. You can not profoundly have an impact on young people if you’re still dealing with your stuff. Being an adult or having a degree from a university does not mean that we automatically know how to mentor young people.

As I speak to youth development professionals across the country, I’m inspired. Your unwavering dedication to help others and create a profound impact in the lives of young people helps me wake up everyday and dedicate myself to the same cause. I also notice that many of us are ready for a tectonic shift in the industry. A shift that emphasizes a focus on the individual, interpersonal, and institutional issues that shape young people’s lives.

For years, I’ve been talking about the power of healing and well-being and what we need to do in the fields of youth development and education. We need to think about how these concepts can be woven into the very fabric of these professions. Healing and well-being are rooted in indigenous and African traditions, and they are not new ideas, but we need to bring them to the forefront.

Before the pandemic, most of my time was spent traveling the country speaking to and training people about the importance healing centered engagement. Inevitably, after every speech, people come up to me and ask, “How do I implement these principles in my world?”

2021 will be the year where my team and I at Flourish Agenda answer that very question. We have two exciting announcements!

First: We’re proud to announce the debut of our Healing Centered Engagement Certification. This course is designed to be a set of guidelines, and roadmap that allows you to understand how to provide the context for healing in your organization and with some fidelity, practice a Healing Centered process in your place of work and community.

Second: We’ve started a new podcast! It’s called “The CARMA Chronicles”. We interview the nation’s foremost leaders and practitioners in Healing Centered Engagement and they share their stories with you. You can find it on our website, Apple Podcasts , and Spotify.

Let’s make 2021 a year of healing! We all can use a good dose of that!

Dr. Shawn Ginwright is Associate Professor of Education, and African American Studies at San Francisco State University and the author of Hope and Healing in Urban Education: How Activists are Reclaiming Matters of the Heart.