Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Communities

CACF launched Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Communities to address and support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of AAPI youth in our communities.

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A Workshop for AAPI Youth

Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Communities is a workshop series developed by CACF in collaboration with eight AAPI youth-serving community-based organizations. The workshop series aims to promote racial healing and support the mental health of AAPI* high school and college-aged youth.

Since the Spring of 2022, over 20 community-based organizations have partnered with CACF to launch this curriculum within their respective youth programs. The workshop series has served over 500 students from 33 different ethnicities since its founding.

*Within the term AAPI, we aim to be inclusive of Middle Eastern, Indo-Caribbean, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and South, Southeast, East, Central, and West Asian American communities; however, this workshop series has also served young adults that do not identify as AAPI

Racial Literacy

What to expect

CACF’s definition of racial healing is grounded in how we see racial literacy. We at CACF believe racial literacy is a practice and a way of seeing yourself in the world that includes: 

  1. Developing a healthy sense of who you are, along with the ability to see yourself as part of your family and communit(ies)

  2. Arappling with how your community is similar to and different from other communities of color

  3. Feeling a sense of connection, shared responsibility, and care for other communities’ wellbeing 

  4. Cultivating the language, knowledge, and skills to talk about race and racism, along with the ability to challenge racial injustice

Racial literacy builds our power and includes the understanding that we are stronger when we take action together. 

Curriculum Arc

What to expect

“We feel so supported– this is exactly what we wanted to do but didn’t have the resources to develop the programs.”

Bridges From Borders

The curriculum of Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Communities leans on Dr. Shawn Ginwright’s Healing-Centered Engagement framework in its approach to healing. 

“I really just want to say thanks for creating such a clear and easy to follow curriculum, with so many resources to look into. Because it was so clear it helped engagement a ton. And the activities there was a very clear goal, and even though our kids are soft spoken, they really did engage when it came to these workshops.” 

Buffalo String Works

"This program was really helpful as we at Adhikaar develop our new youth program. It was a project through which we wanted to learn and try things out, which was helpful for us as organizers and for our youth members. We got to learn about the other participating organizations and about CACF in a deeper way as well. We hope that in the future there is more we can do together!" 

ADHIKAAR

Our partner organizations have shared that Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Communities has helped them: 

  1. Better understand youth needs

  2. Build stronger relationships with their youth

  3. Generate interest in and retention for their existing youth programs

  4. Provide structure and direction for their existing youth programs

By participating in a cohort, staff and organizations were able to:

  1. Learn from each other, address challenges together, and share feedback

  2. Network and get to know different organizations and learn about their youth populations

  3. Build a sense of community as we collectively navigated ways to create space for discussion and a shared understanding of racial healing

Healing Ourselves Youth Fellowship

What to expect

The Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Communities Youth Fellowship is a three-month fellowship for alumni of the Healing Ourselves workshop series that trains them to facilitate the workshops for their peers.

It was developed directly in response to the needs and interests of youth participants, who often expressed a desire to continue in this work or help create healing opportunities for other youth in their communities. The Fellowship aims to provide opportunities for workshop alumni to facilitate their own and community healing by creating spaces for other youth to engage in healing together. Working in pairs, the cohort of Youth Fellows learns from and shares learnings with each other as they prepare to facilitate workshops through their community-based organizations.

Our Partners

Get in Touch

Interested in joining an organizational cohort or learning more?

Contact Kristen Sze-Tu, Senior Program Coordinator or use this form.