Community Healing Network

The "virtual emotional emancipation (ee) circle 101 intensive experience", piloted by chn in fy21 as the first in a series of virtual chn circles focused on helping participants heal from the multi-generational trauma caused by the lie of white superiority and black inferiority. This foundational ee circle experience launches participants on a journey toward complete freedom from the lie. Participants emerged with personal emotional emancipation proclamations and concrete action plans for freeing themselves from the lie. Survey results show that participants emerged with a sense that their mis-education about history has been corrected, a deepened understanding of the impact of the lie on their lives, increased feelings of self-empowerment, and a commitment to continuing on the journey toward emotional emancipation. Chn offered 4 public and one private contract eec for a total of 93 participants. 42 eec graduates attended monthly follow up circles (named fawohodie circle).37 eec graduates became eec facilitators thus enabling them to proliferate circles in their communities.chn launched a pilot program at pendleton correctional facility in Indiana for 7 participants. The second eec has an attendance of 11. The eecs are very sought-after in the facility. In a year and a half, we plan to host eec facilitator training. The benefit of having eec facilitators inside the facility is that they can host other offenders who have not met the sentence and behavioral requirements necessary to attend the virtual eecs with chn facilitators. Future pendleton plans include hosting funded circles for offenders' family members. The men have expressed a desire for family members to be exposed to the libertory ideas, activities, self-care techniques and activities for the thriving of their families as well. Chn sees this as an opportunity to assist in repairing broken family bonds by providing family members with the same experience as their loved ones and another manner of positive communication to support each other during their family disruption. In fy 2023, chn hosted its first ever eec train-the-trainer series for a private group at the university of Illinois for 6 people. This group is now empowered to continue their eec work and deepen the roots of eecs in chicago by producing more eec facilitators. In fy24 we have begun a standard train-the-trainer curriculum. By moving our facilitator training in house, we will save $12k annually and spread eecson a larger scale. Development of eec 201 began with an expected completion date of early december. Plans are to run the pilot eec 201 in january 2024. Eec 201 is a continuation of eec 101 that is meant to intensify the work that began in eec 101. Chn has begun to develop an eec booster training program to reignite eec facilitators who folded their circles due to covid-19. Chn contracted with tb consulting to evaluate its existing programs. Three focus groups were held in fy 2023 with eec graduates, eec facilitator candidates and seasoned eec facilitators.program evaluation has continued into fy 2024 which includes staff interviews and one more eec focus group. Tb consulting will then analyze the data, share what is effective and what needs improvement. New pre andpost survey questions will be crafted and input into a qualtrics program. This is a major accomplishment in that the pre and post survey questions will be specifically tailored to continually analyze the data in house by staff with the ability to continually adjust eec contents to fit the feedback of participants and provide accurate qualitative and quantitative data. In fy 2023, chn identified four tiers of facilitators for circle proliferation includingfacilitators in canada and trinidad/tobago.

Community engagement - in addition to consistent communication and responsiveness to established chnconstituents, future Community members and strategic partnerships, in fy 2023,chn has expanded Community engagement in the following ways:conference presentations & speaking events emotional emancipation circle introduction at the virtual black mental wellness conference - november 2022 black mental wealth presentation on black love in october 2022 black family summit annual accomplishments and challenges presentation - december 2022 black family summit season of sankofa presentation on Healing - september 2022 Community Healing days award ceremony october 2022 with 50 attendees chn sponsored kwaanaza presentation at north carolina state to black student union on self care and Healing - november 2022 emotional emancipation introduction at black consciousness festival based in trinidad and tobago in march 2022 united nations sub working group peoplefs forum of people of african descent presentation on the importance of emotional reparations - august 2022 two spring fling gatherings of eec facilitators in may 2023 to bolster support and answer questions co-panelist in national disaster symposium presentation about the activation,usefulness and necessity of ubuntu rapid response circles for people of african descent work on a new website began in fy 2023 and is now complete in fy 2024. A refreshed graphic, colorful presentation with less verbiage is more user friendly and attractive to a younger audience. The next planned iteration of the website will expand capability to access all of our virtual offerings and learning platform, elevate through our website.

Emotional lunch break (elb) - emotional lunch break is a weekly virtual offering for people of african descent. It is 60 minutes of rest and resilience meant to provide relaxation, fellowship, support and invigorating conversations. We are each others medicine. Weeklytopics have included the n word, african cultural wisdom, crafting words ofempowerment for micro and macro aggressions, honoring our ancestors and stress reduction techniques.the tuesday circles boast an average attendance rate of 32 participants with a total of 1,568 attendees in fy 2023.ubuntu rapid response circles - ubuntu rapid response circles are Healing circles that are safe spaces for black people to come together and heal in times of real crises for our Community. These circles are spaces for black bodies to experience love, empathy, safety and strength from each other in times of acute need. Chn hosted a 4-week series of rapid response circles for the Community to process the murder of tyre nichols.

3. Weekly emotional lunch breaks-every tuesday, from noon to 1 pm eastern time, in fy22, chn provided an online space for emotional rest and refreshment for people from across global africa. Nearly 2000 people joined from places as near as canada and as far away as the united kingdom. Our time together was characterized by a sense of calm and peace. Topics explored included: the lies and the truth; african cultural values; knowing our why; honoring our ancestors; rewriting our narrative; what does it mean to be seen; playing the "uplifting" dozens; and creating empowering responses to racial macro-and microaggressions. Participants consistently reported a decrease in stress levels at the end of each session.