On behalf of Alice Lynch, Stephanie Autumn, and Michael Bischoff, we would like to invite you to an evening of providing input about healing justice in Minnesota, and how principles of healing justice could be more fully implemented in Minnesota. Alice, Stephanie, and Michael will be co-hosting this meeting. We know that you have experience and insights that will be very important for this conversation. 

The American Friends Service Committee is assessing how they could begin a program in Minnesota focused on healing justice. At this meeting, we will assess what is already happening in MInnesota related to healing justice and provide input about what activities the American Friends Service Committee could do to most effectively move healing justice forward. We hope this will also be a useful time for each of us to discover new ideas and connections that support the work we already doing. 

Healing justice encompasses both healing from harm and the transformation of harm to wholeness. Its focus is achieving fundamental balance and fairness in response to harm. The principles of healing justice are: responsibility, mutuality and love. Healing justice calls us to reject violence, domination and exploitation. In practice, healing justice means:

• Being able to care for yourself, your family and all your relations
• Repairing “harm” at all levels—personal, community, governmental, and international
• Having the power, right and mechanisms of self-determination
• Being able to lead your life “in a good way”
• Having the power and mechanisms to hold community and governmental entities to these same principles and actions when they cause harm

Here are examples of healing justice programs done by the American Friends Service Committee in other parts of the country.

How could these principles be more fully lived out in Minnesota? What groups and individuals could be partners in this work?

Please respond to these questions with us on Tuesday, Jan. 10th. We will begin with refreshments at 6:00 pm and the group conversation will be from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. We will meet at the Minneapolis Urban League at 2100 Plymouth Ave. in North Minneapolis. 

Please contact Michael Bischoff at michael@clarityfacilitation.com or 612-234-1122.