Community Healing Project
Learning to belong together in communities that value and actively deepen inclusivity, respect and democracy is a challenge facing every sphere of society after conflict. This project uses sustained dialogue initiatives to deconstruct exclusive interpretations of history and empower communities with the skills and the ethos to deepen healing and reconciliation. Key principles such as acknowledgement of the past, promoting understanding and encouraging partnerships for reconciliation guide Community Healing initiatives.
Through round tables, small group discussions, oral history and memorial initiatives and public gatherings, communities which were previously divided across socio economic and political lines engage in ongoing constructive dialogue with one another. By building the capacity of communities in this regard, their experiences are empowered to inform public discourse and decisions regarding memory, history and current challenges impeding justice and reconciliation.
Community leaders in particular benefit from training and capacity building in Community Healing processes and programme resources to strengthen their ability to initiate and sustain reconciliatory processes in their local contexts.
2012 Happenings
Siyakha Forum
This networking structure is in its embryonic stages and will, in time, assist communities with initiatives to build reconciliation across identity groups. Another dimension to the activity will be to engage with the reconciliation debate at policy level through interaction with the Institute.Click here to visit the project's Facebook page.
Revised Community Healing Manual
The existing training course manual was based on the South African context. Having exposed the training to participants from other countries, this year the training manual will be tested to suit contexts outside South Africa.Research Report and Policy Briefs
The process of interrogating the findings of the Research Report compiled from the above dialogue processes is underway. This year, it will entail a series of Policy-briefs and Roundtables with government departments and practitioners in the field of social cohesion, both in South Africa and abroad. Ultimately, these findings and insights will also inform academia, policy makers and practitioners of the importance of community rehabilitation, in line with the recommendations of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Community Healing - A Guide for Facilitators
