Methodologies

The design of the programme took shape through discussions with comrades, friends and the study of pedagogical programmes led by groups such as the Black Panthers. The methodologies we employed for the programme varied but included:

Purpose to political consciousness:

The cohort of participations we hope to bring into the Centric ecosystem, and the programme was geared towards increasing our shared skills, knowledge and relationships in order to work together towards health and healing justice. Our visions for how we would use this learning, both collectively and as an individual, were discussed, dreamed and embodied in each session. For example, halfway through the programme we develop a collective abolitionist health declaration, committing each other to continued growth and transformation. The participants were encouraged to envision and practise their role in liberation. 

Healing as part of political consciousness:

We recognised, both as participants and healers, that we cannot talk about health and healing justice without attempting to connect with our own bodies and minds. Each session included a somatic practice, often taken from the book My Grandmother’s Hands. In the topics we studied, there was immense grief, in particular acknowledging the violence experienced by our siblings in Palestine, Congo and Sudan. We also acknowledged that these topics might be triggered for participants, for example those who may have experienced displacement themselves. We attempted to hold and navigate this grief, and are thankful to the participants for their feedback and guidance as to how to do this. We hosted debrief spaces, and held a joint discussion on what safe and loving spaces look like to participants. 

Relationship building:

Time for building relationships between participants was an important part of each session and the programme overall. We set a minimum requirement for participation to support this. Halfway through the programme, who hosted an in-person healing day. This healing day did not deliver ‘content’, but was an open space to explore feelings that were arising as a result of the programme, create a shared declaration, and do a ‘body-territory mapping’ exercise for our movements and communities. The body-mapping exercise was generously taught to one of the facilitators by Dra. Delmy Tania Cruz Hernández.

Application of knowledge:

In advance of each session, participants were asked to absorb learnings from the shared preparatory content, such as through Centric Lab reports. This enabled us to maximise time for discussion, experimentation, analysis and application of learnings. The sessions were spaces to apply the knowledge, through workshops, discussions with the wider community, and really going deeper into how the analysis can be applied. We maximised the time for discussion and experimentation. 

A space to understand our own lives and communities:

We did not approach injustice as a concept to be studied external to ourselves, instead participants generously shared their own community, family, and personal experiences with one another. The participants were encouraged to share and apply  their own significant knowledge, experience and analysis. To facilitate this, we created a safe and generous space through relationship building, somatic practices and formulating a small cohort size. The political frameworks provided formed a scaffold on which people analysed their own experiences. 

Knowledge from the movement:

Whether in our programme resources or our speakers,   we centred the knowledge produced and developed by communities facing the brunt of structural violence. We avoided elitist forms of research, and focussed on knowledge that has been situated within struggle. Marginalised and oppressed peoples bear the brunt of injustice, and so are also the creators and curators of knowledges and practices that can achieve health justice. Their lived expertise facilitates accountability and guidance. To truly aid in liberation, health workers must surrender the notion of power ‘over’ and instead build power together in community and solidarity, centring lived experiences of marginalised communities.

Spiral time:

We developed an overarching programme where each phase developed on the previous. However, we recognised that, like the past, present and future overlap and co-exist, political consciousness is not linear. We hosted drop-in sessions during the programme (in the feedback people would have liked more) where people could drop-in to discuss any concepts they were struggling with, emotions that were coming up for them in the programme or how they might want to apply it to their work. We also adjusted the programme content according to the needs of participants. 

Examining medical violence and revolutionary medicine:

As the programme was in particular for health workers, the topics and sessions included specific analyses of how health systems in their current form uphold and contribute to structural injustice, create violence and gaslight communities. We created space for participants to talk about medical violence they have witnessed. We explored different models of care rooted in Kinship, resistance and community, such as the Trans community and Indigenous Peoples, and examples of health practitioners engaging in revolutionary work.

Abolition:

Abolition asks us to dismantle and disrupt systems of oppression - we must examine them, understand their interconnectedness, but also move beyond critique. It also demands us to build the community strength and power to overcome them. This requires both care and strategy. The programme topics included how we build care, infrastructures and organising strength to simultaneously imagine, build and collectively seed systems of care, regeneration and healing.

Healing Stipend:

All participants were given a stipend. Instead, it was offered with the intention of being put towards healing. It was up to participants to decide what they needed to catalyse their own healing journeys. Additionally, all in-person activities (and associated travel, food costs etc.) were covered by Centric Lab to minimise barriers to access.