Transformative Practices

The Transformative Justice Action Team (TJAT) at The James Baldwin School is committed to the creation and implementation of school-wide, healing-centered frameworks for maintaining community well-being, engaging in teaching and learning and providing social-emotional support. These frameworks seek to address and deconstruct oppressive systems and structures that cause harm to our communities. We affirm that this work happens, first and foremost, through a strong commitment to building community and human relationships. We hold ourselves and others accountable to consistently address the historical absence of holistic justice and historical impact of racism and other forms of oppression through the critical evaluation of cultural and sociopolitical narratives that hold these systems aloft. Transformative practice is not limited to addressing harm to the community through the narrow lens of discipline but, rather, encompasses every action and interaction we engage in across community spaces. This perspective acknowledges that justice cannot be restored without broad-based commitment to liberation from the root causes of harm. In line with this perspective and commitment, and in collaboration with other community members, we intend to take action towards addressing the following: 

• The decolonization of school-wide curriculum 

• The development of a healing-centered, culturally sustaining approaches to pedagogical and clinical/social work-based practice and addressing harm to the community

• Examining and addressing the impact of interpersonal oppression across our community spaces

• Creating web-based healing resources for our community and the infrastructure for in-person resources when we return to the school building

• The development of community-building events that affirm Core Values and provide opportunities for connection