ABSTRACT
While the limited research and writing about shared trauma has mostly been situated in the community of mental health practitioners, this phenomenon can be applied to community organizers as well. The recent global pandemic and uprisings for racial and social justice have exacerbated the pervasiveness of shared trauma which necessitates attention and interventions. This chapter explores the impact of shared trauma on community organizers and both poses and attempts to answer a question more pressing than ever before: How do we deconstruct systems of oppression while simultaneously reconstructing systems of support that cultivate individual and community well-being? This essay incorporates the perspectives of two Black women social workers and relies on their experience as community organizers and community healers. Deriving from the authors’ lived experiences of shared trauma and healing, the authors attempt to situate the impacts of shared trauma in the community organizing context in order to make necessary and relevant recommendations for community organizers and social workers organizing for change.
Keywords: Shared Trauma, Community Organizing, Radical Healing, Radical Imagination, Historical Trauma, Generational Trauma, Self-Care, Mindfulness, Post-Traumatic Growth, Black Social Workers
