Questions & Answers (Q&A)

  • Harm to Healing is a community-led organisation growing an ecosystem that builds power for communities impacted by racialised criminalisation to create systems of healing, safety and justice. We strengthen the movement for transformative and healing justice by supporting community members and organisations, resourcing community solutions and shared infrastructure, and developing approaches that help move society from harm to healing.

  • “From harm to healing” describes the transition away from systems rooted in punishment, criminalisation and surveillance towards approaches rooted in care, accountability, repair and collective wellbeing. It is both a vision and a practical process of building community-led alternatives that help people and communities heal, thrive and stay safe.

  • We use the term “criminalisation system” to describe the wider network of policing, surveillance and punishment that extends beyond police, courts, prisons and immigration systems into institutions that are often presented as sites of care or support, including schools, mental health systems and social services.

  • Black communities in the UK have been disproportionately targeted and harmed by systems of policing, punishment and surveillance for generations. These harms are deeply connected to institutional racism and wider social and economic inequality. Harm to Healing exists to strengthen the community-led work already happening to resist these harms and build alternatives rooted in dignity, healing and justice.

  • Transformative and healing justice are approaches to responding to harm that move beyond punishment, policing and prisons. They are rooted in the belief that real safety cannot be created through violence, criminalisation or isolation, but through healing, accountability, collective care and the conditions people need to thrive.

    These approaches seek to address the root causes of harm - including trauma, inequality, racism, poverty and violence - while supporting people and communities to heal, take accountability and build healthier ways of relating to one another.

    Transformative and healing justice recognise that communities have always developed their own ways of surviving, resolving conflict, caring for one another and creating safety outside of systems that often produce further harm. They aim to strengthen those community-led practices while imagining and building new systems rooted in dignity, repair, interdependence and collective wellbeing.

    At their core, transformative and healing justice ask a deeper question: not simply how we address harm, but how we create the conditions for less harm to happen in the first place.

  • Shared infrastructure refers to the collective systems, resources and spaces needed to sustain long-term movement building. This can include communications support, storytelling platforms, operational and administrative support, collaborative physical spaces and collective resourcing approaches that reduce duplication and strengthen the ecosystem.

  • Harm to Healing exists for communities impacted by racialised criminalisation - and for everyone committed to building a future rooted in healing, care, justice and collective wellbeing.

    Across the ecosystem, we support many different people and forms of leadership: community members responding to harm in their neighbourhoods, families seeking justice, organisers and activists building campaigns, healers and practitioners supporting collective care, artists and storytellers shifting narratives, researchers and educators developing knowledge, and grassroots organisations creating community-led solutions.

    We believe everyone has a role to play in moving society from harm to healing. Whether through organising, healing, storytelling, learning, advocacy, care work, research, creativity or collective action, Harm to Healing exists to help strengthen the relationships, knowledge and infrastructure needed to build that future together.

  • Harm to Healing is a community-led organisation structured as a Community Benefit Society (CBS). We chose this model because it allows the organisation to be collectively owned, member-led and accountable to the wider community and movement we exist to serve.

    At Harm to Healing, everyone involved in the organisation is a member. We believe the work of moving from harm to healing requires collective participation, shared responsibility and community leadership. Our governance model is designed to reflect these values.

    Alongside our wider membership, Harm to Healing is led by the Holding Team of Stewards and Coordinators and a Member Leadership Committee who help shape the strategic direction, governance and long-term development of the organisation. This approach is intended to support collective leadership, shared decision-making and stronger accountability across the ecosystem.

    The governance model grew out of learning during the Seed Phase, where we experimented with collaborative leadership and collective decision-making through the Seed Phase Collective. As we continue to grow, we are committed to building governance that remains relational, participatory and rooted in care, accountability and community power.

  • Our work is organised across three interconnected areas:

    • Supporting community members and organisations through leadership development, retreats, peer learning, organisational support and healing-centred spaces.

    • Resourcing community solutions and shared infrastructure by mobilising funding, strengthening collaboration and developing collective infrastructure.

    • Developing and advocating for approaches that help society move from harm to healing through research, storytelling, campaigning and the Harm to Healing Blueprint.

  • Harm to Healing is designed as a member-led organisation, and over time we hope to grow a wider membership community connected to the vision and work of the ecosystem.

    However, we are not currently accepting new members. Harm to Healing only completed its Seed Phase in early 2026 and is still in the early stages of its Development Phase as a newly registered Community Benefit Society. Right now, we are focused on testing and strengthening our governance structures, collective leadership model and organisational systems before expanding membership more widely.

    This includes continuing to develop how our membership model, Stewards and Member Leadership Committee work in practice, and ensuring that growth happens in a sustainable, values-aligned and community-led way.

    Importantly, membership is not the only way to be part of the Harm to Healing ecosystem. We believe there are many ways people can contribute to and participate in the movement toward healing and justice. This may include attending events and gatherings, participating in learning spaces, collaborating on projects, contributing research or storytelling, joining campaigns, supporting community initiatives, sharing skills and resources, or helping strengthen the wider ecosystem in other ways.

    As Harm to Healing develops, we will share more information about future membership opportunities and ways to deepen involvement in the work.

  • Harm to Healing emerged from years of frontline organising, political reflection and community work responding to racialised criminalisation and systemic harm. Its roots sit in the experiences of communities directly impacted by policing, prisons, violence, poverty and racism - and in the grassroots organisations, campaigns and movements that have long worked to resist these harms and support communities with limited resources and infrastructure.

    The early thinking behind Harm to Healing began to take shape in 2020 through reflections on what seemed to be missing across the wider ecosystem: stronger collective infrastructure, deeper relationships across organisations and movements, spaces for healing and political learning, and long-term support capable of sustaining transformative work beyond constant crisis response.

    These ideas evolved through years of collaboration, organising, retreats, research and ecosystem conversations involving organisers, researchers, grassroots organisations and impacted communities. A major turning point came through the 2023 report authored by Temi Mwale and Patrick Williams and commissioned by the AB Charitable Trust, which mapped Black-led organisations working at the intersection of racial justice and the criminal legal system. The report surfaced both the extraordinary leadership already existing across communities and the urgent need for greater infrastructure, connection, political clarity and investment.

    Harm to Healing was imagined as connective infrastructure for a wider movement: a space to strengthen relationships, support leadership, redistribute resources, develop shared political language and help communities move from harm to healing.

  • The Seed Phase 2024 - 2025 was Harm to Healing’s first stage of development - focused on relationship-building and testing what communities and organisations needed in order to strengthen the movement for healing and justice beyond criminalisation. During this period, Harm to Healing brought together organisers, grassroots organisations and community members impacted by racialised criminalisation to reflect on shared challenges, build relationships and collectively imagine what healing for our communities could look like in practice.

    A central part of the Seed Phase was the Harm to Healing Collective - a group of organisations who came together to help shape the vision, learning and direction of the work to build Harm to Healing as a new entity. Together, the Collective explored new forms of collaboration, peer support and shared learning across the ecosystem. Harm to Healing also hosted retreats, gatherings and collective dreaming spaces that created opportunities for leaders to step away from constant crisis response, connect with one another and reflect on healing-centred approaches to leadership, care and movement building. Alongside this, we began developing governance structures, experimenting with collective decision-making and building the foundations for the organisation and ecosystem we are continuing to grow today.

    During the Seed Phase, Harm to Healing also redistributed £140,000 of funding to grassroots organisations and campaigns, helped identify gaps in support across the ecosystem and began developing the first version of the Harm to Healing Blueprint. The Blueprint started capturing the learning, practices and visions emerging across communities for how society can move from systems rooted in punishment and criminalisation toward healing, safety, accountability and collective wellbeing.

  • The Harm to Healing Blueprint is a living framework that documents the evolving learning, practices, visions and approaches emerging across the ecosystem for healing, safety and justice beyond criminalisation.

    The first version of the Blueprint was published in 2026 as part of Harm to Healing’s public launch. It brings together lived experience, community practice, political education, research and collective reflection to help communities, organisations and institutions imagine and build pathways from harm to healing.

    Importantly, the Blueprint is not intended to be fixed or complete. We see it as a living document that will continue to grow and evolve over time alongside the movement itself - shaped by new learning, experimentation, relationships, community practice and collective struggle.