HEALING JUSTICE ORGANIZING PRACTICE
About Healing Justice Organizing
Richael was introduced to community organizing, by Virginia Organizing, in 2014 during their second year of college. Before their introduction, they were a queer activist, as one of the few out students at their high school, and an anti-war activist, following the September 11th attacks and onset of the “War on Terror” in their Virginian suburb outside of Washington DC.
During college they learned VO’s organizing model, a rural version of Midwest Academy school. Richael contributed to a local affordable housing campaign and statewide campaigns to end to racial profiling and payday lending. After college they served as VO’s Northern Virginia organizer for a year and organized a queer college student group as a board member at Equality Virginia.
Richael’s organizing radicalized when they were introduced to community-building organizing and healing justice in 2007. Officially becoming a Southerner on New Ground (SONG) and Kindred Southern Healing Justice collective member, they felt home building relationships and not merely campaigns. Twenty years later their community-building continues, with a focus on healing justice, building relationships, strategies, and power among healing practitioners and healing-oriented organizers.
Building Community Together
Please email at rf@richaelfaithful.com if you’d like to learn more about ROOTS, DC Healing and Transformative Justice Hub, Community Organizer Support Project or coordinate around another organizing project.
Organizing Portfolio
Recent Work
Resourcing Our Organizers Transforming Our Systems (ROOTS) pilot project (Dec 2023 - Present). A healing justice capacity-building project for Washington DC.
Community Organizing Support Project with The Festival Center (February 2024 - Present). A relationship-building and skill-building space for Washington DC organizers.
DC Healing and Transformative Justice Hub, Co-Founder and Member (2019 - Present). A healing justice project supporting DC’s capacity-building for local, movement-aligned healers, practitioners, facilitators.
Conjure! Freedom Collective, Founder, Curator & Facilitator (2014 - 2017). A community-driven formation, which centered Black ancestral healing practices, and which offered radically accessible healing support to community members, and healing strategy capacity-building support for organizers in the DC area.
Other Organizing Experience & Training
End Felony Disenfranchisement Campaign, Advancement Project (2011 - 2014).
Transformers Project (2012 - 2013).
Virginia Organizing Project, Apprentice Community Organizer (2007 - 2008).
Midwest Academy Training: Organizing for Social Change (2008).
Virginia Organizing Project, Williamsburg chapter member, Statewide Racial Profiling Campaign, and Intern (2005 - 2007).
Southerners on New Ground (SONG), Virginia Steering Committee (2013).
