NorthStar Liberatory Training Collective

NorthStar Liberatory Training Collective

Overview: Since 2019, the NorthStar Liberatory Training Collective has prepared BIPOC young adults ages 17-24 to develop and implement healing-centered and trauma-informed practices within learning spaces such as public schools and youth organizations. Nearly 40 Northstar alumni have led workshops for hundreds of educators and youth workers on healing-centered practices.

Program Focus

• Explores issues related to the prison industrial complex, policing, and the school-to-prison pipeline
• Learn abolitionist and transformative justice tools and strategies to create healing-centered spaces for young people
• Participants both practice and learn how to teach these practices to others
• Harnessing the symbolic legacy of the slavery abolition movement of the 19th century, the name "Northstar" characterizes a persistent desire for freedom and a dependence on a radical sense of imagination

Trauma-Informed Care Framework

Trauma-informed care takes into account the impacts of trauma on an individual's mental, emotional and physical well being. It emphasizes the support and treatment of the whole person, instead of treating specific symptoms and behaviors. Research demonstrates that addressing the root of trauma will significantly change the course of a person's life.

Healing Justice

"Healing justice is the practice of reimagining wholeness at the intersection of intergenerational trauma, current structures of oppression, and a generative and co-created future. We hold that joy and pleasure create possibility to be in right relationship with ourselves, each other, and the land. We strive to demystify medicine and healing and to make them accessible to everyone. We believe that each person is an expert of their own experience, body and needs, and that it is necessary to address the roots of trauma and injustice for individual and collective transformation."

2023 Program Information

Timeline:

January 7: Application opens

February 11: Application deadline

February 13-17: Interviews

February 18: 12 applicants selected

February 25: Program begins

Runs every Saturday until May 6

Schedule: Every Saturday from March 18 to May 27, 10am to 4pm, hybrid in-person and virtual sessions

Eligibility

• Age: BIPOC-identified young adults ages 17-24
• Location: Chicago Freedom School office, South Loop

Compensation

Stipend: $1,000
• Lunch and snacks provided

Program Components

• Retreat: April 28-30
• Closing Celebration: May 27

Geographic Scope

Chicago, Illinois

Contact Information

• Email: info@chicagofreedomschool.org
• Phone: 312-435-1201
• Address: 1727 S. Indiana Ave. Suite G02A, Chicago, IL 60616
• Website: chicagofreedomschool.org
• Space is wheelchair accessible

Status

Note: As of the 2023 announcement, Northstar was no longer accepting applications for the 2023 cohort. Current application status unknown.