Shawn Ginwright is an author, professor, and activist, his Healing Centered Engagement (HCE) framework is a strength-based approach that advances a collective view of healing and re-centers culture as a central feature in well-being. The main objective of our programming is to create a space where Black youth can begin the process of personal healing by using a familiar musical medium in a setting that promotes community, connection, culture, joy, and play. Our programs are based on the following tenets of this methodological framework:

  1. critical healing is explicitly political, rather than clinical
  2. critical healing is culturally grounded and views healing as the restoration of identity,
  3. critical healing is asset driven and focuses on wellbeing we want, rather than symptoms we want to suppress; and
  4. critical healing supports adult providers with their own healing.