Addressing Traumatizing Environments: A Case Study of the Showing up for Black Power, Liberation, and Healing Initiative

J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2023;34(3S):137-161. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2023.a903358.

Abstract

Effectively combating HIV will require southern HIV Service Organizations (SHSOs) to support Black staff while they navigate traumas related to structural racism driving the epidemic. HIV organizational capacity-building research lacks effective community-led approaches to anti-racist organizational change centered on Black people's experiences. This participatory case study examines "Showing Up for Black Power, Liberation and Healing," an organizational capacity-building initiative that leads to individual and organizational change, developed and implemented by the SUSTAIN, an intermediary purveyor organization (IPO). Evaluation data include participant observation notes and in-depth, open-ended evaluation reports analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. The intervention consisted of a two-part shared learning collaborative. Qualitative impact themes highlighted: 1) the power of defining and valuing Black-centered spaces to address trauma; 2) reframing self-care from an individualistic responsibility to an institutionally supported, communal means of healing; and 3) the role of the intervention in spurring organizational changes related to dismantling White supremacy work culture in SHSOs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Black or African American* / psychology
  • Capacity Building / organization & administration
  • HIV Infections* / ethnology
  • Humans
  • Organizational Case Studies*
  • Organizational Culture
  • Organizational Innovation
  • Racism*