Director of Healing Justice

Title: Director of Healing Justice

Reports to: Executive Director

Location: St. Louis City, MO

The Freedom Community Center (FCC) is a Black-led organization in North St. Louis founded to dismantle systems of oppression that inflict harm and trauma on Black communities in St. Louis City, particularly the police and the criminal punishment system. We ground ourselves in the knowledge that the Black survivors of St. Louis have the solutions to the question: What will keep us safe? We seek to build a community-based approach centered in power, healing, accountability, and repair. Given the resources to alleviate immediate economic needs, the space to facilitate communal healing, and the time to dream collectively of alternative approaches, our community of survivors will meaningfully address harm happening in St. Louis City at the individual and systemic level. We dismantle mass incarceration by modeling alternative responses to the criminal punishment system.

The current punitive approaches to violence such as police and incarceration do not prevent future violence, they create it. At FCC, we take a survivor centered approach to build solutions that interrupt violence at its root. In the place of violence, we make peace and build power. Our approach fosters accountability, healing, repair and transformation. The cornerstone of our peacemaking work is our healing justice process which is made up of several different transformative justice processes. One of our transformative processes is a restorative justice program that seeks to intervene and work with people who are experiencing or perpetuating harm before they interact with the police or at the beginning of their interaction with the criminal punishment system. The healing justice processes will support community accountability. The healing justice team works alongside the organizing team to build peace and power in neighborhoods.

At FCC, we have an opportunity to seek a different path, one marked by healing, true accountability, and reparative solutions that will transform those involved so that they might participate in imagining an alternative future for themselves and our community. This work is materialized through our Free US project but also through our community organizing branch called Power Builders, where we build power within our community members. We interrupt violence both systemic and interpersonal by forging a different path toward reconciliation, transformation, healing, and freedom.

Position Summary:

The Director of Healing Justice is a senior leadership role responsible for stewarding Freedom Community Center’s restorative, transformative, and healing justice work. This position sets the strategic vision for FCC’s responses to serious violence and ensures and upholds high-quality, trauma-informed and survivor centered practices. The Director leads a multidisciplinary team delivering healing justice programming in North St. Louis. This team works in collaboration with the organizing team to move forward community accountability processes.

The Director of Healing Justice oversees program design and implementation; supervises healing justice staff; manages program budgets and grant deliverables; and establishes clear policies, standards, and accountability structures for this core pillar of FCC’s work. This role works in close partnership with the Executive Director and Operations team to strengthen evaluation practices, support fundraising and grant compliance, and align healing justice programming with FCC’s broader organizational strategy.

The ideal candidate brings deep experience in restorative and transformative justice, trauma-informed practice, and survivor-centered approaches, along with strong people management and systems-building skills. This leader must be able to hold complexity—balancing care and accountability, vision and execution, and immediate community needs with long-term abolitionist goals.

Areas of Responsibility:

• Co-lead the vision, strategy, and implementation of restorative, transformative, and healing justice programs in North St. Louis and nationally, working closely with staff and the Executive Director to ensure alignment with community needs and organizational goals.
• Oversee all healing justice program staff and operations, including community-based restorative and transformative justice processes, and therapeutic healing supports, and alternative-to-incarceration referrals.
• Manage grant-related responsibilities for the healing justice program, including research and evaluation design, grant reporting, budget oversight, and supporting staff to meet grant-aligned goals.
• Ensure high-quality service delivery and strong data collection practices, with support of the Operations department, by setting clear standards, monitoring performance, and using accurate data to guide program improvement.
• Review and respond to external requests for restorative and transformative justice services, assessing FCC’s capacity.
• Serve as the primary staff representative for the City of St. Louis Office of Violence Prevention, ensuring FCC’s healing justice perspective is integrated into the city-wide approach.
• Partner with the Executive Director to build and maintain strategic relationships with system stakeholders, including prosecutors, public defenders, service providers, and other partners, to generate referrals and advance non-carceral approaches to conflict resolution and accountability.
• Lead staff in developing, strengthening, and sustaining partnerships with community stakeholders and institutions such as churches, community centers, and neighborhood organizations, with the goal of expanding access to and support for restorative and transformative justice resources.
• Supervise and support healing justice staff, providing clear expectations, regular check-ins, coaching, and performance feedback. Conduct annual evaluations with the Executive Director.
• Support staff in managing caseloads and planning and facilitating circles. Offer coaching and troubleshooting to ensure all processes reflect healing justice principles.
• Train and mentor staff to strengthen their restorative and transformative justice facilitation skills, deepen their practice, and build overall team capacity.
• Facilitate restorative and transformative justice processes as needed to ensure safety, accountability, and high-quality support for participants.
• Assist in expanding and implementing workshops and trainings for community members and facilitators connected to our RJ, TJ, and HJ programming. Co-facilitate training when needed and support staff in preparing for and leading workshops so they feel confident and equipped to run their programs successfully.
• Support staff to connect with the survivors of cases and communicate our programs.
• Represent FCC’s healing justice work at local and national convenings, webinars, and conferences, both on Zoom and in person. Participate in media interviews and engage with the press as needed, sharing our approach, lessons, and impact in a clear and authentic way.

Who You Are & Keys to Success:

Ideal candidates bring a unique cross-set of experiences and skillsets, including:

• Grounds all work in non-punitive, non-carceral approaches that prioritize community-based responses to harm. Centers safety, accountability, healing, and the transformation of the conditions that allow violence to occur.
• Practices collaborative and transparent leadership that values the wisdom and lived experience of impacted communities. Involves staff and partners in shaping strategy, planning, and decision-making.
• Builds trust through deep listening, clear communication, and consistent follow-through. Creates spaces where staff and community members feel supported, respected, and able to engage fully in healing and accountability processes.
• Strengthens organizational systems by developing clear processes, training pathways, and structures that support consistent and high-quality restorative, transformative, and healing justice programming. Ensures staff have the tools, skills, and guidance needed to manage complex facilitation and case work effectively.
• Responds flexibly to shifting community needs, political conditions, and organizational capacity while staying rooted in abolitionist values and long-term visions of community safety and liberation.
• Applies anti-oppressive and trauma-informed management approaches to support staff development and build a healthy, sustainable organizational culture. Ensures programs reflect the needs, knowledge, and leadership of directly impacted communities.

Competencies:

• Commitment to and ability to apply Black liberatory and abolitionist frameworks
• Required minimum of five (5) years of experience in healing justice, restorative justice, transformative justice, trauma-informed care, survivor or victim support, or related fields
• Preference for bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in social work, public health, law, or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience supervising and developing staff, particularly directly impacted staff
• Strong understanding of trauma, violence, accountability, and survivor-centered practice
• Experience managing programs, budgets, and grant deliverables
• Comfort holding emotional complexity and supporting others through intense and sensitive work
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Relationship and consensus building with diverse stakeholders
• A well-organized individual with high ethical standards
• A self-directed individual who is an independent thinker and a team player
• Survivors of violence, formerly incarcerated, and family members of incarcerated people strongly welcomed

Interested applicants should submit a resume and cover letter to info@freedomstl.org. In the cover letter, please address the following:

• Why do you want to work for Freedom Community Center?
• Please share 1-2 experience(s) that highlights why you would be a strong candidate for the position?

No faxes or phone calls please. Applicants will be notified regarding whether or not they have been selected for an interview. Applications without cover letters will not be processed.

The Freedom Community Center is proud to be an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and actively seeks the candidacy of people of color, women, LGBTQIA people and formerly incarcerated individuals. We are committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $90,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Vision insurance

People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply

Work Location: In person