An Ethical Stance for Justice-Doing in Community Work and Therapy

Abstract

This writing illuminates a possible stance for an ethic of justice-doing as a frame for community work and therapy. This approach to justice-doing is offered as an imperfection project, and while incomplete and necessarily flawed, it has been helpful to groups of workers striving to practice more in line with our collective commitments for social justice. This approach is profoundly collaborative and informed by decolonizing practice and anti-oppression activism. I will describe the intentions that guide this stance, which include striving towards centering ethics, doing solidarity, addressing power, fostering collective sustainability, critically engaging with language, and structuring safety. Even an imperfect orientation towards justice-doing can open our work to transformations for ourselves, the people we work alongside, and our communities and society, and offer the potential for experiencing the social diving. This article is framed from a keynote delivered at the Winds of Change Conference held in Ottawa, Ontario in June 2012. I acknowledge the Algonquin people whose territories we met on. Finally, marcela polanco (2011), who describes her work as a therapy of solidarity, will offer a reflection on my position for an ethic of justice-doing.