The Wound is Where the Gifts Lie: Healing with Aqeela Sherrills

EPISODE 01:

In the premiere episode, Richard Smith talks all things healing with activist and childhood sexual abuse survivor, Aqeela Sherrills. 

Aqeela Sherrills is the Founder and leader of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective, which advises and trains local public safety organizations in the methodologies that he has found most effective in helping communities reduce and prevent violence, as well as helping victims heal. This work builds on his work with The Newark Community Street Team (NCST) community-based violence reduction initiative which he co-created and directed at the request of Newark, NJ’s Mayor Ras Baraka in 2014. In the five years Aqeela led NCST, Newark homicide rate went from 104 in 2015 to 51 in 2019.

This podcast is produced in partnership with MenHealing, a national nonprofit dedicated to providing accessible help, resources and community for male and male-identifying survivors of sexual victimization. Our aim is to heal, inspire and help break isolation for survivors.

Follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter  and visit their YouTube Channel  to witness powerful survivor stories and other shame-busting advocacy videos.

JUST HEALING host, Richard Smith, is a nationally recognized expert on trauma and healing for survivors of interpersonal and systemic violence. He has over two decades of experience developing and leading community-based programs, helping organizations throughout the country build their capacity to heal and empower BIPOC folks and marginalized communities. He is the founder and lead strategist and anti-racism educator for Richard Smith Speaks LLC.

Learn more about his work by visiting www.richardspeaks.com and follow him on Instagram @rsspeaks

Special shoutout to H.O.L.L.A! & The Youth Organizing Collective for providing their powerful song Share Your Story from their album The Report Back