By Iris Garcia, former Program Officer at Akonadi Foundation, and current Program Officer at Kataly Foundation
When I joined Akonadi Foundation in 2015, what drew me in was its clarity. Akonadi was the first foundation I encountered that was unapologetic about its mission to end structural racism. Before that, I had worked in the transnational feminist space, and even within that movement, race and class weren’t always centered. Akonadi was different. Its analysis of systemic racism was crystal clear, and it inspired me deeply.
Equally powerful was Akonadi’s commitment to Oakland. Doing place-based work meant something at the Foundation. I could walk outside, see the very communities we were funding, and feel that closeness and accountability. That shifted everything – what people were willing to share, how trust was built, and what was possible in partnership.
Discovering Healing Justice
When I arrived, I didn’t yet have language for healing justice. I came in hungry to learn how the foundation incorporated healing into racial justice work, and the summer of 2016 was a turning point in that journey.
When police murdered Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, Akonadi staff reached out to grantee partners to ask what was needed. They told me two things: we need to heal from racial trauma collectively, and we need ways to create safety that don’t rely on police. That was the first time I saw a movement-wide recognition that acknowledged the importance of healing justice for our communities, not just a few, but all of us.
Akonadi responded by resourcing the community directly. We provided small grants to aunties, uncles, and culture bearers who were already doing the work. These were people the community knew to turn to in crisis. For many, this was their first time receiving foundation support. Some used somatic practices, others drew on Indigenous or African traditions. One of our grantees, the East Bay Meditation Center, expanded its mindfulness practices deeply rooted in equity.
As Akonadi’s work deepened, healing justice became more than a grantmaking strategy. It became a political and movement-building practice.
In one healing justice convening, a practitioner offered me a limpia, a spiritual cleansing ritual originating from Mexico used to remove negative energy, emotional blockages, and bad luck from the mind, body, and spirit. It was a reminder that this work wasn’t just for grantees; it was for us, too. Akonadi gave me permission to begin my own healing journey.
Building a Healing Justice Strategy
As Akonadi’s work deepened, healing justice became more than a grantmaking strategy. It became a political and movement-building practice. We integrated healing into initiatives like the Arc Toward Justice Fund, which supported efforts to end the criminalization of Black and Brown youth. We emphasized healing through the Beloved Community Fund, investing in artists and healers, and through So Love Can Win, a grassroots effort to fund collective healing around racial trauma. We also expanded All in for Oakland, investing beyond operational support grants and providing additional support for healing and wellness for organizational and staff development.
Grantee partners like Love Not Blood Campaign, BE Imaginative, and youth justice organizations such as CURYJ, Urban Peace Movement, and Young Women’s Freedom Center showed us what healing justice looked like in practice—altars at protests, grief rituals for families who had lost children to violence, parties at Lake Merritt where young people reclaimed joy and belonging. Healing was always present in the organizing.
And inside Akonadi, we tried to practice what we preached. Healing justice wasn’t only about what we funded. It was about how we worked together as a staff. Our relationships were loving, accountable, and rooted in care. That mattered because it allowed us to show up with clarity and integrity for our grantees.
Akonadi’s love for Oakland has always been palpable. It vibrates through every grant, every convening, every relationship. It shaped me as much as I hope I contributed to shaping it. I see Oakland in a different way because of Akonadi – a town brimming with brilliance, dedication, knowledge, creativity, and healers, and what a gift it is to see community in this way!
Love for Oakland, Clarity for the Field
Looking back, I see Akonadi’s clarity and courage as its greatest legacy. Long before healing justice became a philanthropic buzzword, Akonadi recognized it as essential to racial justice. The foundation resourced it, learned from the community, and integrated it into everything, from grantmaking portfolios to internal practices.
Healing justice is how we practice the future we long for. It’s how we build movements that endure. And for me, Akonadi will always be the place where I first understood that.
Akonadi’s love for Oakland has always been palpable. It vibrates through every grant, every convening, every relationship. It shaped me as much as I hope I contributed to shaping it. I see Oakland in a different way because of Akonadi – a town brimming with brilliance, dedication, knowledge, creativity, and healers, and what a gift it is to see community in this way!
As philanthropy looks ahead, my hope is that funders invest in healing justice not as a project, but as movement infrastructure. Study with the lineage holders. Listen to community. Offer multi-year general operating support. Allow yourselves to be transformed by the work.
Healing justice is how we practice the future we long for. It’s how we build movements that endure. And for me, Akonadi will always be the place where I first understood that.
