Community Violence and Transformative Justice

We are a group of students committed to instigating conversations at Downstate Medical Center and King’s County Hospital to critically analyze our role in the gentrification of Flatbush, the hospital as a site of healing and violence, and the structural inequalities that underlie the health disparities we observe on a daily basis. We also believe that our hospital system and school can be moved towards greater and radical community accountability.  We are organizing a student-led, community-facing social justice conference.  

We believe that a social justice conference set at SUNY Downstate is essential because we are the only academic medical center in Brooklyn, and unlike other private medical schools, structural violence directly affects the physical, mental and spiritual health of all of our patients. We believe that communities inspire and drive the most radical transformations, and we feel bringing the perspectives of your organization to our school is essential to driving change in our school, hospital and community. 

The theme for this year’s conference is Violence and Transformative Justice. 

The goals of the conference are:

1. To foster conversations on creating sustainable, actionable, and community-based solutions.

2. To understand how violence and trauma manifest in Brooklyn communities in particular for people who are black and brown, low income/poor, LGBTQ+, femme, disabled, and/or immigrants.

3. To work towards alternatives to mass incarceration and towards dismantling the prison system.

4. To understand the role of healing and violence in healthcare.