Factor one
Getting to the core
Individual reflection and transformation. Learning about what happened to me and what I can do to heal before I do it.
Am I getting to the core of what happened?
The first scale in the nation built to measure healing from community violence
The Community's Scale for Healing Possibilities
The field had many ways to measure harm, symptoms and coping. It had no meaningful way to measure healing, as defined by the people who live it, practice it and fight for it every day. So communities built one.
Prepared by Dr. Anna Ortega-Williams, Daria Waite, Dr. Bruce Purnell, Richard Smith and Dr. Alexis Jemal. The Love More Movement is one of the seven founding community partners.
Defined by those most impacted
Healing from community violence is getting to the core of the harm and reclaiming possibilities.
Community violence is harm initiated by a person(s) and institutions against another person and a community. It is fueled by past pain, oppression and shut-down views of the future. It creates personal harm and community rupture.
Why a new scale
From measuring harm to measuring healing
Traditional trauma scales focus mainly on harmful effects, such as symptoms of PTSD. That narrow focus overlooks the language and stories of healing that live in Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian and other communities of color, where violence sits inside histories of trauma and systemic harm, and so do powerful strategies of healing.
Traditional trauma measures
The CSHP
Symptoms and the aftermath of harm
Wisdom, joy, strengths, growth and the meaning of healing
Defined by outside experts
Defined by the people engaged in healing and those directly impacted
Individual and narrow
Personal and collective, inside the context of historical trauma and structural violence
Is the program working?
What healing capacities are already present? What needs more nurturing?
How the scale works
Four dimensions of healing
36 statements, four factors, one invitation to reflect.
Factor two
Reclaiming possibilities and hope
Persisting in committing to hope; “doing hope” and believing in myself. Something is “right” with me.
Can I imagine possibilities beyond harm?
Factor three
Faith in healing
Believing healing is possible for everyone. Believing in wisdom from inside.
Is healing even a possibility for me?
Factor four
Trusting community in healing
Committing to the healing journey in community. Taking oneself and others on it.
Do I trust myself and my community in this healing process?
Healing Possibilities
Each statement is answered never, sometimes, often, or prefer not to answer. The scale captures today. Healing is ongoing.
Tested and trusted
Built with rigor, rooted in community
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the four-factor structure. The scale also tracked as hypothesized with established measures: it rose with hope and self-efficacy and fell with stress, trauma and depression.
- Cronbach's alpha: the highest category of internal consistency
- 0.9
- Split-half reliability
- 0.71
- Participants who completed the scale
- 226
- Under 25 years old
- 51%
- Statements across four factors
- 36
- Founding community partners across the U.S.
- 7
The journey of the scale
From a town hall to a national tool
Seven years of listening, building and testing, funded and accompanied by the Annie E. Casey Foundation from 2019 to 2026.
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The Town Hall
What is healing? What does it look, sound, feel and act like?
Common Justice and community and university researchers invited more than 30 people from 17 organizations across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and California to a Trauma, Healing, and Organizational Wisdom Exchange. Themes included healing in community, relationship building, healing as ancestral, love, imagining, sense of self and helping others. The scale development team emerged from that room.
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The search
No scale grounded in the lives of those most impacted
A literature review found plenty of tools for symptoms and well-being, but none measuring healing from community violence that included social justice and historical trauma, as defined by the people doing the healing.
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The partnership
Community-based organizations and universities, side by side
Seven community-based organizations, including the Love More Movement, shaped every stage: definition, item writing, revision, recruitment and analysis. The process was healing-justice informed, trauma-informed and social-justice based.
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The testing
More than 300 people reached
Partners stayed committed through one of the hardest periods in recent history. Analyses retained 36 statements across four factors with strong reliability and validity.
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The Learning Collaborative
12–15 survivor-centered organizations
Organizations from Nashville to Seattle, Sacramento to St. Louis piloted the scale, built implementation plans and explored what the results mean for healing-centered programming.
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The Guidebook
Healing should not be an afterthought
Best practices for using the scale with dignity, and two academic publications in press.
Using the scale well
Five principles for healing-centered measurement
The CSHP is more than a tool to measure outcomes. It is an invitation to reflection, conversation and recognition of personal, relational and collective growth.
01
Create a supportive space
Physically and emotionally safe, with support and a clear path to follow-up. No one should feel alone while reflecting.
02
A snapshot in time
Healing is not linear. Scores show where someone is today, never their worth or potential.
03
Keep scores in context
Structural racism, economic instability, violence and access to resources shape healing. Low scores are not failure; high scores are not completion.
04
Look for growth and possibility
Surface overlooked healing, highlight strengths and see where more support is needed. Evaluation shifts from judgment to curiosity.
05
The scale is generative
Community can be healing. Repairing relationships can be healing. Rebuilding trust can be healing.
Always
Debrief, never file away
Meaning-making transforms data into healing insight.
After the scale
Questions for meaning-making
Questions Journeyers can ask themselves, or be asked by the person guiding the scale.
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How far I've come
What does this show me about how far I've come?
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Where I am now
What does this show me about where I am right now?
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Where I want to grow
What does this show me about where I want to grow?
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What is opening
What possibilities for healing are opening for me?
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What helps
What support or action steps might help me move forward?
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You are not alone
If something comes up for you, you are not alone.
Founding community partners
The Scale Development Team
Seven community-based organizations, joined by researchers from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, Drexel University and Alignment Global.
- Common JusticeBrooklyn & The Bronx, New York
- The Love More MovementHyattsville, Maryland
- H.O.L.L.A. (How Our Lives Link Altogether)Brooklyn, New York
- Homeboy IndustriesLos Angeles, California
- The Center for Nonviolence and Social JusticePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
- Reimagining JusticePaterson, New Jersey
- M.A.D.E. InstituteFlint, Michigan
2025–2026
The Learning Collaborative
Survivor-centered organizations piloting the scale across the country, alongside the founding partners and Annie E. Casey grantees.
- Raphah InstituteNashville, Tennessee
- The Black Rose CollectiveSeattle, Washington
- Pyramid House / Brick City CandyOrange, New Jersey
- Inside CircleSacramento, California
- The HUBB Center for the Arts & TraumaNewark, New Jersey
- Darren B. Easterling Center for Restorative PracticesChicago, Illinois
- JR Halsey FoundationTrenton, New Jersey
- Freedom Community CenterSt. Louis, Missouri
- Urban GriefAlbany, New York
Learn more
Research and resources
Publications (in press)
Ortega-Williams, A., Jemal, A., Waite, D., Purnell, B., Greene, A. C., Oyeyemi, O., & Smith, R. The Community's Scale for Healing Possibilities: Participatory scale development for measuring healing from community violence. Advances in Social Work.
Jemal, A., Waite, D., Ortega-Williams, A., Purnell, B., Greene, A., Oyeyemi, O., & Smith, R. Participatory healing scale development: Exploring team dynamics, culture, and methods. In Decolonizing quantitative methods.
From the Annie E. Casey Foundation
A New Way to Measure Healing from Violence (article) · Watch the webinar
With deep gratitude to the Annie E. Casey Foundation for funding and walking alongside this work from 2019 to 2026, to Common Justice for the vision to ask the question, and to the young people whose voices shaped every part of the scale.
Toward a culture shift
Healing should not be an afterthought. It should not be invisible. It should not be unfunded.
Our hope is that the CSHP will not only be used but lived with: in ceremonies, circles, classrooms, reentry programs, youth spaces, survivor groups, recreation centers and intergenerational spaces.
Bring the CSHP to your community
Learn how to use the scale with dignity, care and context, in your Healing Station, program or agency.