Santa Sorenson
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Santa is the Founder and CEO of Healing in Community and is a certified facilitator in the following:
AVP, Alternatives to Violence Project, a curriculum for the incarcerated
HIP [Help Increase the Peace], a youth empowerment /activist program
Peer mediation
Restorative Healing Circles
Trauma, Grief and Peacemaking Circles
Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities - An African initiative for trauma-healing
She served as the Conflict Resolution Program Director, Conflict Resolution Chair and lead facilitator for the Richmond Peace Education Center for 17 years. She served as a board member for the peace center and for the Healing Justice Project, a sister of the Innocence Project, which seeks to provide support, reconciliation, and recovery in cases involving exonerations. She served as a commissioner on the Richmond Human Rights Commission.
Santa has extensive experience working with children, youth, adults, non-profits, African refugees, immigrants, veterans of war, the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated.
In 2010 Santa initiated the first trauma healing training in the U.S., HROC, Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities Program, an initiative for trauma healing. HROC is a community-based reconciliation program that addresses trauma caused by violence, war, and genocide. This curriculum was developed in Burundi and Rwanda in 2003, where she trained. She is also trained in the Eastern Mennonite University’s STAR program, Strategies in Trauma Awareness and Resilience.
In March 2020 Santa was nominated for an International Women’s Peace Award through the International Women’s Peace Group.
Santa is also a Reiki Master, retired registered nurse, wife, mother of 3 and recent Grandmother who loves to be in community, dance, cook and sit on a mountain top enjoying the view with her husband, Denny.
Santa has partnered with:
Armstrong Leadership Program
African Fellowship for Peace and Reconciliation
Chesterfield County Public Schools
Communities in Schools - Richmond Public Schools
Communities in Schools - Petersburg
Department of Juvenile Justice
Ginter Park Presbyterian Church
Goochland Correctional Center for Women
Hanover Public Schools
Henrico Public Schools
The Innerwork Center
International Rescue Committee of Richmond
Mayor's Youth Academy
Norfolk State University
Petersburgh Community in Schools
Re-Establish Richmond
Richmond Boys and Girls Club
Richmond City Jail
Richmond Peace Education Center
Richmond Public Schools
First Unitarian Universalist Church
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia State University
Women's Correctional Center in Goochland
YWCA