LEAN on Healing
with Healing on Purpose
A community-rooted initiative supporting survivors of violent trauma through healing practices, holistic resources, and research-based care.
Mission
LEAN on Healing with Healing on Purpose redefines healing by creating environments where individuals and families can connect, grow, and thrive together.
Together, we create safe spaces for support, understanding, and love.
A Deeper Look
LEAN on Healing with Healing on Purpose creates spaces for growth, connection, and support—meeting people where they are. Healing isn’t linear, but with time, intention, and community, survivors find room to reflect, reconnect, and heal together.
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Through the 5-Step “LEAN Toward Healing” framework, participants explore emotional processing, coping skills, family-centered healing, and long-term support strategies. Weekly sessions include guided discussions, reflective activities, and practical exercises to apply new skills to daily life.
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LOHwHOP facilitates programs like Hear to Heal, addressing gun violence, grief, and intergenerational trauma through healing circles, and The Journey Home, which supports reentry, grief, and transition. These spaces are culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and designed to meet people where they are.
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Recognizing that healing can’t happen in survival mode, LOHwHOP partners with local organizations to connect participants to community resources and provides direct support—such as groceries, toiletries, and essential supplies—so families don’t have to choose between surviving and healing.
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LOHwHOP offers emotional wellness programs for individuals and families impacted by trauma, incarceration, addiction, violence, homelessness, and systemic challenges. Each 12-week cycle provides tools for reflection, connection, and emotional growth—centering the belief that healing is not linear but can be nurtured through time, intention, and community.
With trusted partnerships at Urban Alliance and The Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, this organization shares:
Healing isn’t linear.
It’s a journey we can do together.
Our People
Lena Shorter co-founded LEAN on Healing with Healing on Purpose with a trusted voice and steady commitment to breaking cycles of generational trauma. She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work and has contributed her skills to organizations such as Bent Not Broken, Family and Children Services, and Lakeside Academy. Grounded in both professional training and lived experience as a survivor and parent, Lena emphasizes culturally relevant, family-centered approaches to healing. Through this project, she creates supportive spaces where individuals and families — especially those most impacted by violence and incarceration — can reconnect with their communities and themselves.
Alisa Watkins-Monroe brings both personal insight and nearly two decades of community work to her leadership as the cofounder of LEAN on Healing with Healing on Purpose. She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and has served in roles with Kalamazoo Public Schools as well as direct support for individuals navigating incarceration and reentry — work she has carried with deep care. A young parent herself when systems of care were limited, Alisa draws from that lived experience as she helps facilitate this projects’s healing programs, ensuring survivors and families have access to trauma-informed practices, flexible resources, and the collective support needed to thrive.
Fuel the Mission
Support LEAN on Healing with Healing on Purpose by donating or getting in touch below.
