Our Projects

The In Search of Peace Fund holds and supports multiple expressions of circle-based practice. Each project reflects a commitment to participant-led, community-held responses to sexual harm, shaped by context and community. Each of our projects holds space for conversation, not conclusion — building capacity to stay with what’s unresolved, together.

In Search of Peace Healing Circles

Community-rooted circle practices in Central Virginia

These circles are our local initiative grounded in abolitionist values and deep relational practice. It responds to harms that ripple through families, schools, social spaces, and local institutions. These healing circles are designed to meet the needs of those who have experienced harm, those who have caused harm, support people, and community members — sometimes in separate spaces, sometimes overlapping.

In Search of Peace Community Dialogues

Regional inquiry circles across the South on abolition and sexual harm

This namesake project invites communities across the Southern U.S. to ask — and begin to answer — the hardest questions: What do we do with sexual harm if we don’t turn to police, prisons, or forced silence? These, often larger scale, circle-based dialogues explore lived experiences, fears, longings, and possibilities — not as abstractions, but as collective openings.

The project also seeks to connect with and support practitioners, groups, and communities already engaged in these conversations — restorative and transformative justice practitioners, rape crisis and domestic violence interventionists, community organizations, and beyond —learning from local leadership, sharing resources, and building interdependence across regions.

If we can learn to talk about these harms without defaulting to punishment, we can accelerate our ability to build a world where prisons are no longer required.