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Transformative Justice Handbook

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Read and download our foundational document, Toward Transformative Justice ('07),
as well as the Transformative Justice Handbook ('17), available in three languages:

Transformative Justice Handbook (English, PDF)

Manual de Justicia Transformativa (Español, 11.3MB PDF)

Manual de Justícia Transformative (Català, 11.3MB PDF)

Toward Transformative Justice (PDF)

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Read and download our foundational document, Toward Transformative Justice ('07), as well as the Transformative Justice Handbook ('17), available in three languages: Transformative Justice Handbook (English, PDF) Manual de Justicia Transformativa (Español, 11.3MB PDF) Manual de Justícia Transformative (Català, 11.3MB PDF) Toward Transformative Justice (PDF)

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NH 2021 _ Analyzing the Root Causes of Human Trafficking 

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Emotional Abuse In Intimate Relationships

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Emotional Abuse In Intimate Relationships

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Steps to End Prisons & Policing: A Mixtape on Transformative Justice

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Steps to End Prisons & Policing: A Mixtape on Transformative Justice

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Just Practice Collaborative created this Mixtape as an offering in response to the overwhelming number of requests we are getting for training, workshops and support. We want to nourish and care for our abolitionist community with as many resources as we can provide right now.

Learn from some of the people who have been practicing and thinking about and creating organizations around Transformative Justice over the last two decades.

This collection of 9 (!) recorded video workshops or webinars are each between 45-90 minutes long and contain valuable frameworks, real life examples and tools you can use to help strengthen your personal practice and political commitment to this moment.

All tracks have closed captioning.

Get access to the complete package for just $100. We know! It's hard to believe that we're offering this much for so little but we want to make this resource as accessible as we can.

The Mixtape Includes:

1. Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) 101: A Vision to End Prisons, Policing & Surveillance- Mariame Kaba

2. Transformative Justice Intro- Mia Mingus

3. Healing Justice: A Political Strategy for Movements- Cara Page & Erica Woodland

4. Creating Safety Teams and Making Spaces Safer- Ejeris Dixon

5. Mad World: Psychiatry, Abolition, and New Horizons- Elliot Fukui

6. How to Support Survivors Who Seek to Hold Harm-Doers Accountable Without Engaging the Police or the State- Shira Hassan & Ejeris Dixon

7. From Rapid Response to Transformative Justice Processes: Some Basics You Should Know- - Mimi Kim

8. There is no Transformative Justice without Harm Reduction - Shira Hassan

9. The Four Parts of Accountability & How to Apologize- Mia Mingus

From Rapid Response to Transformative Justice Processes: Some Basics You Should Know
While there is no one-size-fit all for transformative justice, there are some basics that are important to know. Drawing upon the Creative Interventions Toolkit and lessons from transformative justice gone wrong and right, this serves to highlight some basic tips and guidelines that can help make sense of the complex realities of interpersonal violence. From rapid response to transformative justice processes -- without the cops or services -- this can confirm good practices, remind you of things to look out for -- and offer some fresh perspectives that may help you build knowledge and skills to live transformative justice, do transformative justice and build transformative justice.

The MixTape will drop August 2020

*Note: Money raised from the Mixtape series goes to closed captioning, compensation for the presenters and donations to BIPOC run organizations/formations who have a history of working on Transformative Justice in Chicago, IL.

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Steps to End Prisons & Policing: A Mix Tape on Transformative Justice - Just Practice

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Just Practice Collaborative created this Mixtape as an offering in response to the overwhelming number of requests we are getting for training, workshops and support. We want to nourish and care for our abolitionist community with as many resources as we can provide right now.

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Migration and sex work is not trafficking

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Migration and sex work is not trafficking

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BEHIND THE RESCUE: How Anti-Trafficking Investigations and Policies Harm Migrant Sex Workers

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BEHIND THE RESCUE: How Anti-Trafficking Investigations and Policies Harm Migrant Sex Workers

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The BEAM Healing & Accountability Wheel draws on the work of previous wheels to serve as a guide on how to build loving relationships.

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Webinar: Prison Is Abuse: Understanding Prisons, Abuse of Power, and Control

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Webinar: Prison Is Abuse: Understanding Prisons, Abuse of Power, and Control

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Prison Is Abuse: Understanding Prisons, Abuse of Power, and Control

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2021 Know Your Rights At Work - Washington State

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2021 Know Your Rights At Work - Washington State

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2021 KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AT WORK

We are currently running regular Know Your Rights livestreams on our Facebook page. Visit us on Facebook and give us a like to get notified of when we're going live so you know what your rights at work are and what to do when they are violated. // Actualmente estamos ofreciendo talleres de derechos laborales en nuestra página de Facebook. Visitenos en Facebook y danos un "me gusta" para estar al tanto de estos eventos en vivo y para aprender de los derechos laborales y lo que hacer si su empleador no está respetandolos.

You can also learn more about your rights at work right now by clicking on any of the topics below. // También puede aprender ahora de los varios derechos laborales que usted tiene. Haga clic en cualquiera tema abajo para leer más sobre tus derechos.

Your Rights in Washington State // Tus Derechos en el estado de Washington

Your Rights in Seattle // Tus Derechos en Seattle

Click on one of the images below to download a pamphlet about your rights at work. The version on the left includes information in English and Spanish for workers statewide. The version on the right includes additional information on the higher workplace standards for workers in Seattle.

2019 KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AT WORK

Check out your Top 6 Rights in Under 60 Seconds!

Click on the images below to open our 2019 Know Your Rights brochures in various languages (Amharic, English, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, and Vietnamese). These PDFs contain some of your basic rights at work that are unique to Washington, Seattle, SeaTac, and Tacoma.

If you have any questions about your rights or concerns about any issues on at your job, or if you would like to set up a Know Your Rights training for you or your organization, contact us.

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2021 KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AT WORK We are currently running regular Know Your Rights livestreams on our Facebook page. Visit us on Facebook and give us a like to get notified of when we're going live so you know what your rights at work are and what to do when they are violated.

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Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence

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Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence

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Creative Interventions | Resources for Everyday People to End Violence

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Welcome to the website for Creative Interventions! This website will feature useful tools, links and other information to help anyone and everyone create collective responses to interpersonal violence.

Current activities focus on building capacity for grassroots social justice organizations and supporting domestic violence and sexual assault organizations to make community-based, transformative justice and community accountability interventions a real option. Look out for trainings, post your trainings and share resources across our communities. Visit Creative Interventions facebook for more information on events.
Toolkit - Final Version Now Available

Our Final Version of Creative Interventions Toolkit: An Invitation and Practical Guide for Everyone to Stop Violence is now available!

StoryTelling & Organizing Project (STOP)

To hear and read stories from everyday people who have taken courageous and creative action to end violence, see the StoryTelling & Organizing Project (STOP) website at www.stopviolenceeveryday.org.

Our thanks to graphic designer: Tommy Wong

Website construction by Michael Waters at Studio 678

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Welcome to the website for Creative Interventions! This website will feature useful tools, links and other information to help anyone and everyone create collective responses to interpersonal violence. Current activities focus on building capacity for grassroots social justice organizations and supporting domestic violence and sexual assault organizations to make community-based, transformative justice and community accountability interventions a real option.

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Healing & Accountability Wheel Activity Guide

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Healing & Accountability Wheel Activity Guide

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These videos were conceived by Mariame Kaba and narrated by CeCe McDonald.
Directed and produced by Dean Spade and Hope Dector. Audio editing by Lewis Wallace.
​Created by the Barnard Center for Research on Women and Survived & Punished.

Learn more about the making of these videos.

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These videos were conceived by Mariame Kaba and narrated by CeCe McDonald. Directed and produced by Dean Spade and Hope Dector. Audio editing by Lewis Wallace. ​Created by the Barnard Center for Research on Women and Survived & Punished. Learn more about the making of these videos.

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Webinar - Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) Abolition 101

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Webinar - Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) Abolition 101

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Centering the Needs of Survivors (Part 1)

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Centering the Needs of Survivors (Part 1)

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Centering the Needs of Survivors (Part 1)

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What does justice look like for survivors?

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What does justice look like for survivors?

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What Does Justice Look Like for Survivors?

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Beyond the Wheel: Domestic Violence in LGBTQ Communities

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Beyond the Wheel: Domestic Violence in LGBTQ Communities

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Beyond the Wheel: Domestic Violence in LGBTQ Communities (4/7/20)_3

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Beyond the Wheel: Domestic Violence in LGBTQ Communities (4/7/20)_3

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It Takes a Village, People! (Especially in a Pandemic)

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It Takes a Village, People! (Especially in a Pandemic)

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Join us for a webinar that will discuss strategies for supporting survivors to experience less isolation, build stronger social connectedness and increase safety, even while they are isolated in their homes with their abuser. We will walk participants through the It Takes A Village People Toolkit and collectively brainstorm strategies for supporting survivors through this unprecedented crisis.

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It Takes a Village, People! (Especially in a Pandemic)_3

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It Takes a Village, People! (Especially in a Pandemic)_3

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Who Will Help Me? Domestic Violence Survivors Speak Out About Law Enforcement Responses

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Who Will Help Me? Domestic Violence Survivors Speak Out About Law Enforcement Responses

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How do we prevent and stop violence and harm without creating more violence and harm? How do we transform a society in which harm is endemic to build a culture where violence becomes unthinkable? How can small everyday acts of accountability and relationship building lead to a broad cultural shift away from harm? In this video, practitioners define the scope and potential of transformative justice.

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Everyday Practices of Transformative Justice

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Everyday Practices of Transformative Justice

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Transformative justice is a vision and framework for preventing, intervening in, and transforming harm. There are a number of different practices that fall under that broader framework. In this video, longtime practitioners of restorative and transformative justice discuss the everyday skills that we need to develop to reduce violence and to address harm.

Proactively mediating conflicts among friends and family, learning to give good apologies, negotiating healthy boundaries, and developing active listening skills all contribute to increasing our self-efficacy for preventing and intervening in harm. These skills are building blocks for lessening conflict and harm and provide a foundation for building towards an abolitionist horizon.

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Everyday Practices of Transformative Justice

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Transformative Justice in the Era of #DefundPolice​

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Transformative Justice in the Era of #DefundPolice​

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Transformative Justice in the Era of #DefundPolice

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Police Abolition 101: Messages When Facing Doubts

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Police Abolition 101: Messages When Facing Doubts

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Police Abolition 101 is a collaborative zine based on material by MPD 150 (https://www.mpd150.com) and on a report titled "What's Next?" edi... See More

Police Abolition 101 is a collaborative zine based on material by MPD 150 (https://www.mpd150.com) and on a report titled "What's Next?" edi... See More

Connecting content to people.

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Police Abolition 101: Messages When Facing Doubts

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Police Abolition 101 is a collaborative zine based on material by MPD 150 (https://www.mpd150.com) and on a report titled "What's Next?" edited by Interrupting Criminalization and Project NIA. It was illustrated and designed by Noah Jodice (https://noahjodice.com/). You can find the "What's Next? Safer and More Just Communities Without Policing" report here: https://bit.ly/WhatsNextIC3.

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Building Accountable Communities

What do we mean when we talk about transformative justice and accountability? What does a survivor-centered response look like in practice? How can we support those who have caused harm without defaulting to punishment? What does real accountability look like? What has worked, and what obstacles have organizers and community members faced in building this difficult and necessary practice?
Created with Project NIA, these videos are part of the Building Accountable Communities Project, promoting non-punitive responses to harm by developing resources for transformative justice practitioners and organizing convenings and workshops that educate the public.

As the ongoing worldwide protests against police violence so vividly demonstrate, there is an increasing demand to end policing and develop real strategies for keeping each other safe. On October 21, 2020 longtime anti-violence organizers and transformative justice practitioners Shira Hassan and Mimi Kim joined us for a conversation about the history and development of transformative justice, its importance in current movements towards liberation, and everyday practices.

In response to heightened levels of abuse and violence experienced by people with disabilities, disability justice organizers have developed tremendous knowledge and creative approaches to care, safety, and preventing and stopping violence without relying on the state. How do disability justice strategies and knowledge inform transformative justice practices? How are disability justice and transformative justice interconnected? On April 10, 2020, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Elliott Fukui joined us for an online conversation about the intersections of disability justice and transformative justice.

On October 25, 2019, anti-violence and transformative justice organizers Nastassja "Stas" Schmiedt and A. Lea Roth joined Mariame Kaba for an online discussion about supporting harm doers in being accountable, shame and other obstacles to accountability, and the roles of consent and conflict in practicing transformative justice.

Accountability is a familiar buzz-word in contemporary social movements, but what does it mean? How do we work toward it? In this series of four short videos, anti-violence activists Kiyomi Fujikawa and Shannon Perez-Darby ask and explore: What does it look like to be accountable to survivors without exiling or disposing those who do harm? On October 26, 2018, Kiyomi and Shannon joined Mariame Kaba for the first online discussion in the Building Accountable Communities series.

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Building Accountable Communities | Barnard Center for Research on Women

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Building Accountable Communities What do we mean when we talk about transformative justice and accountability? What does a survivor-centered response look like in practice? How can we support those who have caused harm without defaulting to punishment? What does real accountability look like?

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Building Accountable Communities  // Part 2

Accountability is a familiar buzz-word in contemporary social movements, but what does it mean? How do we work toward it? In this series of four short videos, anti-violence activists Kiyomi Fujikawa and Shannon Perez-Darby ask and explore: What does it look like to be accountable to survivors without exiling or disposing those who do harm?

On October 26, 2018, Kiyomi and Shannon will join us for an online discussion exploring models of building accountable communities. This conversation will be framed by audience questions and moderated by Mariame Kaba. Learn more about the event, join the conversation, and watch the full series of videos on on bcrw.barnard.edu.

Conversation created by Kiyomi Fujikawa and Shannon Perez-Darby. Filmed by Christina Antonakos-Wallace. Videos edited by Dean Spade and Hope Dector. Part of a series of workshops and videos on community accountability and transformative justice; conceived by Mariame Kaba, Just Practice Collaborative, and Project NIA.

Additional Resources:
The NorthWest Network of Bi, Trans, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse
http://nwnetwork.org

Shannon Perez-Darby: “The Secret Joy of Self Accountability”
Connie Burk: “Think. Re-Think: Accountable Communities”
From: The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Partner Violence in Activist Communities (AK PRESS, eds. Chen, Dulani and Piepzna-Samarasinha)

Ending Child Sexual Abuse: A Transformative Justice Handbook
http://generationfive.org/the-issue/transformative-justice/

Creative Interventions Toolkit 
http://creative-interventions.org

Just Practice 
http://shirahassan.com/about-just-practice

Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective 
http://batjc.wordpress.com

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How to Support Harm Doers in Being Accountable

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How to Support Harm Doers in Being Accountable

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How to Support Harm Doers in Being Accountable

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Featuring adrienne marie brown, Stas Schmiedt, Lea Roth, Mimi Kim, RJ Maccani, Priya Rai, Mia Mingus, Martina Kartman, Elliott Fukui, Sonya Shah, Rachel Herzing, Shira Hassan, and Ann Russo.

Join us for an online discussion on Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4pm EST:
http://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/transforming-harm-experiments-in-accountability/

Transformative justice practitioners understand that taking accountability is an active process. It involves harm doers choosing to be responsible for their behavior and actions. Therefore, how can we support people who cause harm in taking accountability for their actions? 

In this video, people with years of experience facilitating processes between survivors of harm and people who have caused harmed talk about what it really takes for people to embrace  accountability.

This video is part of the Building Accountable Communities video series. The Building Accountable Communities Project promotes non-punitive responses to harm by developing resources for transformative justice practitioners and organizing convenings and workshops that educate the public.

Created by Project Nia and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Video produced by Mariame Kaba, Dean Spade, and Hope Dector.

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Featuring Sonya Shah, nuri nusrat, Mimi Kim, Ann Russo, Esteban Kelly, adrienne marie brown, Rachel Herzing, Stas Schmiedt, Lea Roth, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Mia Mingus

Join us for an online discussion on Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4pm EST:
http://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/transforming-harm-experiments-in-accountability/

Because human beings will inevitably harm each other, we need to develop responses that address the needs engendered by these harms. Often, we rely on punishment as the consequence to harms. However, as criminalization has expanded, many are rethinking punishment and calling instead for accountability. What does that mean? Accountability is, as Connie Burk of the Northwest Network explains it, “an internal resource for recognizing and redressing the harms we have caused to ourselves and others.” It is a practice rather than an end. It is a continuous process rather than just an individual act. 

In this video, people with years of experience facilitating transformative, restorative, and community accountability processes between survivors of harm and people who have done harm talk frankly about what gets in the way of accountability.

This video is part of the Building Accountable Communities video series. The Building Accountable Communities Project promotes non-punitive responses to harm by developing resources for transformative justice practitioners and organizing convenings and workshops that educate the public.

Created by Project Nia and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Video produced by Mariame Kaba, Dean Spade, and Hope Dector.

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TransformHarm.org - a resource hub about ending violence

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TransformHarm.org - a resource hub about ending violence

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TransformHarm.org | A Resource Hub For Ending Violence

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TransformHarm.org is a resource hub for ending violence. It offers an introduction to transformative justice. You can use what is here, and submit recommendations.

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10 Strategies for Cultivating Community Accountability

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10 Strategies for Cultivating Community Accountability

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I am thrilled today to publish this essay by my friend, Dr. Ann Russo. Ann is a professor in the gender and women's studies program at Depaul University. She was formerly the director of that program and has now founded a new project called "Building Communities, Ending Violence" at Depaul. "Building Communities" uses peacemaking circles and safety labs to address violence. I've been lucky to publish another essay by Ann titled " Violence, Healing and Justice here. Ann is currently writing a book about community accountability and transformative justice. I am so excited about it that I can barely hold it in. Stay tuned for that book when it is done!

10 Strategies for Cultivating Community Accountability
by Ann Russo

My commitment to prison abolition grows daily in part because I see the possibilities for responding to abuse and violence without relying on punishment, shame, and more violence. The possibilities lie in building communities where community members - be they friends, family members, coworkers, or neighbors - rely on one another to heal, intervene, to take accountability, and to transform abuse and violence. That's the essence of community accountability as envisioned by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence and Creative Interventions.

Community accountability can be creating communal support for those impacted, and/or collectively interrupting, challenging, stopping, and shifting abusive behavior and the underlying systems that support it. The key is working collectively in community rather than relying on external authorities and systems of oppression. It is not a formulaic set of responses, but grows organically in relation to the specific people and relationships involved. And like transformative justice, it seeks to address the underlying power systems that ultimately form the root causes of violence.

I work with the Building Communities, Ending Violence project based at DePaul University. We create spaces to build skills and expand our imaginations for community accountability and transformative justice. We engage in peace circles to build community, share stories of resilience and resistance, and create support and accountability. We create strategy sessions to brainstorm, imagine, and practice communal responses to everyday violations. And we use creative arts for communal healing and transformation.Here are 10 strategies we use to build skills and capacity for community accountability:

1. Shift from "what can I do" to "what can we do?" When faced with abuse and/or violence, people often are not sure what to do. Instead of feeling the burden of responding solely on our own, gather with others connected to the situation - family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, peers, etc. Recognize that each of us is impacted by the abuse/violence whether we are directly involved or not and that collectively our experience, knowledge, and skills could shift the situation. Together we can commiserate, analyze, strategize, and take action.

With a "we", energy shifts and possibilities multiply - more support, ideas, and capacity. Each person has a unique role to play to shift any situation - some might be in a good position to support the person harmed, whereas others might be in a better position to cultivate accountability with the person causing the harm. Some might have material resources to offer, others might organize community support, and still others might offer perspectives on the underlying roots of the violence. With more people, any situation can shift toward healing, accountability, and transformation.

2. Strengthen communication skills. I've been in many groups that have fallen apart over conflicts connected to abuse and violence. We often did not have the skills to address the problems nor shift the dynamics. And because the problems were not addressed from the beginning, they deepened. Fear of conflict prevents intervention-we talk ourselves out of it, rationalize it, and decide to ignore it.

Making a commitment with people in our families, peer groups, and organizations to practice direct communication about everyday conflicts can create a solid ground for addressing more egregious behavior. Being open, honest, and direct about how we experience and witness one another's behavior can prevent the escalation of abusive power relations, and can create more just relationships within our communities.

3. Practice Collective Support. Rather than think about support as something you individually provide to someone else, think about support as something that is collectively created. Build supportive community by gathering in circle to share stories, struggles, resources, strategies for resistance and resilience.

The Building Communities project shifted Take Back the Night at DePaul from a Speak Out to Support Circles a few years ago. Rather than individuals speaking in front of audiences, people gathered in small circles to share stories of trauma, resilience, resistance and self-care. All had a chance to tell our stories - whether we identified as someone who had experienced violence, witnessed it, or been impacted by it. At the end of the event, rather than feeling the collective trauma of each other's stories, participants left feeling like part of a supportive community that each of us could contribute to, and hopeful about the possibilities for support, change, and transformation.

4. Share relationship experiences and resources. Create intentional spaces to share the ins and outs of relationships. When we invest in each other's relationships, we are inclined to take accountability for support and intervention when problems arise. The potential for someone to isolate someone else for abuse becomes much more unlikely in such a community.

A few years ago, when a friend was struggling in an abusive relationship, a group of friends gathered to support her, and one another. We realized that the abusive treatment of our friend had impacted our relationship with her and with each other. Rather than trying to get her to leave or stay, or to label it abusive which she was reluctant to do, we created a collective space for connection and support. Using a circle process, we shared our own stories of relationships, those that felt more beautiful and loving as well as those that included emotional, physical and sexual violence. No one became the expert or judge of her or anyone else. Instead of lectures and advice, we told stories and commiserated. As a result, our friend talked about her relationship and her hopes for the future without the pressure of feeling forced into a decision. Our friendships deepened, rather than became more isolated and separate in response to the situation. And we agreed that whatever the future held, we would be in it together, not alone.

5. Build shared vocabulary. Create spaces to build shared language on what positive, loving, and caring relationships look and feel like as well as those with mistreatment, abuse, and violence. Often the terms we use - domestic violence, rape, stalking - call up legalistic definitions that require definitive lines of demarcation. They make it hard to talk about the everyday messy ways that mistreatment and abuse live out in our minds, bodies, and hearts.

Creating a shared vocabulary can shift us from debating whether an experience is "bad enough" to constitute abuse, for example, to being able to address negative behaviors without having to fit into the state's definition. As a result, we don't wait until it escalates to a more threatening level before addressing it. For instance, there are times when rather than using the term "domestic violence", my friends name dynamics of possessiveness, jealousy, manipulation, and isolation as worth addressing early on in relationships.

6. Practice taking accountability. If taking accountability for harm became a daily practice, rather than solely something that we demand of others in egregious situations, then taking accountability would be less fraught with guilt, shame, defensiveness, punishment, and retaliation. It would create more compassion for one another when we make mistakes, when we speak and act in harmful and oppressive ways (intentionally or unintentionally), and/or contribute to harm in some way. And it would make it easier to admit wrongdoing.

When I have hurt my friends and/or loved ones, I too have suffered and felt isolated. It helps immensely to have a space to talk with others to gain understanding and to figure out ways to make things right. There are few spaces to talk about the harms we've caused and the systems of oppression in which we've been complicit. Mostly it seems that when confronted, we try to prove that we are not responsible - to prove our "innocence." Or we try to blame others, or to claim that we are the real victims. Making it a practice of taking accountability and creating a supportive space where we can talk about our actions and/or complicity would go a long way toward creating more justice in our everyday interactions.

7. Create Space to Create Concrete Accountability Steps. In this society, accountability is often synonymous with punishment, shame and/or retaliatory harm. What if it became synonymous with taking responsibility for harm, making things right, being willing to understand, change and transform the harmful behavior and its underlying motivations. What would accountability look and feel like then?

It's a great practice to gather together to brainstorm concrete action steps we might imagine for taking accountability for harm. In the Strategy Sessions of Building Communities, some common accountability action steps for abuse in intimate relationships are: taking responsibility for the destructive and painful impact of abuse, stopping the behavior, respecting the wants and needs of the person being hurt (including separation, ending the relationship, request for no contact, etc), getting support to address underlying issues (for example, mental health and/or substance abuse issues), learning about abusive behavior and its impact, and being willing to check in with community members about accountability steps. And through role-plays, we practice what it might look like for friends or family to communicate these action steps to one another. This builds our skills and capacity for building accountability into our relationships.

8. Practice everyday interventions. Practice shifting our core reactions when we witness small and large-scale violations. Our core reactions may be to fight back, to flee the scene, or to freeze and feel immobilized. All of us have stories of when we have regretted our core reaction to witnessing abuse and/or violence. We may have overlooked it, minimized it, felt helpless in the face of it, and/or responded aggressively and made the situation worse.

Shifting our core reactions requires skills and practice. Building Communities creates spaces to share stories of small-scale violations where we wanted to respond differently where we then collectively imagine and practice alternative responses. Role-playing these responses builds skills and expands our capacity for interrupting, disrupting, and/or responding to violence. A couple of years ago, after participating in BCEV, a student intervened in an evolving bar fight. After an initial flee reaction, he decided get a few of his friends to help him and they de-escalated the fight by diverting people's attention away from one another toward addressing something on the television screen. This distraction shifted the energy within the group and the fight ended.

9. Create Collective Analysis and Action on the Roots of Violence. Often we respond to oppressive behavior as if it's located within the individual, rather than it being linked to broader systems. Understanding the social roots of violence makes us aware that the problem is larger than any individual and that we are all implicated in the structures that cause the problems. This provides us with the ability and responsibility to work toward transforming the roots.

For example, when a friend was being harassed and stalked by an ex-partner who had been emotionally and verbally abusive, a group of us discussed the roots of his behavior and the obstacles for intervention. We recognized that many people may view the ex-partner's behavior as a private personal problem, even common to heterosexual relationships, because these relationships are structured by patriarchy and capitalism. And that many may not recognize it as immediately threatening because there was no physical violence, and so may minimize the risks. Steps to dismantling these roots might include making our intimate relationships open to communal conversation (e.g., Far Out), building critical consciousness about the impact of sexism and misogyny on relationship dynamics, and expanding our understanding of the violence of emotional and verbal abuse.

10. Practice, Practice, Practice: To me the possibilities for cultivating accountability within our communities are endless - but what it takes is building skills through practice. With practice, we are more prepared with ideas for intervention. Most importantly, an emphasis on practice reminds us that it may not always turn out, it will more than likely be messy, and there's no one answer . . . and yet it's through the experience of trying it out that we learn what's possible.

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Prison Culture " Guest Post: Strategies for Cultivating Community Accountability by Ann Russo

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I am thrilled today to publish this essay by my friend, Dr. Ann Russo. Ann is a professor in the gender and women's studies program at Depaul University. She was formerly the director of that program and has now founded a new project called "Building Communities, Ending Violence" at Depaul.

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Building a Police-Free Future: Frequently-Asked Questions

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Building a Police-Free Future: Frequently-Asked Questions

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Crime isn't random. Most of the time, it happens when someone has been unable to meet their basic needs through other means. By shifting money away from the police and toward services that actually meet those needs, we'll be able to get to a place where people won't need to rob banks.

Sure, in this long transition process, we may need a small specialized class of public servants whose job it is to respond to violent crimes. But part of what we're talking about here is what role police play in our society. Right now, cops don't just respond to violent crimes; they make needless traffic stops, arrest petty drug users, and engage in a wide range of "broken windows policing" behaviors that only serve to keep more people under the thumb of the criminal justice system.

Even people who support the police agree: we ask cops to solve too many of our problems. As former Dallas Police Chief David Brown said: "We're asking cops to do too much in this country... Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it... Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem; let's have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let's give it to the cops... That's too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems."

To really "fight crime," we don't need more cops; we need more jobs, more educational opportunities, more arts programs, more community centers, more mental health resources, and more of a say in how our own communities function.

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Haga clic aquí para español This FAQ zine is meant to be a starting point. It's short, and shares the basics of what we're talking about when we talk about abolition. It's been a very useful tool for sparking conversations with people who haven't considered these ideas before.

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You DO NOT need to purchase all (or any) of these texts to engage the community syllabus and materials that I will be posting online. I will provide readings, videos, podcasts that do not require you to purchase anything to access them.

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A collection of resources to learn more about the criminalization of survivors of gender violence and activist strategies to free them.

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Explore these campaign websites to learn more about how to develop a legal defense campaign for survivors who are prosecuted or incarcerated. Strategies include social media actions, fundraising, art, direct action, education and much more!

More on the History of Defense Campaigns:

Gore, Dayo. Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War. New York: New York University Press, 2012.

Hill, Rebecca. Men, Mobs, and Law: Anti-Lynching and Labor Defense in U.S. Radical History. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.

Kaba, Mariame (ed). No Selves to Defend: The Legacy of Criminalizing Self-Defense and Survival. https://noselves2defend.wordpress.com/

Law, Victoria. Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women. Oakland: PM Press, 2012.

Law, Victoria, "Sick of the Abuse: Feminist Responses to Sexual Assault, Battering, and Self-Defense." In The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism, 39-56. Edited by Dan Berger. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010.

Thuma, Emily. "Lessons in Self-Defense: Gendered Violence, Racial Criminalization, and Anticarceral Feminism." WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, 43:3-4 (fall-winter 2015): 52-71.

Thuma, Emily. All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence. University of Illinois Press, 2019.

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Explore these campaign websites to learn more about how to develop a legal defense campaign for survivors who are prosecuted or incarcerated. Strategies include social media actions, fundraising, art, direct action, education and much more! More on the History of Defense Campaigns: Gore, Dayo. Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War.

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Everyday Resources for a Punishment-Free World

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Building Your Abolitionist Toolbox: Everyday Resources for a Punishment-Free World

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Islamic Perspectives on Prison Abolition

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Islamic Perspectives on Prison Abolition

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Webinar: Transformative Approaches to Sexual Violence

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Webinar: Transformative Approaches to Sexual Violence

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New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault

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Webinar: Transformative Approaches to Sexual Violence

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Webinar: Sexual Violence and Transformative Justice in Abolitionist Times

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Webinar: Sexual Violence and Transformative Justice in Abolitionist Times

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Sexual Violence and Transformative Justice in Abolitionist Times

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Valerie Seeley interviewed by Victoria Law

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Valerie Seeley interviewed by Victoria Law

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Valerie Seeley is the ONLY survivor of domestic violence to be granted clemency by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. In this interview by Victoria Law, Seeley discusses being criminalized for self defense, serving 17 years in prison, being granted clemency after her second application, and why she's fighting for the freedom and improved conditions of women and girls still inside.

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Valerie Seeley interviewed by Victoria Law

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When dealing with harm in our communities, we sometimes ask ourselves, what could we have done earlier to prevent this harm? What can we do to build consensual communities to avoid this kind of harm? In this video, consent educators discuss why they see consent as transformative justice and how we can use consent to learn concrete tools to negotiate power dynamics.

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Featuring Stas Schmiedt and Lea Roth

Join us for an online discussion on Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4pm EST:
http://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/transforming-harm-experiments-in-accountability/

When dealing with harm in our communities, we sometimes ask ourselves, what could we have done earlier to prevent this harm? What can we do to build consensual communities to avoid this kind of harm? In this video, consent educators discuss why they see consent as transformative justice and how we can use consent to learn concrete tools to negotiate power dynamics.

This video is part of the Building Accountable Communities video series. The Building Accountable Communities Project promotes non-punitive responses to harm by developing resources for transformative justice practitioners and organizing convenings and workshops that educate the public.

Created by Project Nia and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Video produced by Mariame Kaba, Dean Spade, and Hope Dector.

Nastassja “Stas” Schmiedt(they/them) is a nonbinary BlaQ-Italian storyteller, abolitionist organizer, healer, and imaginatrix rooted in Denver, CO and Miami, FL.

A. Lea Roth (they/them or he/him) works to prevent and respond to gender based violence as a consent educator, transformative justice practitioner, herbalist, and fiction writer based in Denver, CO.

Stas and Lea have been organizing together and in love since their student days at Dartmouth College. Together, they keep circles and hold spaces for healing, accountability and transformation for survivors and perpetuators of harm as well as communities. They developed their practice in response to the needs and experiences of queer and trans survivors of sexual and gender based violence on campuses. You can support their work and join their learning community at patreon.com/cultivateconsent

In 2013, Stas and Lea co-founded Spring Up, a social enterprise cultivating a culture of consent and liberty for all through storytelling, transformative justice, and popular education (timetospringup.org). Spring Up offers consent education to youth and care providers, and provides support to mission-driven organizations in: values alignment, practicing consent culture, conflict transformation; and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through participatory, emergent workshops, coaching, and consulting.

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How does shame block accountability? Why do we tend towards performative apology when we work from a basis of shame? In this video, people with years of experience facilitating processes between survivors of harm and people who have done harm talk about how coming from a framework of shame can shut us down and get in the way of authentic accountability.

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Featuring Stas Schmiedt and Lea Roth

Join us for an online discussion on Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4pm EST:
http://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/transforming-harm-experiments-in-accountability/


How does shame block accountability? Why do we tend towards performative apology when we work from a basis of shame? In this video, people with years of experience facilitating processes between survivors of harm and people who have done harm talk about how coming from a framework of shame can shut us down and get in the way of authentic accountability. 

This video is part of the Building Accountable Communities video series. The Building Accountable Communities Project promotes non-punitive responses to harm by developing resources for transformative justice practitioners and organizing convenings and workshops that educate the public.

Created by Project Nia and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Video produced by Mariame Kaba, Dean Spade, and Hope Dector.

Nastassja “Stas” Schmiedt(they/them) is a nonbinary BlaQ-Italian storyteller, abolitionist organizer, healer, and imaginatrix rooted in Denver, CO and Miami, FL.

A. Lea Roth (they/them or he/him) works to prevent and respond to gender based violence as a consent educator, transformative justice practitioner, herbalist, and fiction writer based in Denver, CO.

Stas and Lea have been organizing together and in love since their student days at Dartmouth College. Together, they keep circles and hold spaces for healing, accountability and transformation for survivors and perpetuators of harm as well as communities. They developed their practice in response to the needs and experiences of queer and trans survivors of sexual and gender based violence on campuses. You can support their work and join their learning community at patreon.com/cultivateconsent

In 2013, Stas and Lea co-founded Spring Up, a social enterprise cultivating a culture of consent and liberty for all through storytelling, transformative justice, and popular education (timetospringup.org). Spring Up offers consent education to youth and care providers, and provides support to mission-driven organizations in: values alignment, practicing consent culture, conflict transformation; and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through participatory, emergent workshops, coaching, and consulting.

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Webinar: Boundaries, Feeling, And Consent

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Webinar: Boundaries, Feeling, And Consent

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The Zine Story

Over the years, we've traversed the country from coast to coast holding space to facilitate workshops, trainings, survivor healing circles, organizational culture shifts, among many other things, for those in communities seeking space to heal from trauma, address harm, and respond to/prevent gender based violence.

Time and time again, we've put love and intentional labor into creating tangible tools and interactive activities for different audiences to meet their needs, often universally rooted in vision to be in healthier relationships with one another; relationships rooted in open communication, ongoing consent and feedback, ability to voice desire, and respect for individual boundaries and self autonomy.

With movements to end sexual violence and rape culture on the rise, especially #MeToo which has sparked transformative conversations online, we felt it was time to translate the tools and resources we've gathered into a workbook for all to use.

What The Zine has to offer

The zine is complete with key learnings/tools we determined over a period of time as most transformational for our participants in our trainings, workshops, and fellowships, including our consent toolkit with information to analyze power dynamics and coercion, practice open and ongoing communication, and utilize trauma-informed survivor response strategies in our relationships. Included in different sections of the zine are tools to:

Identify your internal boundaries, desires, and needs with boundary mapping and vent diagrams.

Lay out and identify your support systems to enhance self and community resiliency.

Identify and honor your self-care and healing practices.

Identify and practice non verbal forms of communication, as well as understand important signs of dissociation.

Practice different ways of asking and answering questions, especially as it relates to our varied communication styles.

Address harm and violence through a harm reduction framework.

Explore how you relate to gender based violence with historical context and background.

We strive to create the resources our younger, current, and future selves need to navigate the world in a way that feels safe and empowering.

Consent Workbook Zine (Set of 5)

Order a pack of zines for you and your friends, colleagues, or students. We choose to sell in sets of five because we want communities to skill up together. If you just want one copy, we will send you one if you subscribe as a $5 or higher patron at patreon.com/cultivateconsent

The zine is complete with key learnings/tools we determined over a period of time as most transformational for our participants in our trainings, workshops, and fellowships, including our consent toolkit with information to analyze power dynamics and coercion, practice open and ongoing communication, and utilize trauma-informed survivor response strategies in our relationships. Included in different sections of the zine are tools to:

Identify your internal boundaries, desires, and needs with boundary mapping and vent diagrams.

Lay out and identify your support systems to enhance self and community resiliency.

Identify and honor your self-care and healing practices.

Identify and practice non verbal forms of communication, as well as understand important signs of dissociation.

Practice different ways of asking and answering questions, especially as it relates to our varied communication styles.

Address harm and violence through a harm reduction framework.

Explore how you relate to gender based violence with historical context and background.

Check Out Our TEDX talk to learn about our Book

and Sexuality Education Program:

A few years ago, we took a full year off to write our first 2 books: Millennial Sex and Millennial Sex Education, acknowledging the widespread lack of access to comprehensive sex ed for young teens and adults.

From birth through to adulthood, many of navigate the world with false, often always harmful/violent, perceptions of what healthy sexual relationships look like. Identifying this as one of the main causes of gender based violence, especially sexual violence, we came up with sex-positive solutions that wouldn't merely demonize the scripts of our culture, but instead would inspire people to new, liberating possibilities of sexual engagement.

We decided to write the sex-ed curriculum we wished we'd had; the stories, the scripts, and scenarios that would have helped us engage in the sexual culture with more knowledge and maturity ourselves.

Get the print books on Amazon ( Millennial Sex or Millennial Sex Education) or purchase the e-book below. You can get a signed copy if you sign up to join our Patreon community at $10 or more.

The difference between the two

The white cover version is appropriate for ages 16+ and is intended to be an educational resource for individuals, couples, families, and communities. It contains interactive, reflection questions at the end of each chapter. We cover themes of consent, trust, fetishization, trauma, intimacy, and respect.

The black cover version is written for more adult audiences and contains more explicit descriptions and narratives. It doesn't come with reflection questions at the end of each chapter.

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Over the years, we've traversed the country from coast to coast holding space to facilitate workshops, trainings, survivor healing circles, organizational culture shifts, among many other things, for those in communities seeking space to heal from trauma, address harm, and respond to/prevent gender based violence.

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No Body Left Behind: Advocating for Survivors Through a Disability Justice Lens

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No Body Left Behind: Advocating for Survivors Through a Disability Justice Lens

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No Body Left Behind: Advocating for Survivors Through a Disability Justice Lens (11/5/19)_2

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No Body Left Behind: Advocating for Survivors Through a Disability Justice Lens (11/5/19)_2

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Intersections of Disability Justice and Transformative Justice

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Intersections of Disability Justice and Transformative Justice

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Intersections of Disability Justice and Transformative Justice

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Webinar: Abolition, Psychiatry, and New Horizons

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Webinar: Abolition, Psychiatry, and New Horizons

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Moving at the Speed of Trust: Disability Justice and Transformative Justice

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Moving at the Speed of Trust: Disability Justice and Transformative Justice

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Moving at the Speed of Trust: Disability Justice and Transformative Justice

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My Body Doesn't Oppress Me, Society Does

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My Body Doesn't Oppress Me, Society Does

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My Body Doesn't Oppress Me, Society Does

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We Move Together: Disability Justice and Trans Liberation

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We Move Together: Disability Justice and Trans Liberation

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We Move Together: Disability Justice and Trans Liberation

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Disability Justice Intersection with Racial Justice, and Queer/Trans Liberation

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Disability Justice Intersection with Racial Justice, and Queer/Trans Liberation

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Lydia Brown - Disability Justice Intersection with Racial Justice, and Queer/Trans Liberation

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The film shares with insight, clarity, humor, and beauty the experiences of one group of disabled young people and their journey to activism and adulthood, and in so doing, provides an opportunity for all to delve into the rich and complicated history of disability activism, culture, and history.

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According to Cara Page, Healing Justice is a framework that identifies how we can holistically respond to and intervene on generational trauma and violence and to bring collective practices that can impact and transform the consequences of oppression on our bodies, hearts and minds.

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Safety and Self Care planning worksheets from Spring up! collective

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Safety and Self Care planning worksheets from Spring up! collective

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Surviving the apocalypse together workbook

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Surviving the apocalypse together workbook

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Disability Justice and Abolition with Elliott Fukui

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Disability Justice and Abolition with Elliott Fukui

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Disability Justice and Abolition with Elliott Fukui

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Article on holistic approach to coping with racial trauma: The Four Bodies: A Holistic Toolkit for Coping With Racial Trauma

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Article on holistic approach to coping with racial trauma: The Four Bodies: A Holistic Toolkit for Coping With Racial Trauma

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As a society, we often talk about racism, but rarely ever do we talk about how it affects the health of our people. I call racism "the multifaceted abuser"because it has emotional, physical, mental and spiritual effects on our community. Research shows that racism can lead to anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, chronic stress, chronic fatigue, bodily inflammation...

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The Four Bodies: A Holistic Toolkit for Coping With Racial Trauma

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As a society, we often talk about racism, but rarely ever do we talk about how it affects the health of our people. I call racism "the multifaceted abuser"because it has emotional, physical, mental and spiritual effects on our community. Research shows that racism can lead to anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, chronic stress, chronic fatigue, bodily inflammation...

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Beyond Disability Rights; Disability Justice: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

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Beyond Disability Rights; Disability Justice: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

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Beyond Disability Rights; Disability Justice: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

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What to do when someone tells you that you violated their boundaries

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What to do when someone tells you that you violated their boundaries

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Your Donation Will Be Matched 2-to-1! Can You Chip In?

Please don't scroll past this-the Internet Archive is growing rapidly, and we need your help. As an independent nonprofit, we build and maintain all our own systems, but we don't charge for access, sell user information, or run ads. Instead, we're powered by donations averaging $25.51. We'd be deeply grateful if you'd join the one in a thousand users that support us financially.

Right now, we have a 2-to-1 Matching Gift Campaign, tripling the impact of every donation. We understand that not everyone can donate right now, but if you can afford to contribute, we promise it will be put to good use. Access to knowledge is more important than ever-so if you find all these bits and bytes useful, please pitch in.

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We Are All Survivors, We Are All Perpetrators / What To Do When... : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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Your Donation Will Be Matched 2-to-1! Can You Chip In? Please don't scroll past this-the Internet Archive is growing rapidly, and we need your help. As an independent nonprofit, we build and maintain all our own systems, but we don't charge for access, sell user information, or run ads.

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BEAM Community & Self Care Support Plans

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BEAM Community & Self Care Support Plans

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The Community care support plan is a map to begin asking the critical questions from our loved one’s that help us show up for them in the face of a psychological or physical crisis. Use it as a tool before a crisis to plan out and map support systems.

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The community care map is a tool developed to help our communities explore, build and uplift their community support needs.

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Relax, Relate, Release: Meditations for the Mind, Soul, Spirit, and Revolution is a meditation project by Jana Smith that includes various themed audio tracks featuring empowering messages from Angela Davis, Dr. Maya Angelou, Lena Horne, Tabitha Brown, Nina Simone, Denzel Washington, and many others over soothing soundscapes. This project also includes a community-curated reflection/resource guide. (Meditation transcripts are included in the guidebook for persons who are deaf/hearing impaired.)

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The goal of the WCSAP E-Learning Center is to provide up-to-date and accessible information on a variety of sexual assault topics. You must create an account to take the courses but the majority are open to everyone.

These courses are self-paced and do not involve interaction with an instructor or other course participants. To obtain the greatest benefit from this learning experience, participants will want to allow ample time to complete the activities and assignments in a complete and thoughtful manner. We hope you have a great training experience.
Enroll by creating a new account at the WCSAP E-Learning Center
Available courses:

Advocate Core

Definitions of Sexual Assault

Philosophy and History

Ethics of Confidentiality

Child Sexual Abuse

Medical Advocacy

Criminal Justice Process

Advocacy and Victims Rights (including civil legal issues)

Orders of Protection

Intimate Partner Sexual Violence

Management

What Does it Really Cost to Provide Your Services - Understanding and Communicating Administrative, Indirect, Shared, and Overhead Costs

Funding Admin and Overhead Costs in Government Grants and Contracts - Making the Uniform Guidance Work for Your Nonprofit

Ongoing Advocacy

History of the Sexual Violence Movement (1 hour)

Adult Learning Styles (1 hour)

Intimate Partner Sexual Violence - Advocacy Strategies

Sexual Violence and Reproductive Health

Long Term Care

What Advocates Need to Know About Therapy (90 minutes)

Considerations for Sexual Assault Programs That Employ or Contract with Mental Health Therapists (90 minutes)

Prevention

Five Hour Prevention Orientation

Healthy Sexuality & Sexual Violence Prevention (2 hours)

Community Development (3 hours)

Therapist Training

Working with Incarcerated Survivors Orientation for PREA Advocates (7 hours)

What is the Prison Rape Elimination Act?

Advocacy with Incarcerated Survivors of Sexual Violence

Prison Culture

Compromise & Manipulation

Advocacy at the Forensic Exam with Incarcerated Individuals

PREA Investigations

Introduction to Safety in Facilities

In Person Services

Facility Orientation

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The goal of the WCSAP E-Learning Center is to provide up-to-date and accessible information on a variety of sexual assault topics. You must create an account to take the courses but the majority are open to everyone. These courses are self-paced and do not involve interaction with an instructor or other course participants.

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10 Way to Build and Preserve Better Boundaries

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10 Way to Build and Preserve Better Boundaries

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Statement on Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex

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Statement on Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex

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Statement on Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex (2001)

We call social justice movements to develop strategies and analysis that address both state AND interpersonal violence, particularly violence against women. Currently, activists/movements that address state violence (such as anti-prison, anti-police brutality groups) often work in isolation from activists/movements that address domestic and sexual violence. The result is that women of color, who suffer disproportionately from both state and interpersonal violence, have become marginalized within these movements. It is critical that we develop responses to gender violence that do not depend on a sexist, racist, classist, and homophobic criminal justice system. It is also important that we develop strategies that challenge the criminal justice system and that also provide safety for survivors of sexual and domestic violence. To live violence free-lives, we must develop holistic strategies for addressing violence that speak to the intersection of all forms of oppression. The anti-violence movement has been critically important in breaking the silence around violence against women and providing much-needed services to survivors. However, the mainstream anti-violence movement has increasingly relied on the criminal justice system as the front-line approach toward ending violence against women of color. It is important to assess the impact of this strategy.

1. Law enforcement approaches to violence against women MAY deter some acts of violence in the short term. However, as an overall strategy for ending violence, criminalization has not worked. In fact, the overall impact of mandatory arrests laws for domestic violence have led to decreases in the number of battered women who kill their partners in self-defense, but they have not led to a decrease in the number of batterers who kill their partners. Thus, the law protects batterers more than it protects survivors.

2. The criminalization approach has also brought many women into conflict with the law, particularly women of color, poor women, lesbians, sex workers, immigrant women, women with disabilities, and other marginalized women. For instance, under mandatory arrest laws, there have been numerous incidents where police officers called to domestic incidents have arrested the woman who is being battered. Many undocumented women have reported cases of sexual and domestic violence, only to find themselves deported. A tough law and order agenda also leads to long punitive sentences for women convicted of killing their batterers. Finally, when public funding is channeled into policing and prisons, budget cuts for social programs, including women's shelters, welfare and public housing are the inevitable side effect. These cutbacks leave women less able to escape violent relationships.

3. Prisons don't work. Despite an exponential increase in the number of men in prisons, women are not any safer, and the rates of sexual assault and domestic violence have not decreased. In calling for greater police responses to and harsher sentences for perpetrators of gender violence, the anti-violence movement has fueled the proliferation of prisons which now lock up more people per capita in the U.S. than any other country. During the past fifteen years, the numbers of women, especially women of color in prison has skyrocketed. Prisons also inflict violence on the growing numbers of women behind bars. Slashing, suicide, the proliferation of HIV, strip searches, medical neglect and rape of prisoners has largely been ignored by anti-violence activists. The criminal justice system, an institution of violence, domination, and control, has increased the level of violence in society.

4. The reliance on state funding to support anti-violence programs has increased the professionalization of the anti-violence movement and alienated it from its community-organizing, social justice roots. Such reliance has isolated the anti-violence movement from other social justice movements that seek to eradicate state violence, such that it acts in conflict rather than in collaboration with these movements.

5. The reliance on the criminal justice system has taken power away from women's ability to organize collectively to stop violence and has invested this power within the state. The result is that women who seek redress in the criminal justice system feel disempowered and alienated. It has also promoted an individualistic approach toward ending violence such that the only way people think they can intervene in stopping violence is to call the police. This reliance has shifted our focus from developing ways communities can collectively respond to violence.
In recent years, the mainstream anti-prison movement has called important attention to the negative impact of criminalization and the build-up of the prison industrial complex. Because activists who seek to reverse the tide of mass incarceration and criminalization of poor communities and communities of color have not always centered gender and sexuality in their analysis or organizing, we have not always responded adequately to the needs of survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
1. Prison and police accountability activists have generally organized around and conceptualized men of color as the primary victims of state violence. Women prisoners and victims of police brutality have been made invisible by a focus on the war on our brothers and sons. It has failed to consider how women are affected as severely by state violence as men. The plight of women who are raped by INS officers or prison guards, for instance, has not received sufficient attention. In addition, women carry the burden of caring for extended family when family and community members are criminalized and wherehoused. Several organizations have been established to advocate for women prisoners; however, these groups have been frequently marginalized within the mainstream anti-prison movement.

2. The anti-prison movement has not addressed strategies for addressing the rampant forms of violence women face in their everyday lives, including street harassment, sexual harassment at work, rape, and intimate partner abuse. Until these strategies are developed, many women will feel shortchanged by the movement. In addition, by not seeking alliances with the anti-violence movement, the anti-prison movement has sent the message that it is possible to liberate communities without seeking the well-being and safety of women.

3. The anti-prison movement has failed to sufficiently organize around the forms of state violence faced by LGBTI communities. LGBTI street youth and trans people in general are particularly vulnerable to police brutality and criminalization. LGBTI prisoners are denied basic human rights such as family visits from same sex partners, and same sex consensual relationships in prison are policed and punished.

4. While prison abolitionists have correctly pointed out that rapists and serial murderers comprise a small number of the prison population, we have not answered the question of how these cases should be addressed. The inability to answer the question is interpreted by many anti-violence activists as a lack of concern for the safety of women.

5. The various alternatives to incarceration that have been developed by anti-prison activists have generally failed to provide sufficient mechanism for safety and accountability for survivors of sexual and domestic violence. These alternatives often rely on a romanticized notion of communities, which have yet to demonstrate their commitment and ability to keep women and children safe or seriously address the sexism and homophobia that is deeply embedded within them.

We call on social justice movements concerned with ending violence in all its forms to:

1. Develop community-based responses to violence that do not rely on the criminal justice system AND which have mechanisms that ensure safety and accountability for survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Transformative practices emerging from local communities should be documented and disseminated to promote collective responses to violence.

2. Critically assess the impact of state funding on social justice organizations and develop alternative fundraising strategies to support these organizations. Develop collective fundraising and organizing strategies for anti-prison and anti-violence organizations. Develop strategies and analysis that specifically target state forms of sexual violence.

3. Make connections between interpersonal violence, the violence inflicted by domestic state institutions (such as prisons, detention centers, mental hospitals, and child protective services), and international violence (such as war, military base prostitution, and nuclear testing).

4. Develop an analysis and strategies to end violence that do not isolate individual acts of violence (either committed by the state or individuals) from their larger contexts. These strategies must address how entire communities of all genders are affected in multiple ways by both state violence and interpersonal gender violence. Battered women prisoners represent an intersection of state and interpersonal violence and as such provide and opportunity for both movements to build coalitions and joint struggles.

5. Put poor/working class women of color in the center of their analysis, organizing practices, and leadership development. Recognize the role of economic oppression, welfare "reform," and attacks on women workers' rights in increasing women's vulnerability to all forms of violence and locate anti-violence and anti-prison activism alongside efforts to transform the capitalist economic system.
6. Center stories of state violence committed against women of color in our organizing efforts.
7. Oppose legislative change that promotes prison expansion, criminalization of poor communities and communities of color and thus state violence against women of color, even if these changes also incorporate measure to support victims of interpersonal gender violence.

8. Promote holistic political education at the everyday level within our communities, specifically how sexual violence helps reproduce the colonial, racist, capitalist, heterosexist, and patriarchal society we live in as well as how state violence produces interpersonal violence within communities.

9. Develop strategies for mobilizing against sexism and homophobia WITHIN our communities in order to keep women safe.

10. Challenge men of color and all men in social justice movements to take particular responsibility to address and organize around gender violence in their communities as a primary strategy for addressing violence and colonialism. We challenge men to address how their own histories of victimization have hindered their ability to establish gender justice in their communities.
11. Link struggles for personal transformation and healing with struggles for social justice. We seek to build movements that not only end violence, but that create a society based on radical freedom, mutual accountability, and passionate reciprocity. In this society, safety and security will not be premised on violence or the threat of violence; it will be based on a collective commitment to guaranteeing the survival and care of all peoples.
Supporters:

Organizations American Friends Service Committee Arab Women's Solidarity Association, North America Arab Women's Solidarity Association, San Francisco Chapter Arizona Prison Moratorium Coalition Asian Women's Shelter Audre Lorde Project Black Radical Congress Break the Chains California Coalition for Women Prisoners CARA / Communities Against Rape and Abuse (Seattle) Center for Human Rights Education Center for Immigrant Families Center for Law and Justice Coalition of Women from Asia and the Middle East Colorado Progressive Alliance Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (New York) Direct Action Against Refugee Exploitation (Vancouver) East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women's Network Against Militarism Institute of Lesbian Studies Justice Now Korean American Coalition to End Domestic Abuse Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center (San Francisco) Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Minnesota Black Political Action Committee National Coalition Against Domestic Violence National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (Seattle) Pennsylvania Lesbian and Gay Task Force Prison Activist Resource Center Project South San Francisco Women Against Rape Shimtuh Korean Domestic Violence Program Sista II Sista Southwest Youth Collaborative (Chicago) Spear and Shield Publications, Chicago Women of All Red Nations Women of Color Resource Center Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (Bronx) Individuals Debra M. Akuna Gigi Alexander Jiro Arase Helen Arnold, Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention & Education, Columbia University Molefe Asante, Temple University Rjoya K. Atu Karen Baker, National Sexual Violence Resource Center Rachel Baum, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects Elham Bayour, Women's Empowerment Project (Gaza, Palestine) Zoe Abigail Bermet Eulynda Toledo-Benalli, Dine' Nation, First Nations North & South Diana Block, California Coalition for Women Prisoners Marilyn Buck, Political Prisoner Lee Carroll, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Emma Catague, API Women & Safety Center Ann Caton, Young Women United mariama changamire, department of communication umass amherst Eunice Cho, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Sunjung Cho, KACEDA and Asian Community Mental Health Services Christina Chu Dorie D. Ciskowsky Cori Couture, BAMM Kimberle Crenshaw, UCLA Law School Gwen D'Arcangelis Shamita Das Dasgupta, Manavi, Inc. Angela Y. Davis, University of California - Santa Cruz Jason Durr, University of Hawaii School of Social Work Michael Eric Dyson, University of Pennsylvania Siobhan Edmondson Michelle Erai, Santa Cruz Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women Samantha Francois Edna Frantela, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Loretta Frederick, Battered Women's Justice Project Arnoldo Garcia, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Dionne Grigsby, University of Hawaii Outreach College Lara K. Grimm Elizabeth Harmuth, Prison Activist Resource Center Will Harrell, ACLU of Texas Sarah Hoagland, Institute of Lesbian Studies Katayoun Issari, Family Peace Center (Hawaii) Desa Jacobsson, Anti-Violence Activist (Alaska) Joy James, Brown University Leialoha Jenkins Jamie Jimenez, Northwestern Sexual Assault education Prevention Program Dorothea Kaapana Isabel Kang, Dorean American Coalition for Ending Domestic Abuse Valli Kanuha, Asian Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence Mimi Kim, Asian Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence Erl Kimmich Paul Kivel, Violence Prevention Educator M. Carmen Lane, Anti-violence activist In Hui Lee, KACEDA Meejeon Lee, Shimtuh & KACEDA Beckie Masaki, Asian Women's Shelter Ann Rhee Menzie, SHIMTUH & KACEDA Sarah Kim-Merchant, KACEDA Patricia Manning, Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) Volunteer Kristin Millikan, Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women's Network Steven Morozumi, Programs Adviser, Univ. of Oregon Multicultural Center Soniya Munshi, Manavi Sylvia Nam, KACEDA & KCCEB(Korean Community Center of the East Bay) Stormy Ogden, American Indian Movement Margo Okazawa-Rey, Mills College Angela Naomi Paik Ellen Pence, Praxis Karen Porter Trity Pourbahrami, University of Hawaii Laura Pulido, University of Southern California Bernadette Ramog Matt Remle, Center for Community Justice Monique Rhodes, Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault Lisa Richardson Beth Richie, African American Institute on Domestic Violence David Rider, Men Can Stop Rape Loretta Rivera Alissa Rojers Clarissa Rojas, Latino Alianza Against Domestic Violence Paula Rojas, Refuio/Refuge (New York) Tricia Rose, University of California - Santa Cruz Katheryn Russell-Brown, University of Maryland Ann Russo, Women's Studies Program, DePaul University Anuradha Sharma, Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence David Thibault Rodriguez, South West Youth Collaborative Roxanna San Miguel Karen Shain, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Proshat Shekarloo, Oakland Anita Sinha, Attorney - Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Wendy Simonetti Barbara Smith, Founder - Kitchen Table Press Matthea Little Smith Natalie Sokoloff, John Jay College of Criminal Justice - C.U.N.Y. Nikki Stewart Nan Stoops Theresa Tevaga Kabzuag Vaj, Hmong American Women Association Cornel West Janelle White, Leanne Knot Violence Against Women Consortium. Laura Whitehorn, Former Political Prisoner Sherry Wilson, Women of All Red Nations Glenn Wong Yon Soon Yoon, KACEDA Mieko Yoshihama, University of Michigan School of Social Work Tukufu Zuberi, Center for Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania

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