Violence & Intersectionality

Target Audience: Staff, Organizers & Volunteers in Anti-Violence Organizations

Objectives: 

• Learn about the historical tensions between organizers working against gender-based violence and those working against mass incarceration

• Reflect upon and analyze the relationship between your organization’s work and larger trends in the anti-violence movement

• Assess the strengths and growth areas of your organization vis-à-vis combating carcerality, and establish shared priorities for moving forward

Materials:

• INCITE! Statement: “Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex”

• INCITE Sorting Activity Sheet

• Scissors

• Whiteboard or butcher paper

Preparation:

• Make enough copies of the Sorting Activity Sheet for all participants & cut it into strips such that each recommendation is on a separate piece of paper; distribute a small stack of strips to each person in an envelope or with a paperclip - colored paper works great for engagement!
  

Sample Agenda: (90 min)

Introductions & Check In: (10 minutes) 

• Ask all participants to introduce their names, pronouns, organizational roles, and to name one place that makes them feel safe.

• As folks share, write up on the board or sticky paper the places they name as feeling safe (leave out identifying information)

Grounding & Agenda Review: (5 minutes)

• Thank all for sharing and ground in shared purpose by connecting the check in to the work for the day.  You might say something like “thank you for sharing the places where you feel safe, or at least safer. Part of our work as violence interrupters is to help create a world where safety is abundant. Imagine if you could walk into any workplace, school, or doctor’s office and it would feel as safe as ________ (use an example from the board)?  Today we are gonna think about the different movements of people trying to build a more just and safe world for all, and how we see our own work overlapping with these different approaches to building safety.”

• Review the general outline of the agenda and ask for the group’s consent to move forward.

Collective Reading Time: (15 minutes)

• Put on some gentle instrumental music that evokes the mood, theme or culture of your space and pass out the INCITE! statement for folks to read.  

Pair Share: (10 minutes)

• While this reading is short, it is also quite dense! As a way to make sure everyone has a chance to put their imprint on the conversation, start with a pair share in which each person has 5 minutes to share their initial response to the reading. Some questions they may want to consider are:

  • What is one line that resonates with you or sticks out to you as true?

  • What is something that was hard for you to read or that you disagree with?

  • What makes you wonder or want to know more about? 

Exploratory Discussion: (15 minutes)

• Facilitate an open discussion for folks to share their connections to the text.  Each pair does not need to share in an organized manner; instead allow a few folks to share initial responses and document them on the board.

• Turn folks’ attention to pages 223-24 where INCITE! identifies 5 ways law enforcement has failed survivors. Discuss which of these concerns most directly impact the populations and settings your organization works in and why.

Sorting Exercise: (15 minutes)

• Distribute the sets of recommendations to all participants, and play 5 minutes of instrumental music to give them silent individual time to arrange the slips of paper individually from top to bottom in order of how well they think your organization achieves this goal.  

• Once everyone has made their individual rankings, ask folks to find a new partner to pair up with (different than earlier in the session).  After they find their partner, spend 10 minutes discussing their rankings and negotiating to establish one shared rank list. 

Debrief: (15 min)

• Ask a few groups to share, and offer them the following questions:

  • What was your process of deliberation like?

  • Where did your lists overlap?

  • Where did you have the greatest differences?

  • What did you end up putting as your top and bottom ranking?

• As patterns emerge, ask folks to take a step back and discuss where they see areas of strength and areas of growth for your organization vis-à-vis these goals. 

Closing: (5 min)

• Appreciate everyone for their earnest and courageous participation in the activities of the day

• Ask someone to read the closing paragraph of the INCITE! statement:

  • “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.”

• As a closing, ask each person to choose one word that represents that commitment for them, and then go around in a circle to share. 

OPTIONAL Adaptations:

• If you have more time, screen this short video from two of the founders of INCITE! discussing the origins of the transformative justice movement 

• If you have less time, distribute the reading ahead of time so that folks can dig right in when the workshop begins

• If you want to go deeper, facilitate a process for folks in the organization to identify 1-3 of the INCITE! recommendations to build action plans around for the year ahead