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Community Accountability

Overview

Community Accountability (CA) strategies aim at preventing, intervening in, responding to, and healing from violence through strengthening relationships and communities, emphasizing mutual responsibility for addressing the conditions that allow violence to take place, and holding people accountable for violence and harm. This includes a wide range of creative strategies for addressing violence as part of organizing efforts in communities when you can’t or don’t want to access state systems for safety.” – The Audre Lorde Project, National Gathering on Transformative and Community Accountability, 9/2010

From Incite! Women of Color and Trans People of Color Against Violence (2012):
Community accountability is a process in which a community – a group of friends, a family, a church, a workplace, an apartment complex, a neighborhood, etc – works together to do the following things:

  • Commit to ongoing development of all members of the community, and the community itself, to transform the political conditions that reinforce oppression and violence
  • Provide safety & support to community members who are violently targeted that respects their self-determination
  • Create and affirm values & practices that resist abuse and oppression and encourage safety, support, and accountability
  • Develop sustainable strategies to address community members’ abusive behavior, creating a process for them to account for their actions and transform their behavior

Community Accountability (CA) strategies aim at preventing, intervening in, responding to, and healing from violence through strengthening relationships and communities, emphasizing mutual responsibility for addressing the conditions that allow violence to take place, and holding people accountable for violence and harm. This includes a wide range of creative strategies for addressing violence as part of organizing efforts in communities when you can’t or don’t want to access state systems for safety.” – The Audre Lorde Project, National Gathering on Transformative and Community Accountability, 9/2010

From Incite! Women of Color and Trans People of Color Against Violence (2012):
Community accountability is a process in which a community – a group of friends, a family, a church, a workplace, an apartment complex, a neighborhood, etc – works together to do the following things:

  • Commit to ongoing development of all members of the community, and the community itself, to transform the political conditions that reinforce oppression and violence
  • Provide safety & support to community members who are violently targeted that respects their self-determination
  • Create and affirm values & practices that resist abuse and oppression and encourage safety, support, and accountability
  • Develop sustainable strategies to address community members’ abusive behavior, creating a process for them to account for their actions and transform their behavior
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Articles

California Initiative Moves Away From Relying On Police To Address Mental Health Crises

by JESSICA BUXBAUM Original article found here As more Americans wake up to the notion of police abolition, one organization in California is already making

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We Keep Us Safe

Serving food at Abolition Park by JESSIE KINDIG Original article found here THE RULES OF FOOD STATION are these: Always wear your mask over your nose

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Practicing New Social Relations, Even in Conflict

by Dean Spade Original article found here Why are people inside our movement organizations so mean to each other? We often lament how much energy

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9 Ways to be Accountable When You’ve Been Abusive

by Kai Cheng Thom Original article found here As I sit in my bed and begin to type (beds are my favorite typing places), there

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Pods and Pod Mapping Worksheet

by Mia Mingus for the BATJC, June 2016. Original article found here During the spring of 2014 the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective (BATJC) began

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6 Signs Your Call-Out Isn’t Actually About Accountability

by Maisha Z. Johnson Original article found here No matter how long you’ve been politically conscious, you’ve probably figured out by now that activists are

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Calling IN: A Less Disposable Way of Holding Each Other Accountable

by Ngọc Loan Trần Original article found here I started having conversations on this practice of “calling in” after attending Race Forward’s Facing Race Conference

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Getting Called Out: Why Acknowledging Oppression Matters More Than Your Hurt Feelings

by Erin Tatum Original article found here It’s a natural desire to want to give your opinion on something. We all want to think that our

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A Stand Up Start Up by Philly’s Pissed – Philly Stands Up

by Philly Stands Up! Original article found here

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The Revolution Starts at Home Confronting Partner Abuse in Activist Communities Zine

by Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Original article found here

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Media

Play Video

Self-Accountability and Movement Building

by | Presented by Project NIA with support from NYC TJ Hub 

Accountability is a human skill, not something that happens to bad people. How many times have movements been pulled apart not because of external forces but because of internal conflict and strife? So often we ask how others can be accountable without first looking internally and asking, "How have I been accountable?" Join us to explore the role self-accountability plays in building strong, sustainable movements. We'll discuss how self-accountability—that is accountability with and for ourselves—is essential in building accountable communities and the movements to sustain them.

Shannon Perez-Darby is an anti-violence advocate, author, and activist working to create the conditions to support loving, equitable relationships and communities. With over 15 years of experience, Shannon centers queer and trans communities of color while working to address issues of domestic violence, accountability, and prison abolition.

Presented by Project Nia & The NYC TJ Hub on September 12, 2020.

adrienne maree brown on Cancellation, Abolition and Healin‪g

by | The Final Straw Radio

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BUILDING ACCOUNTABLE COMMUNITIES

Featuring | Kiyomi Fujikawa and Shannon Perez-Darby

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?

Tags: videos, anti-violence, kiyomi fujikawa, shannon perez-darby, community accountability Ethan Viets-VanLear is a part of Circles & Ciphers

Tags: restorative justice, circles, circles and ciphers, ethan viets van lear, harm, healing
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Community Accountability for Safety: Building Capacity to Make Sexual and Domestic Violence a Community Responsibility

by | CALCASA

Tags: webinar, criminalization, domestic violence, non profit, service, liberation, first responders
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Don't be a Bystander: 6 Tips for Responding to Racist Attacks

By | BCRW and members of Project NIA

Created by BCRW and members of Project NIA, this video offers an abolitionist approach to bystander intervention that does not rely on the police.
The United States has a long history of violence against People of Color, disabled people, Muslims, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. In the current political moment, white supremacists and white nationalists have been emboldened. As a result, public attacks are on the rise. Many people aren't sure how to respond if they witness a racist or transphobic attack. This video provides some tips.
Connecting individual acts of violence to a broader systemic analysis, this video is intended to be a resource for activists, students, educators, and anyone who wants to interrupt the violence of white supremacy and anti-blackness.
Narrated by Aaryn Lang. Directed and produced by Lewis Wallace and Hope Dector. Tags:
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Creatively intervening in interpersonal and state violence

By | Dulwich Centre Foundation with Rachel Herzing
Rachel speaks from a community organizing perspective. She speaks about work that she has done to intervene in interpersonal harm as well as to end the violence of imprisonment and the violence of policing in the United States. She also talks about the liberation of black people.
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Community Response to COVID-19

Featuring | AAPI Women Lead’s Dr. Connie Wun sits down with Mia Mingus

AAPI Women Lead's Dr. Connie Wun sits down with Mia Mingus, Transformative Justice & Disability Justice organizer, advocate and leader. In episode 2, Mia + Dr. Connie Wun talks about ways communities have been supporting each other through this time using tools such as Mutual Aid + Pod Mapping + how we must recommit ourselves to supporting each other. Check out the video.
Play Video

Introduction to Close to Home: Community-Driven Approaches to Violence Prevention

By | Prevent Connect

This is part 1 of a 3-part podcast based on one of PreventConnect’s newest eLearning courses, “Community-Driven Approaches to Violence Prevention: Close to Home.” On this podcast, Susan Ghanbarpour interviews Aimee Thompson about Close to Home and its community mobilizing approach to preventing violence. Check out part 2 and part 3 of this podcast to learn more about the Close to Home approach to preventing violence.

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Curriculum

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Learning to Exhale Zine

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A Community Accountability Call to Action

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Community Accountability for Survivors of Sexual Violence Toolkit

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Community Accountability for Survivors of Sexual Violence Toolkit

By | Jane Hereth & Chez Rumph

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Support New York Curriculum

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Support New York Curriculum

By | Support New York

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We Don't Want To Be Stars:
A 21st-Century Intersectional Feminist Organizing Curriculum for These Times

By | Auburn Seminary Staff

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Embracing the Gifts of Conflict for Social Change

By | Jovida Ross & Weyam Ghadbian

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Accountability

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Accountability

By | AWG of DIY Space for London

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Community Accountability for Survivors of Sexual Violence Toolkit

1 file(s) 913.79 KB
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Community Accountability for Survivors of Sexual Violence Toolkit

By | Jane Hereth & Chez Rumph

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Support New York Curriculum

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Support New York Curriculum

By | Support New York

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Creative Interventions Toolkit

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Creative Interventions Toolkit

By | Creative Interventions

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Case Studies

By | The Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective

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Your Friend Has Been Abused: What Do You Do?

By | A.V. Flox

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Two Sides of Justice - Full Curriculum

By | Project NIA
Written by Santera Matthews

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Other Resources | Links

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The Process of Change Part 1: What is Change?

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The Process of Change 201: The Basics of Community Accountability

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The Devil Wears Dashikis, Pt. 4: Theoretical and Practical Lessons for the Struggle (Conclusion)

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Carlito Rovira Exposed: Exposing Abuse in Our Movements

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Get in Formation

By | Vision Change

New Resource: Get in Formation Get in Formation is a collection of security and safety practices built by years of learning in the streets from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color movements within the U.S. Developed and edited by safety and security practitioners with a range of 10-40 years experience, this toolkit includes handouts, tips, and worksheets to support you in growing or building your community safety practices and/or teams.
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ONE MILLION EXPERIMENTS

By | A Virtual Zine Project
c/o Project Nia & Interrupting Criminalization

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List of Resources on Rape and Accountability

List Compiled By | Anna

compiler's note: i created this resource list because i want transformative justice work to be sustainable, and i want to give credit to the healers that have come before me. the scope of this list is resources which are focused on the creation of new structures for dealing with rape and rape culture. if you have concerns, additions, questions, etc., contact me at anya.kark@gmail.com
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On creating a world where we can hold each other accountable for sexual misconduct - PDFs

List Compiled By | Anna

compiler's note: i created this resource list because i want transformative justice work to be sustainable, and i want to give credit to the healers that have come before me. the scope of this list is resources which are focused on the creation of new structures for dealing with rape and rape culture. if you have concerns, additions, questions, etc., contact me at anya.kark@gmail.com
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Resources for Organizing

By | INCITE!

INCITE! HISTORY: In 2000, INCITE! founders organized the “The Color of Violence: Violence Against Women of Color” conference held at University of California-Santa Cruz on April 28-29. The primary goals of this conference were to (1) develop analyses and strategies around ending violence that place women of color at the center; (2) to address violence against women of color in all its forms, including attacks on immigrants’ rights and Indian treaty rights, the proliferation of prisons, militarism, attacks on the reproductive rights of women of color, medical experimentation on communities of color, homophobia/heterosexism, and hate crimes against queer women of color, economic neo-colonialism, and institutional racism, and (3) to encourage the antiviolence movement to reinsert political organizing.
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Summary Statement Re: Community Accountability Process (March 2017)

By | Transform Harm Tumblr



Tags: community accountability, process, restoration, harm, accountability, sexual assault, chicago
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Whose Security?

By | The PIC is…



Tags: community accountability, process, restoration, harm, accountability, sexual assault, chicago
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Love the People Webinar Series

Webinar by | Aorta

AORTA is a worker-owned cooperative devoted to strengthening movements for social justice and a solidarity economy. We work as consultants and facilitators to expand the capacity of cooperative, collective, and community based projects through education, training, and planning. We base our work on an intersectional approach to liberation because we believe that true change requires uprooting all systems of oppression. For more on our framework, check out our Theory of Change.

Tags: sexual abuse, trauma, intervention, healing, community based strategies, harm
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Overview of Just Beginnings Collaborative & PreventConnect Web Conference Series

By | PreventConnect

In January 2019, PreventConnect hosted a 3-part web conference series highlighting the work the Just Beginnings Collaborative fellows do to prevent child sexual abuse. The conversations that occurred during these web conferences hold immense value for the field of prevention. To facilitate continued learning, PreventConnect, along with Eb. Brown of the Just Beginnings Collaborative and the guest presenters from this web conference series, summarized key highlights and takeaways in the document “Overview of Just Beginnings Collaborative & PreventConnect Web Conference Series.”

Tags: community accountability, process, restoration, harm, accountability, sexual assault, chicago
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artist protection network

By | Catherine Hernandez

As an author, Catherine Hernandez has endured countless incidents of stalking and harassment. While touring her book, she began speaking to her colleagues about her experiences and found out she was not alone. The members of this unfortunate club decided enough was enough. The Artist Protection Network is comprised of numerous international artists and event organizers who work together to create braver and safer spaces for artists to showcase their work, free from stalking and harassment.
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BLACK QUEER FEMINIST CURRICULUM TOOLKIT

By | Black Youth Project 100

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