Community Accountability
Community Accountability
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
Articles
The NYC Punks Who Built a Support Network for Sexual Assault Survivors When the Justice System Failed Them
by Ok, Merritt Original article found here America has a rape problem. For every 1,000 sexual assaults, only 310 are reported — and from the investigation stage to
10 Strategies for Cultivating Community Accountability
by Ann Russo Original article found here My commitment to prison abolition grows daily in part because I see the possibilities for responding to abuse and
Thinking Through Perpetrator Accountability
by Crimethinc. Original article found here This article is from Rolling Thunder #8, a quarterly journal by Crimethinc. Thinking Through Perpetrator Accountability “They” is used
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
A Stand Up Start Up by Philly’s Pissed – Philly Stands Up
by Philly Stands Up! Original article found here
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
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
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
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
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
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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