generation FIVE

The state public health system has been an integral part of the systems of capitalism and slave labor in the US. It has served to control specific communities based on their collective responses to conditions in labor and has been used to dehumanize queer, disabled bodies. The very basis and definition of health and healing has been redefined by this system so that collective, liberatory transformation has been replaced by isolating individuals to search for their own wellness. Within this context, justice movements have struggled to develop a shared analysis between healers & health practitioners and organizers. Individuals have reacted to illness rather than proactively developing healthful practices. Justice movements have reacted to the state systems or individual rather than creating transformative models that hold our collective wellness. The Health, Healing Justice and Liberation PMA will engage in collecting and documenting best collective practices that are happening across the US now. During the PMA, healers, organizers, and others will engage in popular education develop collective awareness and struggle with questions such as: • How do we define health justice based in our own experiences and communities? • How do we understand the relationship between personal transformation and collective liberation? • How do we develop more organizers and healers that have both an awareness of community-based healing and historical/political health framework of health justice? It is hoped that this PMA will build shared analysis between healers & health practitioners and organizers in order to create political responses that unpack the idea of who is “healthy; that offer awareness of the connection of public health systems to capitalism; nd that ultimately, creates transformative models that hold our collective wellness and liberation in one movement.

Since the last USSF, generationFIVE, our allies, and partners have continued to hone a framework of transformative justice (TJ) as we work to offer alternatives to collusion with child sexual abuse (CSA) – and intimate, community, and state violence – as well as approaches for addressing violence and power within our movements and organizations. TJ is an approach that calls for individual as well as community accountability and transformation of the social conditions that perpetuate CSA. It seeks to provide survivors with immediate safety and long-term agency, healing and reparations while holding offenders of CSA accountable within and by their communities. This accountability includes stopping immediate abuse, making a commitment to not engage in future abuse, and offering reparations for past abuse. This session provides an overview of the Transformative Justice (TJ) framework and approach, as well as principles and practices that are informing work developing and partnering with emerging TJ collaboratives. During the session we will screen digital pieces that reflect intersections of intimate and state violence that necessitate a TJ approach. We will also use the principles and practices to review case studies that allow us to practice intervention in cases of child sexual abuse and others that practice intervention in campaigns or organizations towards orienting them away from a criminal legal approach and towards a TJ approach.

generationFIVE has been developing and experimenting with Transformative Justice for the last decade. Transformative Justice is a libratory approach to responding to and preventing intimate and community violence. We work to offer alternatives to collusion with child sexual abuse – and other forms of intimate, community, and state violence – as well as approaches for addressing violence and power within our movements and organizations. Transformative Justice seeks to deeply integrate personal and social transformation. Transformative Justice calls for individual as well as community accountability and transformation of the social conditions that perpetuate child sexual abuse and other forms of violence. We use a politicized understanding of trauma, healing, and typical community responses to intimate violence to inform our organizing. We also look to how we can engage individual and community resilience to make all of our work more powerful and transformative. In this workshop we will learn about how to apply these understandings of trauma, resilience and healing to ourselves, our organizing work and within our organizations. We will explore somatic practices to support this, and help answer the questions of how and what we need to practice to align with TJ politics and principles.

Harm Reduction principles and practice seek to reduce violence and harm experienced by individuals and communities by understanding the multiple causes including trauma and systematic oppression. We will introduce a Transformative Justice (TJ) framework, including principles and practices as an effective approach to responding to and seeking justice in individual and community cases of violence or harm in such a way that challenge oppressive systems and do not reinforce state violence and repression. Through this workshop we seek to develop models for harm reduction programs to integrate violence prevention, response and services to address trauma and to train anti-violence organizations in harm reduction practice. TJ seeks to provide those experiencing violence or abuse with immediate safety and long-term agency, healing and reparations while holding those who are violent or abusive to others accountable within and by the communities in which they live or are part of. This accountability includes stopping immediate abuse, making a commitment to not engage in future abuse, and reparations for past abuse. Such accountability requires community responsibility to support people who are violent in changing their harmful behavior and as well as to access to personal healing. Beyond those who experience and perpetrate violence, TJ seeks to build community relationships and standards of behavior that reduce violence and increase collective capacity to organize for greater justice and health.

Since the last USSF, generationFIVE, our allies, and partners have continued to hone a framework of transformative justice (TJ) as we work to offer alternatives to collusion with child sexual abuse (CSA) – and intimate, community, and state violence – as well as approaches for addressing violence and power within our movements and organizations. TJ is an approach that calls for individual as well as community accountability and transformation of the social conditions that perpetuate CSA. It seeks to provide survivors with immediate safety and long-term agency, healing and reparations while holding offenders of CSA accountable within and by their communities. This accountability includes stopping immediate abuse, making a commitment to not engage in future abuse, and offering reparations for past abuse. This session provides an overview of the Transformative Justice (TJ) framework and approach, as well as principles and practices that are informing work developing and partnering with emerging TJ collaboratives. During the session we will screen digital pieces that reflect intersections of intimate and state violence that necessitate a TJ approach. We will also use the principles and practices to review case studies that allow us to practice intervention in cases of child sexual abuse and others that practice intervention in campaigns or organizations towards orienting them away from a criminal legal approach and towards a TJ approach.

generationFIVE has been developing and experimenting with Transformative Justice for the last decade. Transformative Justice is a libratory approach to responding to and preventing intimate and community violence. We work to offer alternatives to collusion with child sexual abuse – and other forms of intimate, community, and state violence – as well as approaches for addressing violence and power within our movements and organizations. Transformative Justice seeks to deeply integrate personal and social transformation. Transformative Justice calls for individual as well as community accountability and transformation of the social conditions that perpetuate child sexual abuse and other forms of violence. We use a politicized understanding of trauma, healing, and typical community responses to intimate violence to inform our organizing. We also look to how we can engage individual and community resilience to make all of our work more powerful and transformative. In this workshop we will learn about how to apply these understandings of trauma, resilience and healing to ourselves, our organizing work and within our organizations. We will explore somatic practices to support this, and help answer the questions of how and what we need to practice to align with TJ politics and principles.

Harm Reduction principles and practice seek to reduce violence and harm experienced by individuals and communities by understanding the multiple causes including trauma and systematic oppression. We will introduce a Transformative Justice (TJ) framework, including principles and practices as an effective approach to responding to and seeking justice in individual and community cases of violence or harm in such a way that challenge oppressive systems and do not reinforce state violence and repression. Through this workshop we seek to develop models for harm reduction programs to integrate violence prevention, response and services to address trauma and to train anti-violence organizations in harm reduction practice. TJ seeks to provide those experiencing violence or abuse with immediate safety and long-term agency, healing and reparations while holding those who are violent or abusive to others accountable within and by the communities in which they live or are part of. This accountability includes stopping immediate abuse, making a commitment to not engage in future abuse, and reparations for past abuse. Such accountability requires community responsibility to support people who are violent in changing their harmful behavior and as well as to access to personal healing. Beyond those who experience and perpetrate violence, TJ seeks to build community relationships and standards of behavior that reduce violence and increase collective capacity to organize for greater justice and health.

The state public health system has been an integral part of the systems of capitalism and slave labor in the US. It has served to control specific communities based on their collective responses to conditions in labor and has been used to dehumanize queer, disabled bodies. The very basis and definition of health and healing has been redefined by this system so that collective, liberatory transformation has been replaced by isolating individuals to search for their own wellness. Within this context, justice movements have struggled to develop a shared analysis between healers & health practitioners and organizers. Individuals have reacted to illness rather than proactively developing healthful practices. Justice movements have reacted to the state systems or individual rather than creating transformative models that hold our collective wellness. The Health, Healing Justice and Liberation PMA will engage in collecting and documenting best collective practices that are happening across the US now. During the PMA, healers, organizers, and others will engage in popular education develop collective awareness and struggle with questions such as: • How do we define health justice based in our own experiences and communities? • How do we understand the relationship between personal transformation and collective liberation? • How do we develop more organizers and healers that have both an awareness of community-based healing and historical/political health framework of health justice? It is hoped that this PMA will build shared analysis between healers & health practitioners and organizers in order to create political responses that unpack the idea of who is “healthy; that offer awareness of the connection of public health systems to capitalism; nd that ultimately, creates transformative models that hold our collective wellness and liberation in one movement.