The NYC Capacity Building Collaborative is accepting applications for Creating Safer Workplaces, a 1.5-hour webinar. Rooted in traditions of transformative justice, prison abolition, and movements to end sexual violence led by women, femmes, and trans & queer BIPOC, this webinar will look at what is sexual harassment, why it happens in our organizations, and how we can respond.

We invite leaders and members of social justice organizations to explore options for anticipating and responding to sexual harassment from a transformative lens, while proactively shifting our organizations to create safer and more empowered workplaces.

Tuesday, October 8th from 1pm-2:30pm EST

When people in our movement spaces come forward with stories of sexual harassment, our organizations are often scrambling to figure out how to respond. People impacted by sexual harassment are doubly harmed when our organizations, funders, and communities fail to respond adequately. In Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, it makes sense to avoid bringing the criminal (in)justice system in to cases of sexual harm, but what do we do instead?

There is no magic guidebook to follow when sexual harassment happens, but we can learn important lessons from transformative justice, prison abolition, and movements to end sexual violence, all led by women, femmes, and trans & queer BIPOC. We can also build organizational cultures that understand and combat cultures of patriarchy and white supremacy, so that our organizations are safer, more empowering, and ready to address harassment if and when it happens.

In this webinar, we will learn from stories of social justice organizations responding to sexual harassment, provide tips and principles to apply when harm occurs, and discuss how to proactively shift the culture within our organizations to create more safe and empowered workplaces.

This webinar will be interactive, with the opportunity to engage and ask questions throughout, and we request that you find space in your day when you can resist multitasking. Please come prepared with thoughts about why this topic is important to you. You will also be asked to share what next steps you will take as a result of attending.

* This webinar does not meet the mandatory New York state training standards for sexual harassment education. If you are looking for information about how to complete that training, please check out this free resource from the NYC Human Rights Commission.

This webinar is a “sneak preview” to a Peer Learning Cohort on Creating Safer Workplaces offered through the NYC Collaborative. The Peer Learning Cohort will take place from January-July of 2020, and will bring together leaders from different grassroots organizations who would like to commit to a process of guided peer learning towards workplaces that are safer for all genders. Peer Learning Cohort applications will open in early October.

ELIGIBILITY

This webinar is designed for leaders that: 

• Come from organizations with a small staff (<15 employees)

• Use an anti-oppression lens

• Work with front-lines BIPOC communities

• Are working to center the leadership of womxn & gender non-conforming people

• Are willing to dedicate time and resources to addressing sexual harassment and gender-based oppression in the workplace

• Are leaders in building organizational culture, policies and practices, or in responding to incidents of harm that may occur.

• Have active concerns about sexual harassment or safety from gender-based violence at your workplace among members or staff.

The training is open to grantees of Andrus Family Fund, Brooklyn Community Foundation, Cricket Island Foundation, Daphne Foundation, Korean American Community Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New York Foundation, New York Women's Foundation, North Star Fund, NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Scherman Foundation, and Stonewall Community Foundation.

TRAINERS

Amanda Aguilar Shank is a queer, mixed, Salvadoran mom, organizer, writer, trainer, English/Spanish interpreter, and abolitionist living in Portland, Oregon. She believes in practicing social transformation grounded in the self and extending outwards.

Amanda has worked for 15 years in labor, non-profit, and community organizations in the US, Mexico and Central America. Most recently, they served as Deputy Director and Interim Executive Director at Freedom to Thrive, a national Black & brown network dedicated to ending criminalization of communities of color. At Freedom to Thrive, Amanda led international trainings of directly impacted organizers, and local decriminalization campaigns.

After experiencing sexual harassment as a younger organizer in the immigrant rights movement and seeking transformative solutions, Amanda realized the great need for organizations to plan for, preempt, and respond to instances of harm. They now consult with organizations on best practices for responding to sexual harassment, and creating safer organizations. Amanda has a forthcoming article in the January 2020 anthology Beyond Survival: Stories and Strategies from the Transformative Justice Movement, edited by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ejeris Dixon.

Nathan Shara is a queer, South Asian therapist and community educator whose work focuses on trauma healing, transformative justice, and building loving and accountable power for liberatory struggle. Politicized through queer women of color feminism, Nathan has spent over 15 years engaged in grassroots anti-violence education and organizing-- including ongoing experimentation with community-based responses to harm and violence that do not rely on prisons or policing.
 
Nathan is a lead teacher and practitioner with the Bay-Area based organization generative somatics. He maintains a small practice as a trauma therapist working with survivors of intimate violence, as well as individuals who have perpetrated harm. Nathan’s essay “Facing Shame: From Saying Sorry to Doing Sorry” will be in the forthcoming January 2020 anthology Beyond Survival: Stories and Strategies from the Transformative Justice Movement, edited by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ejeris Dixon.

DEADLINE TO APPLY

Friday, October 4th. Space is not limited. Participants will receive Zoom link to participate in the webinar on Monday, October 7th.

If you have questions, you can reach out to cori schmanke parrish at cori@northstarfund.org.