Local Engagement

Being in our local East Bay community and collaborating with organizations that lead inspiring initiatives is important to us. Since 2016, we’ve collaborated with many dynamic organizations to support returning citizens, survivors, justice-based artists and writers, and narrative and policy change. Some of our current collaborations are with the Embodiment Project— dance and documentary theater company that uses dance as an act of resistance and transformation; Just Beginnings Collaborative—a donor and organizing community re-examining the root causes of child sexual abuse and how to resource true prevention; CROP, Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs—an innovative organization created by formerly incarcerated activists to support human-centered reentry; Prison Literature Project -  a grassroots volunteer-run nonprofit in Berkeley that sends free reading materials to people behind bars across the country. CHAT project - aims to respond to and transform interpersonal conflict and harm in Richmond without the use of state intervention and the criminal legal system.

 

A few of our longer initiatives were: 1) Mutual Aid: During Covid, we began check-in circles to support those experiencing harm, modest financial assistance to those in need, and weekly grocery drop-offs in the East Bay for people who could not leave their homes to get groceries, and for other reentry homes. 2) Justice Internship Program for High School Seniors: In 2023, The Ahimsa Collective teamed up with the Law and Social Justice program at Berkeley High School to co-create and deliver a six-day intensive internship for 12 High School students who were rising graduating seniors over the summer. We hope to offer this internship again and encourage students to contact us if they are interested.  

 

Presentations

Staff at The Ahimsa Collective have participated in presentations nationwide, from plenary panels at conferences, speaking to students, online webinars to broad diverse audiences, and targeted advocacy for systems actors. We are committed to “speaking story” from our life experiences, sharing what we have learned, and helping to shift the culture towards care, compassion and healing over oppression, punishment and harm. 

 

Workshops and Trainings 

Since 2016, we have offered various types of workshops, training and mentorship around reentry from incarceration, on healing, indigenous peacemaking and restorative practices led by people from those respective communities. We welcome requests from community groups, universities, prisons, or organizations to create a workshop that is specific to your locale. If we cannot do it ourselves we will do our best to refer you to someone who can. Below are examples of some of our past workshops and trainings:

Workshops and Training 

Since 2016, we have offered various types of workshops, training and mentorship around reentry from incarceration, on healing, indigenous peacemaking and restorative practices led by people from those respective communities. We welcome requests from community groups, universities, prisons, or organizations to create a workshop that is specific to your locale. If we cannot do it ourselves, we will do our best to refer you to someone who can. Below are examples of some of our past workshops and trainings:

 

• Reentry mentorship and trainings are offered by formerly incarcerated staff and facilitators on various issues. 1) Reentry housing mentorship - we have informally mentored nine formerly incarcerated leaders and organizations nationwide who have started their own reentry houses. 2) We have offered training to researchers and professionals to build awareness of power, positionality, and cultural dynamics of white and other researchers evaluating or working with communities of color and people in prison. 2) Training for probation department staff - we facilitated a year-long 40-hour training for the staff of a reentry house run by the Alameda County Probation Department to adopt a person-centered reentry mindset, values, and practices.  

 

• Indigenous Peacemaking presentations, mentorship, and training are led by the Indigenous advisory circle members, program staff, and consultants of Life Comes From It: Chief Justice Emeritus Robert Yazzie, Cheryl Demmert Fairbanks, Rainey Enjady, Christy Chapman, and others. These leaders work in their communities to support the culturally rooted, community-driven re-emergence of local indigenous peacemaking practices. They offer presentations, workshops, and training in peacemaking across the country. 

 

• Restorative Justice Practices workshops and training. Our workshops and trainings have been offered by various Ahimsa Collective staff members and collaborators rooted in restorative and transformative justice over the years.  A few examples of the training we’ve offered are 1) Introduction to alternative justice practices: one to two-day introduction to restorative and transformative justice exploring alternatives to criminal legal system and punitive thinking in theory and practice. 2) Restorative Approaches to Sexual Harm training: a three-day training in restorative and transformative justice approach to sexual violence, which includes hearing from survivors and people who have caused sexual harm, learning and practicing facilitation for one-on-one dialogs and groups, sharing case studies, and discussing oppressive and systemic conditions that contribute to sexual violence. 3) Facilitator Training on Healing and Accountability - a highly experiential training on how to facilitate groups in prison. We explore trauma, accountability, shame, grief, healing, oppression, and so much more.  While this work stems from working alongside people in prisons, it has been and can be adapted to running healing and accountability groups for people outside of prison. 4) Facilitator Training on Face-to-Face dialogues for Severe Interpersonal Harm. a multi-day training in how to facilitate one-on-one dialogues in cases of severe interpersonal harm that is survivor initiated and where the responsible party is incarcerated.