What is Movement Building?
Movement Building is collective work that is guided by a set of shared values to inspire the leadership of young people to end youth incarceration in LA County.
Movement Building invites youth and community into dialogue, experience and relationship with one another to radically imagine a vision for change and make Youth Justice Reimagined a reality.
Movement Building acknowledges injustice and learns together about the history of colonization and white supremacy as well as the beauty and resilience of people’s struggles.
Movement Building works to repair the racialized and gendered violence that has existed at the outset of this country and that has a direct connection to the persistence of oppressive structures, like incarceration, in our families, communities, systems, and institutions.
Movement Building organizes, speaks out, makes art, learns skills, heals and creates and cares for our community together.
We are supporting youth leaders to build a world that centers dignity and love.
Collective Learning & Practice:
We honor and acknowledge the cultural healing practices that have lineage to Indigenous and Black Communities on Turtle Island and throughout the world. We are learning from elders and organizers that have been in direct struggle with colonialism and state violence and their leadership that persists and demonstrates the transformative power of community-based collective care.
Storytelling & Connecting to Power & Purpose
We would love to learn more about you and the moments in your life that have shaped you. Uncovering and telling our stories is often the first step into a journey of healing. Storytelling creates understanding and compassion and it guides us towards our inner power and purpose.
Credit: Redin Cubas
Redin Cubas was a young artist that was part of the AHJN community and justice movement. He struggled with addiction and the toxic stress and harmful impacts of intergenerational trauma. Redin passed away at the age of 17. He left a legacy of speaking truth to power and his words and experiences continue to guide how and why we fight for justice today.
Truth, Healing & Transformation
Change happens in many ways and is often very unique to your personal and lived experience. Uncovering what feels true for you is one of the most important places to start. When you get to know what your personal truth is, you may be ready to share that with others and begin healing from experiences that have impacted your health and wellbeing. This process can take place in yourself, in your relationships, and in your community. This process also involves Un-learning some of what we were taught to believe as true and experiencing a new sense of freedom with what is possible in ourselves and in the society we all share. We believe transformation is possible when we create cultures that value truth and healing. Shifting how we show up for ourselves and operate with one another is powerful medicine. It offers a viable alternative to system-based responses that rely on isolation and punishment and that rarely take into account what is at the root of why and how harm occurs.
Think about a change that you want to make in your life as a seed that you are planting. List out the emotional, physical, and spiritual impacts that you are experiencing. Then list out the emotional, physical, and spiritual benefits that may come from making the change.
