The Women and Girls Collective Action Network and DePaul University’s Program in Women’s and Gender Studies are collaborating on a national documentation project of innovative anti-violence groups.  This work expands the findings of the December 2007 report, “Communities Engaged in Resisting Violence” (see link: http://www.womenandgirlscan.org/communities_engaged.pdf) nationally.  “Communities Engaged in Resisting Violence” documents the dialogues and work of Chicago area activists and organizations who are using alternative models, outside of the social service and criminal justice systems, to address interpersonal and state violence.

Currently, we are in search of individuals and groups around the country who are engaged in dialogues and processes using alternative models and strategies to connect anti-violence work with community building, mobilize and expand communities’ capacities to end violence through organizing and accountability, and see social justice as a central part of anti-violence work. 

Our goals for this project are multifaceted.  We intend to bring visibility to social justice work around anti-violence, thus further galvanizing a shift ignited by INCITE! in the Domestic Violence movement.  We see this documentation as part of an ongoing series of writing projects including, and not limited to, blogging, academic papers and community organization reports.  Eventually, we envision a national convening of groups as a forum to share frameworks, strategies and tactics.