ADVOCACY
After Violence Project (AVP) advocacy centers the leadership of individuals, families, and communities directly impacted by state violence. With guidance from our Community Advisory Council, we are expanding our community advocacy efforts by “activating” stories and records of loss, resistance, and survival. We achieve our advocacy goals by activating TAVP archival materials through visual art, podcasts, storytelling, testimony and restorative justice circles. We also create and maintain community with our narrators and community advisory council as a way to activate the archive.
GOALS
1.
Valuing the lived experience of those impacted by violence ensures that their insights guide efforts to reshape justice and accountability.
2.
Abolishing the prison industrial complex and other systems of state violence.
3.
Transforming dominant narratives about violence, justice, and accountability.
4.
Shifting public narratives from retribution to restorative justice.
5.
Using ethical storytelling and memory work to hold those in power accountable.
6.
Advocating for trauma-informed mental health care for those affected by state violence.
7.
Disrupting state violence through coalition-building and connecting impacted communities with essential resources.
AVP’S ADVOCACY BLUEPRINT
NARRATIVE ADVOCACY
Narratives that value punishment as a solution to violence are deeply embedded in Texas – and in American thought and history. In contrast to false narratives that prioritize retribution, we understand that solutions to violence cannot be found in or made from the existing societal structures. The criminal legal system is not effective, causes more harm and trauma, and tears our communities apart. Our advocacy is grounded in collective and individual memory work that strives to hold those in power accountable for the harms and helps build power with directly impacted communities, centering their dignity, agency, and expertise to cultivate restorative and transformative justice.
HOW WE APPROACH ADVOCACY
CULTURE CHANGE
Narratives that value punishment as a solution to violence are deeply embedded in Texas – and in American thought and history. In contrast to false narratives that prioritize retribution, we understand that solutions to violence cannot be found in or made from the existing societal structures. The criminal legal system is not effective, causes more harm and trauma, and tears our communities apart. Our advocacy is grounded in collective and individual memory work that strives to hold those in power accountable for the harms and helps build power with directly impacted communities, centering their dignity, agency, and expertise to cultivate restorative and transformative justice.
MENTAL HEALTH & HEALING
We recognize that access to effective mental health and wellness support can disrupt intergenerational cycles of violence and trauma. We advocate for directly impacted individuals and families to have uncomplicated access to culturally competent and trauma-informed mental health care from trained practitioners, to include peer support specialists. We advocate for local, state and national mental health networks to recognize and provide for the distinct needs and care of these intentionally neglected populations.
We also provide training for mental health practitioners to better understand the unique needs of those who have been impacted by state violence, especially the death penalty and incarceration. We aim to work with community-based organizations and mental health providers in Texas and across the US to provide affordable, quality mental health care.
LIBERATORY MEMORY
WORK
We practice liberatory memory work to hold those in power accountable for the harms they have caused. We use liberatory memory work to honor the past, understand the present, and create futures in which care, healing, and accountability are prioritized.
We use ethical storytelling to remember those impacted by state violence, and to document the compounding harm caused by the criminal legal system and other retributive ideas of justice that perpetuate violence. We document, preserve, and share stories and other materials in the After Violence Archive and work to make them accessible for activists, organizers, advocates, educators and others working against state violence. We create resources and training opportunities to assist impacted communities in honoring and carrying out long-held traditions of storytelling and self-documentation.
DISRUPTING STATE VIOLENCE
We listen to our communities to learn what our role should be and what actions we need to take in broader transformative justice efforts. We understand that state violence takes many forms and work to disrupt that violence through coalition- and community-building.
We reveal the impacts of state violence that may not be widely recognized or known by the public. We aim to contribute to the closure of jails, detention centers, and prisons and work to stop the construction of any new sites of confinement. For us, coalition- and community-building looks like organizing, supporting, and working together to share narratives to challenge people in power and inspire policy change. We also believe building power with directly impacted communities means advocating for and connecting people to resources for basic needs such as food, housing, education, health care and employment. We recognize the essential role of personal narrative in advocacy and take direct action as our community guides us. We invite the public to explore their own connections, expectations, beliefs and assumptions about state violence and retributive ideas of justice.
UPCOMING EVENTS
EVENT | DATE
Event description
EVENT | DATE
Event description
EVENT | DATE
Event description
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.