Our 18-month cohort program is designed for both emerging and established grassroots leaders. It includes weekly workshops; large and small group activities for building beloved community; support for cohort members as they grow Justice & Joy Projects that promote individual and collective healing; and, overall, resourcing and nourishing these change-makers while cultivating human empathy, understanding, and creativity.
We limit our cohort to a maximum of 30 participants so that we can go deep with each other and fulfill the part of our mission that is about building cross-issue solidarity and beloved community across multiple lines of difference. This is the sometimes challenging yet deeply rewarding work we believe is necessary to build the collective power and mutual understanding needed to create the world we want to live in.
Facilitated by an amazing team of activists, educators, artists, and healers, CFM provides program participants with an opportunity to study current exploitative and oppressive systems (white supremacy, colonialism, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism), recognize how these systems manifest in lived experiences, and develop the creativity, practical skills, and healing capacities to collaborate with others to create alternatives.
We limit our cohort to a maximum of 30 participants so that we can go deep with each other and fulfill the part of our mission that is about building cross-issue solidarity and beloved community across multiple lines of difference. This is the sometimes challenging yet deeply rewarding work we believe is necessary to build the collective power and mutual understanding needed to create the world we want to live in.
Facilitated by an amazing team of activists, educators, artists, and healers, CFM provides program participants with an opportunity to study current exploitative and oppressive systems (white supremacy, colonialism, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism), recognize how these systems manifest in lived experiences, and develop the creativity, practical skills, and healing capacities to collaborate with others to create alternatives.
Workshop Areas
The workshops in our program span the four areas listed below. No prior experience is necessary or too extensive for any of the workshops. You may be encountering some of the ideas or practices for the first time. You may be an accomplished expert in some of them. One of the goals of this program is for people with varying levels of experience to practice working with each other in humble ways of both giving and receiving as teachers and learners.
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Social Movement History & Analysis
We will develop an understanding of how current realities of injustice, exploitation and oppression are created and maintained. We will also study past and present social movements to learn about how we can create change |
Healing Practices
We will cultivate habits that can sustain us through the challenges of social justice work and life itself. These practices help us stay grounded and connected as we work with each other across differences, priorities, and needs. |
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The Arts We will learn about the role of the arts in social change and develop our creative and expressive capacities through various arts workshops. This area will also expand our imaginations, empathy, and emotional resilience. |
Practical Skills We will develop practical skills that can help us divest from oppressive institutions and build alternative ones. Workshops include community organizing, how to fund our justice work, nonviolent direct action and much more. |
List of Specific Workshops
Workshops offered over the course of our program include:
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Justice & Joy Projects
In addition to the workshops, participants receive mentorship and support in cultivating projects that increase justice and joy in their communities. Projects can be developed individually, in collaboration with other participants in the program and/or in collaboration with people/organizations outside of the program. They can contribute to the work of an existing organization or take the form of developing something new based on the desires and needs in participants' communities. Projects can utilize any modality (arts, education, organizing, service provision, healing, institution-building, etc.) or combination thereof. The purpose of the justice & joy projects is to put the education received through the program into deeper practice. Ideally, many of these projects will continue beyond the final presentations, thus manifesting the mission of the organization: Creating Freedom Movements.
The metaphor I would use to describe this program is the caracol (snail) which is a Zapatista symbol. For me, it reflects the fact that change, especially transformational change, not to mention justice, occurs at a snail’s pace. And though it may not always be visible to the eye or senses, it is occurring, and to focus on always moving forward, around any obstacles and barriers, no matter how slow but steady, will eventually get you where you want. But we have to have the vision, set the intention and put in the work.
–Noura, 2019 Cohort