CCSJ holds multiracial and intergenerational community workshops to cultivate a common understanding of social issues and share perspectives across communities. CPA partners with Coleman Advocates and Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC) to develop workshop topics and agendas and to advertise the workshops to a diverse group of participants. The workshops typically feature guest speakers who can discuss social issues from a personal or firsthand perspective. Community members come away from these workshops with more familiarity with stories of solidarity, shared history, and a holistic perspective on community safety.

Example Topics

“Safety Through Solidarity”

This event featured an intergenerational and multilingual panel of grassroots organization member leaders sharing their perspectives on the phrase “safety through solidarity.” The moderator was a youth leader who helped to frame questions about people’s organizing experiences into the broader theme of solidarity. Panelists discussed their work in budget advocacy, Palestine, and wage theft and how cross-racial solidarity was key to building power.

“What These Walls Won’t Hold”

This event was a film screening of “What These Walls Won’t Hold Screening” by Adamu Chan. The 45-minute documentary chronicled the experiences of people incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison during the COVID-19 pandemic and their organizing for justice. The filmmaker, who was formerly incarcerated, aimed to show the deep connections between incarcerated and not-incarcerated community members, even as they were separated by prison walls. The film screening was followed by a group discussion and a panel that included the filmmaker and community organizers from Asian Prisoner Support Committee and Coleman Advocates.

“Palestine Teach-In”

AROC staff led a teach-in to discuss the history of the occupation of Palestine and explained the context around the Gaza and West Bank territories. AROC members shared personal and family stories of forced removal and curtailments on freedom of movement. They connected this history to the present-day Israeli government’s response to Hamas’ attack and their fear for the lives of Palestinian civilians, including their own family members. After a series of speakers, attendees participated in small group discussion and a question and answer period. Attendees connected the destruction in Gaza with their own experiences of war and urged for peace.

Keys to Success

Opportunities to hear from people with different perspectives

The fireside chats emphasized firsthand storytelling from a diverse group of speakers, which helps to expose attendees to new perspectives. The event organizers have aimed to feature the voices of directly impacted people from different generations and cultural backgrounds.

Be in constant communication and relationship

Organizing relevant cross-community workshops requires strong relationships and communication with collaborators from other community organizations. The topics should be ones that all groups agree are important for their members to hear about and where there are opportunities for solidarity, so that members of all communities feel engaged.

Be flexible

There are evergreen topics or foreseeably relevant topics that can be planned in advance. However, as our communities are constantly facing crises, make mental space for flexibility. When urgent topics arise, a solid foundation of communication and trust can allow the planning team to pivot to a new, more timely topic.

Multilingual storytelling and accessibility

Building in infrastructure for multilingual speakers and translation for participants allows for greater opportunities for sharing. Language barriers often prevent the exposure to a wider breadth of perspectives. This is true of cross-community sharing as well as intergenerational sharing between adults and youth who may not have deep enough capacity in a shared language to converse about more serious topics.

Fireside Chats (Cross-Community Workshops)