Key Techniques
Explicitly address differing perspectives and potential tension
The CCSJ coalition members have different orientations to non-carceral approaches to community safety that reflect the diversity in our community and programmatic partnerships. Because of each organization's respect for each other and a mutual commitment to long-term change, we were able to openly discuss each organization’s stance on contentious issues. Laying out each organization’s perspective and bright lines in a series of strategy meetings allowed CCSJ to move more comfortably as a collective. It set expectations for the kinds of initiatives we would and would not pursue, which helped us focus our activities. A practice of open discussion also provides spaces to talk through complex issues where there is not necessarily a disagreement.
“The kind of deep relationship we have comes from having to decide our shared values. What is our alignment around these issues? That’s what builds trust and relationships.”
Consensus-driven decision making
Early on, CCSJ adopted a consensus-driven decision making model. We consistently discuss local politics and legislation, but do not take positions as a coalition unless we all feel strongly about an issue as both a coalition and as individual organizations. Even if we do not take a coalition position, we still engage with decision makers across the spectrum on policy issues and each individual organization has the freedom to partner with organizations or endorse policies. While this means we take fewer positions as a coalition, it contributes to our long-term sustainability and strength. Adopting a position that a coalition member is not comfortable taking would jeopardize our relationships with each other and each organization’s commitment to the coalition. Our decision making processes remain a work in progress–we are adapting to changing conditions while prioritizing coalition relationships and the coalition’s effectiveness.
Ground your expectations
Compared to the investment in existing safety systems, there was relatively little investment in CCSJ’s victim-centered approach for Asian American communities. Yet, there were very high and unrealistic expectations for the coalition. At every incident or flashpoint, people would ask us, “what are you doing about this?” They expected the kind of scale of operations you might see from governments, not community-based organizations. In this environment, we had to regularly keep our work within the perspective of historical levels of investment and celebrate our wins, including the building of infrastructure.
Be open to engaging with people who might disagree with you
In a highly politicized landscape, you may face many criticisms and have to engage with actors who have their own political agenda. Despite these challenges, we have always been open to meeting with different stakeholders to have an honest and authentic conversation. We have taken the opportunity to meet with our detractors and answer their criticisms. Additionally, meeting with elected officials who are less familiar with our approach have allowed us to find common ground, raise awareness of our impact, and build relationships.
Deepen internal working relationships
Intense collaboration in response to crises in CCSJ’s early years built strong relationships. These crises tested each individual, which allowed everyone to witness each other’s reactions in difficult moments and what was important to them. It ended up showing how well people were aligned and how well people could work with each other to create something positive in a dark moment. CCSJ built upon these early experiences to coordinate around other breaking news in the community or emerging policy changes. On a day-to-day level, building opportunities for staff to support the activities of staff at other organizations strengthens individual relationships, which ultimately strengthen organizational relationships.
“Collaborating in those most difficult moments is actually how I became a lot closer to the leadership and the staff of the partner organizations. You really get a sense of where people are coming from. You get a sense of how people react in moments of crises and it’s a real test.”
Assess your Relationships
One useful marker of the depth of relationships is whether members of the coalition feel comfortable texting or calling each other out of the blue. If a high profile incident happened in your community, who would you feel comfortable texting to share information or coordinate action? If you mapped the answers to this question by drawing lines between individuals of your coalition members, what would the connections look like?
Coordinate your rapid response efforts
Coordination allows CCSJ partner organizations to address incidents without duplicating efforts. For example, after a violent incident, one organization may know the victim and their family and be able to make a warm connection with CCSJ’s victims services team housed in another organization. And yet another organization can take the lead in monitoring mis/disinformation in Chinese language social media. After working through multiple incidents together, we enshrined our rapid response efforts in a protocol to further streamline our coordination. This infrastructure has enhanced our effectiveness and capacity to respond to incidents.
Make your impact visible to community members and policymakers
In the flurry of building new initiatives, it can be difficult to slow down to document and share your impact. It is also typically hard for program staff to take on this responsibility because their priority is serving community members, not congratulating themselves on their work. Investing in communications and evaluation staff can measure and share program impacts with less burden on your program staff. We have also proactively communicated our work by scheduling meetings with elected officials, sending information through a mailing list for external stakeholders, and creating a Chinese-language media campaign to highlight our programs. Communication work is not only useful for building support among policymakers, but it can also be useful to show community members people are working hard to address their safety concerns.
Joint statements, meetings, and programs
It is impossible for an individual CCSJ partner to manage the breadth of partnerships that is required for a holistic approach to community safety. Different stakeholders will have differing levels of respect and alignment with each individual CCSJ organization. But when our four organizations come together, people cannot deny that we are representing a base in the city. They cannot write us off as “just those progressives who speak for a small number of people.”
“Coming together to jointly say something gives what we say credibility. It’s like if one friend tells you that the person you’re dating isn’t good for you and you should break up. You might listen, but ultimately not act. But if four of your most trusted friends who you’ve known for forever say the person you’re dating is not good for you and you should break up, you would reconsider.”