In the face of threats, intimidation, and physical violence, how can our communities reclaim power and make political violence backfire?
Community responses to political violence can both support victims and impose costs on those who incite and engage in abuse. We need to stand up to those who want to silence our voices, who try to deny us our rights, and who aim to bully their way into political influence through intimidation and violence.
We invite you to an interactive workshop with the Horizons Project on how to make threats and acts of political violence against targeted communities backfire on the perpetrators while standing in solidarity with intended targets. We will look at concrete examples from local communities of what we know works. And we’ll generate and apply the backfire approach to specific scenarios that could arise over the next few months so that we are in a better position to unite in power and reclaim our communities from those who seek to spread fear, distrust, and division.
Join us on December 5th at 10am Eastern Time to learn how we can harness the power of your community to put an end to political violence.
The workshop will be led by Tabatha Pilgrim Thompson, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives at the Horizons Project.
This workshop is for LCN members and guests of the Horizons Project. If you are not yet a member, join our community become a member today (scholarships available). LCN Members can bring up to 3 people from their team.
Content & learning points
Learning Objectives:
- Understand what political violence is
- Learn the “backfire” model: 5 principles to make sure that when any kind of political violence takes place, perpetrators face high costs for their actions
- Explore how we can combat political violence through our own experiences and case examples of political violence
Speaker
Tabatha has a background in community organizing, leadership development, and political campaigns. As the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives for The Horizons Project, Tabatha cultivates and strengthens meaningful relationships among pro-democracy activists, organizers, and peacebuilders. Her work includes developing and operationalizing key initiatives to support a broad-based movement that challenges rising authoritarianism and advances just, inclusive, and pluralistic democracy.
Before Horizons, Tabatha served as the acting director for the Program on Nonviolent Action at the United States Institute of Peace. There, Tabatha worked with grassroots activists and peacebuilders to develop greater knowledge and practical skills for how nonviolent action and peacebuilding approaches can be used together to mobilize communities, build power, and address the grievances and injustices that can drive violent conflict. She also helped donor organizations, including the U.S. government, UN agencies, and foundations, better understand how they can effectively support social movements by amplifying lessons learned from the field and exploring the power dynamics of external support. Her field experience includes capacity building and research work in West and East Africa, Latin America, Tunisia, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.
Prior to USIP, Tabatha served as a field researcher with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, focusing on community engagement and inclusivity in the peacekeeping process and on the women’s outreach and foreign policy teams for Secretary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She also managed leadership development programs at the Partnership for Public Service and led DC’s largest all-volunteer anti-human trafficking nonprofit, DC Stop Modern Slavery, where she worked to raise awareness and promote community action to combat trafficking in the greater Washington area.
Questions & answers
Signup
This workshop is for LCN Members and guests of the Horizons Project. If you are not yet an LCN member, we invite you to join us here (if membership cost is a barrier, please write to us at admin@leadingchangenetwork.org). LCN Members can bring up to 3 people from their team. If you are registering on behalf of a guest, please share their names & emails. If you are registering as a guest, please indicate the name of the LCN Member who invited you.
We are currently experiencing issues technical issues that may prevent access to the sign-up form. If you cannot access our form from the above link, please register via our temporary form (click here to go to the form) and we will add you to the RSVP list. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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