Social Justice & Domestic Violence Conference. Theme: (Re)Claiming Our Love

The Network will host a two-day conference on advocating against domestic violence through social justice frameworks. Traditional approaches to addressing gender-based violence often relies on carceral feminisms, which see increased policing, prosecution and imprisonment as the primary solution to interpersonal violence. Carceral feminism ignores the ways in which race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, and many other factors, leaves certain victims more vulnerable to violence and criminalization, as well as the underlying systemic global oppression that causes domestic violence to begin with. This social justice conference will expand beyond these carceral practices that further marginalize oppressed victims, and learn how to use both the criminal legal system and transformative justice to best serve survivors.

Conference workshops will fall into one or more of the following categories:

1. Anti-oppression strategies (the naming and dismantling of systemic and institutional forms of oppression such as white supremacy, the cisheteropatriarchy, capitalist imperialism, abelism, etc) for advocacy within current criminal legal systems.
2. Alternative methods of advocacy through transformative justice (approach to violence resolution that seeks to repair harm, create accountability, and prevent violence from occurring in future), community accountability (community-based , vs state-based, strategies to address violence within our communities), and collective action.
3. Healing practices that promote self-preservation and build community resilience.

We are proud to have Feminista Jones – Intersectionality Expert, Author & Award-Winning Blogger – as our keynote speaker.

Feminista Jones is a Philadelphia-based feminist writer, public speaker, retired social worker, and community activist. She is an award-winning blogger and the author of four books, including the critically acclaimed 2019 release, Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World From the Tweets to the Streets. Her writing and activism centers Black American culture, feminism, critical race theory, intersectionality, mental health, poverty, and women’s health and well-being. Feminista sits on the boards of the Wayfinder Foundation, a grant-making organization that invests in women making a difference in their underserved communities, and The Hope Center for Community College & Justice, a non-profit research organization that advocates for the needs of disenfranchised college students.

See you there!

Questions? Email Danielle Boachie, Training Manager, at dboachie@the-network.org