TRAINING

The Gathering for Justice has a wealth of expertise in the curation, planning and facilitation of trainings for young people, activists, elected officials and other groups interested in topics including Organizing, Leadership Development, Direct Action, Kingian Nonviolence, Know Your Rights, Violence Reduction, De-escalation and Healing. We create customized curricula that incorporates our intentional approach to organizing for social justice and nonviolent movement-building. These trainings are known as “Justice University.”

In 2014, Justice University began as a series of trainings aimed at educating youth in New York and California, as well as nationally, on community organizing, civics, direct action and leadership, to build an agenda to address the most critical issues facing marginalized communities. Over several years, The Gathering for Justice led training as part of an organizing curriculum and continues to build on that model. The trainings center nonviolence as a foundation for civic and social justice engagement, and provide mentorship and other critical relationships and resources for participants. Part of the future of Justice University will be the creation of a Youth Justice Roundtable and an expanded training curriculum for all participants.

Over the years, The Gathering has supported a number of groups and initiatives with a great deal of success. We’ve also traveled internationally to El Salvador, Cuba, Germany, Mexico and Venezuela offering trainings and lending our expertise. 

• From 2008-2010, prior to forming Justice University, The Gathering ran a nonviolence and violence reduction training with the students of North Lawndale High School in Chicago, Illinois – a school with one of the highest rates of violence in the state. Working with teachers and students on a focused plan for strategic nonviolence, The Gathering was able to train teachers and senior class students – who then trained the incoming freshmen class - resulting in 150 straight days of nonviolence.

• In March 2014, The Gathering for Justice coordinated a 5-day training for the Dream Defenders at Highlander Education and Research Center in Tennessee. The Dream Defenders organize Black, immigrant and poor young people from Florida into courageous campaigns for policy change.

• In 2015, The Gathering for Justice trained hundreds of volunteers as marshalls for our #Dream4Justice march on MLK Day. Over 1,500 people marched from Harlem to the United Nations  in a powerful demonstration against police brutality. 

• The same year, The Gathering for Justice trained hundreds of volunteers in preparation for the 250-mile #March2Justice from Staten Island, NY to Washington, DC, to deliver the “Justice Package” -  three pieces of federal legislation - to Congress. 

• Following the death of Freddie Gray in 2015, The Gathering provided training and consultation to local groups in Baltimore, including the newly-formed non-profit Freddie Gray Project.

• From 2015-2017, The Gathering for Justice offered regular trainings in nonviolent direct action for new activists participating in protests related to policing and racial bias in the justice system.

• In 2016, The Gathering for Justice led an organizing training series for young people in Life Camp, Inc.’s violence reduction and interruption program. 

• In 2017, after Colin Kaepernick’s personal act of protest ignited a national movement, he partnered with The Gathering for Justice for both trainers and trainings to kick off his Know Your Rights Camp, which educates Black and Brown youth on their rights when interacting with law enforcement. The first training was held in Harlem, New York with over 500 young people. Our organizations continue to collaborate today. 

• In 2019, The Gathering for Justice planned and presented a weekend of training, visioning and community-building for 60+ young people in California with the financial sponsorship of The California Endowment. The We Are the Movement program was designed to cultivate youth leadership through skill-building, trainings, healing and wellness, self-expression through culture and art, and sustainable community care strategies.