Who is this space for?

This monthly virtual peer learning space is for groups and organizations working to collectively intervene in and respond to crises without police.

This is an abolitionist collaborative learning space where participants are invited to share knowledge, experience, and expertise, as well as questions, uncertainties, nuance, and disagreements. 

You can read more about the work we did together over the last two years in this report written by Interrupting Criminalization.

We are focused on non-carceral, non-police crisis response and prevention programs. We believe coercive mental health interventions and mandated reporting are control and a carceral response.

Who is hosting this space?

Just Practice Collaborative is hosting this space beginning in January 2024. We are honored to carry on the BCCR in the spirit of its founders at Interrupting Criminalization.

Recognizing that unmet mental health, housing, and health care needs, domestic violence, and sexual assault often precipitate or contribute to crisis and lead to criminalization of women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people, we are committed to supporting development and growth of coordinated community-based responses that do not engage systems of policing or punishment.

All of our planning team and facilitators have both experienced a need for crisis response and offered crisis response. We all identify as survivors.

What can I expect?

This is a drop-in space open to anyone committed to building coordinated, non-carceral, non-police crisis response and prevention and to collaborative learning - no one is the expert in this space; we are all learning and growing toward the future we want together.

Our general format is to spend the first hour discussing a particular theme or challenge related to coordinated community crisis response and then invite folks to bring questions, scenarios, issues to workshop with the group in the second half. 

While we work to create a safer abolitionist space, as a drop-in space, we can’t guarantee that there aren’t people who work with law enforcement in the space or the confidentiality of what is shared. To increase our digital security, we require an RSVP filled out by 12pm PST on the day of the BCCR. Once we review your RSVP we will send you a zoom link via email. You may use this form to register for all the monthly BCCRs at one time and do not need to re-register each month.

Where can I get more information and support about building my coordinated crisis response project?

You can make an appointment with the Transformative Justice Help Desk to talk more about your specific project’s needs, questions and challenges. The TJ Help Desk is a thought partnership that is here to support individuals and grassroots groups who are responding to, intervening on and transforming violence without the use of prisons, police and state systems.

For more reading check out this helpful report released by Interrupting Criminalization in 2021~ this report is the reason the BCCR was started. Defund Police, Invest in Community Care: A Guide to Non-Police Mental Health Responses, a report co-authored by Megyung Chung, Mimi Kim, Shira Hassan & Andrea J. Ritchie. 

You can also check out this new resource Painting the Ocean and the Sky: The Language of Nuance and Purpose in our Non-Carceral Crisis Response by Shira Hassan.

Past topics have included (but are not limited to): program design, responding to mental health crisis, responding to intimate partner and sexual violence, supporting sex workers, supporting queer and trans people, program evaluation, de-escalation and navigating safety, digital security, recruitment, training, volunteer coordination, funding and more!

2024 Calendar

January 11th, 2024 ~ With Care Based Safety in Washtenaw County, MI You can view the graphic notes here!

February 8th, 2024~With Relationships Evolving Possibilities (REP) in Minneapolis, MN You can view the graphic notes here!

March 14th, 2024~ With Asian American Peer Counseling: Building sustainable models for care & crisis response teams You can view the graphic notes here!

April 11th, 2024~ With Elliott Fukui of Mad Queer Organizing Strategies : Safety Team Planning

May 7th, 2024 (note this meeting is on a Tuesday) With Mandatory Reporting is Not Neutral: Navigating Mandated Reporting

June 13th, 2024 ~ With Cambridge Heart (Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team), Cambridge Massachusetts

July 11th, 2024~ With Ujima Medics in Chicago, IL: Building emergency first response & community care for all Black lives

August *No Meeting*

September 12, 2024~ With Accountable Communities Consortium: Non-Carceral Responses to Intimate Partner Violence

October 10th, 2024~ With Ray Sukin Klauber: 20 Years of Lessons, Reflections & Strategies Responding to Crisis & Trauma in Community

November 14th, 2024~ With Enji Chung: Legal and Security Concerns for non-police/non-carceral Crisis Response Teams

December *No Meeting*

RSVP Here

See Graphic Notes from Past Meetings Here