COMMUNITY SAFETY & SECURITY

WELCOME

We are so glad to join you in conversation about safety and security in our communities. Scroll down to learn more about VCW’s strategic approach to community safety and security processes & programs, explore resources, and access tools.

Assess,
Adapt, Act

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to developing community safety and security. Creating safety and security in our communities is an ongoing process and practice that requires reflection, assessment, and action. Vision Change Win works with you to discover what will be most effective to bolster and safeguard your work, organization, or community. We start by collaborating with you to identify and assess your current safety and security needs. We dig in to understand what is already serving you well and where there is room to improve or grow.

Vision Change Win is a strategic partner and movement laboratory offering a range of flexible and proactive services to support your organization’s approach to holistic community safety and security. Drawing on a lineage of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer and Trans-designed strategies, we collaborate with your group to build and reinforce safety and security practices so your work stays protected.

Collaborative-Driven,
Community-Led
Holistic Safety
& Security

Vision Change Win trains, coaches, and consults on the following areas:

  • Action and event security (protests, rallies, conferences, etc.)
  • Office and organizational safety
  • Verbal de-escalation
  • Physical de-escalation
  • Personal safety
  • Transformative justice processes, including transformative conflict processes
  • Digital security
  • Bystander intervention
  • COP watch

Vision Change Win tailors our work with organizations to what they need. Here are some examples of what our work could look like:

  • Share community safety tools and resources
  • Lead safety & security assessments
  • Lead trainings for individual or multiple organizations
  • 1:1 and group coaching
  • Lead transformative conflict processes for individuals or groups currently in active conflict
  • Technical assistance for development and implementation of security protocols and practices
  • Rapid response for imminent/current threats and incidents
Examples of How We Can Work Together
Our Community Safety Programs
Get In Formation Training Series

A foundational three-to-four-session series encompassing the essential concepts and practices for community safety, de-escalation, security culture, building security teams, developing organizational security practices, and digital security. This offering builds on each session, and participants complete each training as a prerequisite for the following one.

BUILDING OUR OWN 
TrAINING SERIES

The Building Our Own Training Series supports progressive electoral organizers. It provides instruction to strengthen their community safety practices in order to prevent and address violence or harm that may impact their organization. This is a two-part workshop delivered live for part one and as a recording for part two.

National Community Safety & Security School >

A 10-month collaborative learning program that introduces participant organizations to foundational community safety and security practices. Organizations may register 2-5 representatives to attend this training intensive. In addition to 50 hours of virtual training sessions, organizations receive a personalized security assessment, up to two implementation sessions, and an invitation to an in-person 3-day training.

Progressive Safety Alliance (PSA)

The Progressive Safety Alliance (PSA) is a group of long-time experienced community safety and security practitioners and organizations across the US who have come together to support the safety and security of US leftist social movements. Since 2021, PSA has come together to map our leftist social movement’s safety needs and has been developing tools, resources, and programs to fill these gaps. We believe strengthening our movement’s collective community safety practices is key to building self-determination and sovereignty for our communities.

Virtual support for urgent community safety incidents is
offered free of charge to social justice movements,
organizations, and leaders.

Learn about VCW’s approach to transformative conflict among individuals and within organizations, and the services we offer.

We Embody Our Principles

VCW offers a robust and radical set of tools, resources, and trainings to support our work towards collective liberation. We move in solidarity with our community partners and coalitions because we are the communities we serve. We build trust through authentic action, consistent alignment with collective liberation praxis, and nurturing collaborative relationships. 

  • We’ve worked with more than 100 organizations and have trained 900 individuals across sixteen states.
  • Our trainers have 10-40 years of experience working on the ground, in direct service to communities and groups organizing for social justice.
  • We are led by and center our focus on people most impacted by oppressive systems. We are always loudly and unapologetically centered on BIPOC, Queer, Trans, Disabled, undocumented, immigrant, unhoused, working-class, and other historically underserved and exploited communities.

"Whether you're 2 months in, 2 years in, or 20 years into this work, this is an engaging training. It reflected my actual experiences organizing and was relevant for Black-centered organizations. I hope more of this can be dispersed throughout our communities."

GIFTS participant, 2022

"VCW guided our work together, supported our spirits, and pushed us to both dream bigger and more concretely. I valued the balance they offered of vision and practical, defined steps for realizing that vision."

Voices for Racial Justice

Our Communities Have the Answers

At VCW, we believe that Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, Disabled communities of color have always created safety outside of the police and prisons for generations. We draw on a rich generational legacy of community safety practices born from resistance movements.

VCW’s approach engages in an intersectional, trauma-informed, anti-oppression framework. Our trainers and consultants are adept at assessing, addressing, and transforming organizational cultures — recognizing that power and privilege often operate around a myriad of identities simultaneously. Our consultants take the time to ensure that our guidance is relevant, accessible, and applicable to diverse communities, organizations, and groups.

Rooted in Abolitionist Practices

All of VCW’s security practices are grounded in self-determination and the development and advancement of safety and security without involving the police.

Police and other traditional security measures serve as tools to sustain — and advance — the oppressive power dynamics of current systems. We provide solutions that are meant to counter these power dynamics, supporting movements, groups, and communities internally without compromising transformative social justice values.

Reach out to Us

If you don’t see an offering that speaks to your needs or aren’t sure which one is the best fit for your group, we’re here to collaborate and help you navigate. Reach out to us for more information or to schedule a conversation about your current safety and security needs.