Resources Library: Model Policies & Best Practices

Indigenizing Love: A Toolkit for Native Youth to Build Inclusion

Added Wednesday, November 18, 2020 by Action Alliance

In response to requests from American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth, Western States Center partnered with the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the Center for Native American Youth, and Native Youth Leadership Alliance to develop a resource toolkit for and with young Native leaders.

This toolkit is written to support Native youth, tribal communities, Two-Spirit and Native LGBTQIA+ collectives, community leaders, and partners who intend to better understand and support our Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities. Native youth have asked for more resources on relationship building, caretaking, and inclusion of the TwoSpirit community. They want to better understand the important and diverse ways that Two-Spirit relatives and community members have sustained practices of making relations in spite of and beyond settler colonial violence.

Indigenizing Love refers to the idea of understanding and reclaiming our Indigenous ways of life (including kinship systems, shared values, and expressions of love), and resisting centuries of imposed settler colonial practices, policies, and thoughts that devalue our rights to share Indigenous knowledge and thrive. To Indigenize Love, we are rebuilding connections, kinship and relationships, and strengthening our abilities to love and care for all of our relatives.

Indigenous land acknowledgement - Why is it important?

Added Thursday, November 07, 2019 by Action Alliance

Native Governance Center co-hosted an Indigenous land acknowledgment event with the Lower Phalen Creek Project on Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2019 (October 14). The event featured many panelists: Dr. Kate Beane (Flandreau Santee Dakota and Muskogee Creek), Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), Rose Whipple (Isanti Dakota and Ho-Chunk), Rhiana Yazzie (Diné), and Cantemaza (Neil) McKay (Spirit Lake Dakota). From this event, they created this handy guide to understanding Indigenous land acknowledgment and why it is so important, based on panelists’ responses.

Click here for more on indigenous land acknowledgement.

Native Governance Center is a Native-led nonprofit working to inspire, celebrate, and support Native nation building. They assist Tribal Nations in strengthening their systems of governance and their capacities to exercise their sovereignty. For more information and resources, visit their website at www.nativegov.org.

Infographics: How Oppressive Systems Connect and How Justice Movements Connect

Added Tuesday, July 02, 2019 by Action Alliance

Gender-based violence (or the process of controlling, coercing, or otherwise exerting power over someone because of their gender) is both a tool and a driver of white supremacy. Ending gender-based violence requires us to see and dismantle the same forces that support the existence of white supremacy. At the same time, this work calls us to envision and work toward equity and liberation, while breaking out of silos.

The infographic, "How Oppressive Systems Connect" illustrates examples of how gender-based violence is driven by white supremacy, sexism, heterosexism, and capitalism. "How Justice Movements Connect" illustrates examples of how gender justice is supported by movements to build racial justice, economic justice, trans and queer liberation, and reproductive justice. 

These resources are helpful for your prevention work, new staff orientation, volunteer training, board training, and other environments where you are exploring the many ways in which work to end sexual and intimate partner violence intersects with work to build racial justice, reproductive justice, economic justice, and trans and queer liberation. 

Key Curriculum Ingredients to Spice Up Your Facilitation

Added Tuesday, November 26, 2019 by Action Alliance

Key Curriculum Ingredients to Spice Up Your Facilitation" is a downloadable infographic (11" x 17") with some quick tips and tricks for effective prevention and social change curriculum building, facilitation and training!

Key Elements of Addressing Gender-Based Violence on Campus

Added Friday, June 05, 2020 by Action Alliance

All college students have the right to learn and live in an educational environment where they are safe and treated equally. This is the overarching spirit of federal and state legislation, like Title IX, governing campus gender-based violence response and prevention efforts. It is also a core belief of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance and our partners on Virginia’s Campus Task Force.

This resource can be used as a starting place, or a set of benchmarks, for campus advocates, police, Title IX coordinators, and administrative staff and partners who are considering how Virginia's colleges and universities can engage in comprehensive, trauma-informed, and effective responses to gender-based violence.

The Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance offers the following recommendations based on more than 35 years of work with students, campuses, community advocates and national leaders dedicated to building an effective response to gender-based violence and sexual assault.