Photo: Daniel McCullough | Unsplash
Disillusioned by the coercive tactics and violence used by police to resolve local conflicts, communities are reaching out to each other for help. An initiative called Relationships Evolving Possibilities in Minneapolis, USA, organizes communities and provides them with resources and skills to solve their own problems in a non-violent manner by showing up for each other. People are loosely organized into ‘pods’ and taught how to de-escalate conflicts and provide mental health support. REP’s mode of working is different from other government funded and supported community ‘violence intervention’ programs in that they avoid collaboration with the state or non-profits on principle. According to them, social workers should not be aligned with structures of power that criminalize and punish individuals for systemic problems. What's apparent is that the challenges facing the world can only be tackled with new models of community engagement and empowerment.
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