All of Us or None is proposing a 4-hour workshop designed to publicize and expand our efforts to build a civil rights movement for formerly incarcerated people, felons, and our family members in a national arena. This workshop will allow organizers to explore areas of intersection in our work, and will give us the opportunity to begin formulating common strategies. We hope to focus on the many forms of discrimination people with felony convictions encounter, discrimination that is now mandated by public policy. The meeting will also provide the chance for us to avoid repeating ineffective strategies and to exchange best practices in the work being done around the nation. We are planning an agenda to include a panel with people sharing effective organizing strategies in different communities, strategizing how to enforce the laws we’re working to get passed once they’re in place, creating consistent messaging for the press, and sharing legislative contacts. An important aspect of the workshop will be to identify and begin to work with new allies, including organizations and people from all over the country. We anticipate grassroots testimony from community people who have been discriminated against in these and other areas: one-strike public housing evictions and restrictions on access to senior housing; the lifetime welfare and food stamp ban; employment and access to training programs; higher education; voter disenfranchisement; child custody. In addition to community testimony, we will present some general public policy recommendations and priorities that we are working on in California, hoping to share and support efforts around the country to counter discrimination faced by formerly-incarcerated people.
The workshop will be conducted in English and handouts will be provided with Spanish trnaslation available upon request.