Working on Our Power: Activist Work Books (2020 -)

Jacob is currently the visual consultant for WOOP (Working on our Power) a transformative leadership programme on Organising Movements for Trans*, Non-Binary* and Cis Women of Color across Europe.

The programme has been redeveloped as a direct response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic; we have removed the retreats and relocated our activities to an online format. We acknowledge the importance of leadership in Organising and Movement building in times of crisis. The programme is designed to deepen our collective knowledge in order to empower and cultivate transformative leadership from within diverse Black and of Colour communities – in and beyond Europe.

The WOOP programme looks into the internal dynamics that are present when we organise communities or create spaces, and how we can learn conscious movement strategies that help us build people power from below. Together we will be creating conscious movement strategies and tactics, accountability exercises, rethinking what transformative leadership looks like, and how collective care and intergenerational grounding are important to making our resistance last longer.

The WOOP programme takes a holistic approach to training, mixing the personal and collective body and mind. It will provide a combination of webinars, facilitated workshops, workbooks, zines and reflections within the areas of organising, intersectionality, accountability, campaigning, sustainability and justice work, building organisational infrastructure, healing and grounding, social change theory and movement building. As an intergenerational group we will draw on the wisdom of experienced trans*/non-binary*/cis women change agents and embrace the emergence of social justice activists and movement organisers.

WOOP sets out to facilitate a space that allows participants to engage in the deep work of personal, collective and cultural liberation, and one where we can recognise and celebrate our differences while fostering solidarity out of our commonalities.