Check out our recent New York Times feature.
"An organization in Chicago is trying to apply a strategy used for fighting drug addiction to reduce gun violence"
Stick talk is trying a different tactic
“Keep your guns if you must, but learn how to handle them safely.”Packing a gun is a rational response
“Guns remain plentiful and easy to acquire, and young people who live in dangerous neighborhoods say they feel unsafe without them.”Stick talk uses the philosophy of harm reduction
“The approach is similar to that of a safe injection site, where people use illegal drugs under supervision.”Frank conversations on taboo topics
“Sometimes [participants] get a history lesson on how gun policy in the United States was shaped in response to armed groups like the Black Panthers.”Stick Talk asks for an empathy shift, using the tagline,
“Do we dare love the shooters?”
Survivor-Centered Youth Leadership
Dear friends,
The Stick Talk Leadership Incubator scaffolds leadership development, political education, organizer training, and skillset building for a cohort of emerging youth leaders who are gun violence survivors.
The Stick Talk Leadership Incubator…
- builds upon cohort members' lived experiences, imagination, existing capacities, and instincts for safety.
- uses a popular education methodology, linking participants' individual experiences to structural conditions, to mobilize them around transformative justice and the abolition of prisons and police.
- supports participants to assess their conditions, strategize together about changes they want to make, identify and practice the skills they need, and take collective action.
- connects cohort members with additional mentors and experiential learning and economic opportunities within and beyond their communities.
We activated the Leadership Incubator with an initial cohort this winter. We are currently raising funds to continue this project into the spring and summer.
Please help fortify our survivor-centered youth leadership model for the uncertain times ahead. Join us in supporting young Black and Brown people to be instruments of growth, safety, and accountability in their families and neighborhoods.
Thank you for investing in the future of this work.
With gratitude,
Brandon Daurham + ethan ucker
Stick Talk Co-Executive Directors
Thank you for being on this journey with us!
We are building up to some exciting work and now is a great time to support us.
Make a one-time gift or become a Stick Talk monthly sustainer at any level.
Our goal is to add 100 new monthly sustainers.
Between now and March 31, become a monthly sustainer at any dollar amount and we’ll send you a “Do we DARE love the shooters?” t-shirt or hoodie!*
*T-shirts and hoodies guaranteed to spark conversations about the abstinence-only culture fueling the War on Guns.
PS: We always love to hear from you! Please reach out via email (info@sticktalk.org) or Instagram (@urbanmarronage)!
Stick Talk is an abolitionist base-building organization that responds to urban gun violence by building capacity for survivor-centered community safety beyond carceral and abstinence-based approaches.